EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

jam]

...to each

Israel's Push
And Pull

ing at the Knesset for Ophir
Pines-Paz, now interior minis-
ter, she landed a job as mar-
keting director for Gefen, the
largest English-language pub-
ix months after making
lishing house in Israel. She's
aliyah, native Detroiter
also a TV reporter whose
Leah Stern, 24, seems to
Israel Broadcast Authority
have it all in Israel: She works
coverage in English is fed to
in publishing and TV; she
satellite
TV subscribers via the
makes friends easily; the gov-
Internet.
Her boss liked her
ernment subsidizes her rent;
potential,
said Leah, who
and she's fluent in Hebrew.
graduated
from the University
She had moved to Israel in
of
Miami
with
a dual major
2003, but just
in political science and film
as she was about
production. "In my first
to become
month, I was already on cam-
Israeli, her
era interviewing people," she
mother and
said. "What a thrill!"
brother, who
I first corresponded with
had moved to
Leah
in 2003 at the height of
Israel two years
the latest Palestinian reign of
earlier, opted to
terror. She was both a
ROBERT A. move back to
Leah Stern: 'Am I a better Jew than you in Detroit
Jerusalem
Post reporter and a
SKLAR
America because
because I live in Jerusalem?"
medic
for
Magen David
Editor
Israel's lure had
Adom,
Israel's
emergency and
worn thin. Leah
relief
agency.
I
still have her
was too scared to stay without them. So the three sold
haunting
e-mail
account
of
arriving
at
her
first
explosion:
their apartment and furniture, "packed up the two dogs
Egged Bus No. 6 had blown up in the French Hill neigh-
and said shalom to Israel," Leah recalls. That short-cir-
borhood of Jerusalem in one of five terrorist acts that
cuited her grand plan.
killed 12 Israelis and wounded 70 other people over May
This time, encouraged by her mother's second try at
17-19, 2003.
aliyah just eight months after the failed experience, Leah
Today, despite her high-profile work and the govern-
is optimistic about being an olah chadasha, a new immi-
ment
assistance, Leah says her Israeli bank account always
grant. The second youngest of four children, she dis-
seems
to be drained by month's end.
missed the shouts of "Crazy!" that showered her and her
Her Detroit-born mother, Leslie, 53, paints original
mother when they said they would make Israel home yet
abstracts in Jerusalem and is content. "She can live a very
again. The "Aliyah Game," moving to Israel then back to
comfortable lifestyle here for a fraction of the price that it
America over and over, has become common. "It was
would
cost her in West Bloomfield," Leah said. "She
comforting to know that we were not alone in our luna-
paints
the
Old City skyline, shops for groceries at the
cy," Leah shared in an e-mail message.
shuk
and
has
nestled in to a nice social circle of older
Don't let her optimism fool you. Life in Israel is hard,
immigrant
friends."
even for the hard core and the working. "I have my good
So what drives Leah's ambivalence? It's not just the
and my bad days," Leah said, "and shocking as it may
hardship
of making financial ends meet. "Don't we give
sound, I do contemplate leaving yet again."
up
the
white
picket fence, the shiny new car and the tai-
That explains her "love-hate relationship with Israel.".
lored
three-piece
suit to live in the Land of the Jews?" she
"I wonder if I have a future here," said Leah, whose
asked.
"But
is
it
worth
it? Am I making a difference by
father, Bernard, is a Florida plastic surgeon. "Will I ever
being
here?
Am
I
a
better
Jew than you in Detroit
fully assimilate?- Probably not! Can I survive on the salary
because
I
live
in
Jerusalem?"
I make now — a quarter of what I was making in the
Compelling questions, but I had no answers and she
States? Not really."
didn't
either. Still, she caused me to think more deeply
Despite Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's call for
than
I
had in a while about Israel's pull. "All I can tell
increased aliyah, just 2,400 U.S. Jews did so last year out
you," she said, "is that this place just
of a Jewish population of nearly 6 mil-
draws me back. It is the most unusual
lion, reports the Jewish Telegraphic
feeling. I just can't explain it. It's a guilty
Agency.
Points To Pon
pleasure really."
Every American Jew should hear
At the tender age of 24, Leah Stern
Leah's story of trading the comfort of
Must you make
eloquently
captured the mystery and
the Miami Jewish community, replete
aliyah to become
majesty
that
is Israel: "No matter how
with Israeli TV via satellite and Israel's
a fulfilled Jew?
much
she
hurts
me, brings me down or
Army Radio via the Internet, for a
tests
me,
I
always
forgive her. I have
return to Israel's long lines and high
What more can
given her one, two, three and four
taxes but also Israel's magnetism when it
U.S. Jews do to
chances and I keep taking her back —
comes to living as a Jew.
help Israel thrive?
and probably always will."
Leah lives in Jerusalem. After intern-

s

❑

Leah Stern's
e-mail address:

Ieahblythestern@yahoo.com

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