My Aliyah Bar Mitzvah — 13 Things I Love About Israel

I made Aliyah from sunny London 13 years ago this week, so I guess it’s my ‘Aliyah Bar Mitzvah’.

Rather than write a Bar Mitzvah speech ,I wanted to share with you all 13 things I have come to love about Israel ( apart from my IsraelB online community of course..)

1. It takes me half an hour to walk to the Kotel to daven.
2. You can get invited to a wedding very last minute and still feel totally welcome.
3. You can start up a conversation with virtually anyone, anywhere.
4. You can sit in a Daf Ha’Yomi shiur next to a dustman who sweeps your street.
5. Brits are friendly with Americans and the French (until you tell them a joke..)
6. Kids can understand virtually any piece of Jewish text — Chumash, Mishna or Gemarah (like I read the Times or Telegraph)
7. You can sit on a bus and you will be told if you look shlochy.
8. You live your Judaism outside on the streets, not just in shul.
9. The news really matters here and affects your life.
10. The most secular Jew is often, when you actually get to know them, deeply spiritual and does care about their Jewishness – Just in their own way.
11. The self sacrifice of regular, modest Israeli parents, who send their children to the army.
12. Travelling around this beautiful country of ours, appreciating the landscape and coming across such a wide variety of people and Jewish traditions.
13. You feel like you are home and you belong.

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity of living the miracle and making a life for myself in Israel. For those of you who are reading this in the Diaspora — Come and join me.

Israel is our one and only Homeland!