aimed for gaining basic information about Israel.

10 minutes about…

Aliya

Background:

A tradition of Aliya

This is the term used to describe a Jew's immigration to Israel. Literally it means 'uplifting'. Jews move upwards to Israel. The tradition of Aliya goes back for thousands of years. Ever since they were exiled, Jews have always yearned to return to their homeland. The Bible talks about God's promise to bring the Jewish people home:

"For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land... Then you will live in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you will be my people, and I will be your God." (Yechezkel 36:24,28)

Coming to Israel from all around the world:

1.Explain the students the meaning of the word “Aliya”

2.Read / let 3 students read the short stories. Each story represents immigration to Israel.

After each story, the students have to guess where the immigrant came from. (The picture can help).

Answers: Story A: Ethiopia

                Story b: Yemen

                Story c: Russia

Showing the student these countries on the world map can emphasize the effort the state of Israel made and still making to bring Jews from all over the world.

3.Question for discussion:

·        What was the reason for each immigrant to come to Israel?

·        What are the difficulties of making Aliya? (Language, culture, loneliness…)

·        What is the meaning of the operation name?

·        The biggest amount of immigrant came from Russia.

3.Summerize:  In 1950, the Israeli Government passed the 'Law of Return' which grants every Jew the right to return to their homeland and, upon entry, to automatically acquire citizenship. It gives legal confirmation to the age-old yearning for the return to Zion.   Israel, as a nation, is committed to encouraging and enabling Aliya for any Jew anywhere in the world.

Today, Jews are still coming to Israel – their home. (The reasons have not changed. Jews from France are still coming because of the growing anti-Semitism, Jews from Argentina – because of poor economy…) but the main reason for Aliya was always Israel as a real home for Jews.

STORY A:

“The famine crisis was growing. Life was difficult. We lived under terrible conditions and hunger. The government refused to recognize that we are Jews. Our name was Beta Israel – the home of Jews, and we wanted to go home.

We started walking towards Sudan, into the wilderness. The journey was dangerous and hard. Finally, when we got to the refugee camp, but the condition was bad.

Israeli agents realized that a large operation was necessary. Operation Moses began on November 21, 1984. We were bused directly from the Sudanese camps to a military airport near Khartoum. Under a shroud of secrecy established by a news blackout, they were then airlifted directly to Israel. Between November 21, 1984 and January 5, 1985, approximately 8,000 Ethiopian Jews came home to Israel.

 Unfortunately, News leaks ended Operation Moses and thousands of Jews were still waiting to come. Most of them came a few years later, in

The “Solomon operation”...”

STORY B:

In May 1949, when the Imam agreed to let 45,000 of the 46,000 Jews in the country leave, I flew home. The operation was called “Operation Magic carpet”, not because we flew on a carpet (that kind of things happen only in movies), but because I have never seen a plane before and I felt as if I was carried on a carpet. Most of the people were children, like me. We were brought to Israel on some 380 flights. This was one of the most wonderful and complex immigration operations the state has ever known. British and American planes airlifted the Jews from Aden, our capital. We reached the city from all over after extremely dangerous and risky journeys. The operation was secret and was released to the media only several months after its completion.

STORY C:

Hi, my name is Marina.I immigrated to Israel 6 years ago. We left our country because we did not have money, the economy was poor and the anti-Semitism was growing. In the past, my government imposed all sorts of strict and complicated conditions on Jews who wanted to leave the country. At the end of the 1980’s,president Michael Gurbatchuv removed those restrictions. Between 1989 and 1991, 380,000 immigrants arrived to Israel and they continue to arrive every year. Today there are around million immigrants from my country. Imagine! Million people who don't speak Hebrew and aren't used to our culture or our society. It would be utter chaos! However, Israel has taken on this challenge. Today I talk Hebrew, and I have friends from my country and from Israel too. I love Israel!