The Eagle Has Landed

A-Minus: 0 Days

 

I arrived at the Toronto airport a full hour earlier than instructed.  There's no way I was missing this flight.  I took the extra time I had to go to an empty check-in counter, weigh, and rebalance my bags, getting loading precisely the maximum weight into each bag.  As I rounded the corner into the El Al Terminal I was drawn to the huge banner set up, "Nefesh B'Nefesh Aliyah Flight Registration."

 

I wandered in the direction of the registration and was pounced upon by Jewish Agency officials and Nefesh B'Nefesh personnel.  After being directed to the official Jewish Agency/Nefesh B'Nefesh table, I was given a tote bag full of important paperwork.  I was then herded into the flight line, where I packed my bags and was handed my boarding pass.  We early birds then meandered around the terminal meeting eachother, shaking hands.

 

"Where are you from?"
"Where are you going?"
"What are your plans?"

 

What surprised me most was the diversity of the group.  Hassidim twirling their peyos, Modern Orthodox businessmen, tatooed secular Jews, liberals and conservatives, right wingers and left wingers, all moving together as one.

 

Nefesh B'Nefesh provided a table with refreshments and cake, and began a brief departure ceremony with various ambassadors and big-whigs.  We olim were then herded to our flight.  Security was a breeze, and we boarded the plane immediately.  I was sitting next to a family from Los Angeles, and the jumpy character across the aisle from me kept high-fiving me.  "We're going!  We're actually going!"

"You take care of yourself," I told him, repeating the phrase I'd had hammered into me a hundred times over the last month.

"No.  Now we all take care of eachother."

 

During the 11 hour flight, Nefesh B'Nefesh officials came walking down the aisle with tablet PCs, having us sign our paperwork for our Teudat Zehut (identity papers.)  The flight was festive at first, but after a couple of hours most people settled down and just wanted to arrive.

 

We touched down at 8:15 AM the next morning, Israel time. Our plane was the first, a second was coming from New York and a third was from London.

"Hey eseh," the black-hatted bearded Mexican standing next to me in the aisle said, nudging my arm, "how come you aren't on the New York flight with the rest of the Gringos?"

 

We stood in the aisle and waited, looking out the window at the hangar below.  What was waiting for us through that door?  Would we be able to make it here?  What about army service?  The Lebanon War? Integration?

 

Finally, we pushed through the door and found ourselves swimming in Tel Aviv humidity.  A line of soldiers waited at the bottom of the staircase for us, standing on either side of the path between the airplane and the hangar.  The Israel Army Band struck up a tune over the loudspeakers.

 

"Heveinu SHALOM ALEICHEM!"  Peace be upon you!  Welcome!

 

Any worries about the future were immediatly put to death in that instant.  We walked down the aisle of soldiers and were engulfed by a crowd of guests, complete strangers coming up to me, slapping me on the back and wishing me a Mazal Tov.

 

I walked into the hangar and stood staring at the scene, exhausted and elated.  I was suddenly seized from behind and lifted off the ground.  It was my old friend Moshe from my time at the university in Be'er Sheva!

 

"You've lost weight!"
"No, you've lost weight!"

 

We sat there catching up on what we had missed over the last several years, stopping for pictures and hugs.

 

A Nefesh B'Nefesh official found me in the crowd of thousands.  "You're Ephraim Aryeh from California, right?  We have a reporter from the L.A. Times here who wants to interview you."

 

I gave my interview.  The place was crawling with reporters.

 

Rabbi Fass, director of Nefesh B'Nefesh gave his speech, announcing that next year's major welcoming ceremony will see not three but four flights, one from the U.S., one from Canada, one from Britain, and hopefully a fourth from Mexico City.

 

Prime Minister Olmert delivered his speech and left.  There were a few boos, but most of the Olim were respectful, like proper Anglos.

 

After and hour of speechifying and hugging friends and relatives, the guests were sent away and we were people-moved over to passport control.  Passports stamped, Nefesh B'Nefesh people stood directing us towards the stariway to the absorption ministry.  "Upstairs, second floor, through the door."

 

We entered the absorption ministry to find Nefesh B'Nefesh personnel directing us to indivitual offices, with lists of names organized alphabetically.  I found my name on the list, entered the office, and received my Teudat Oleh (New Immigrant's Identity Papers), 1200 shekels cash (about $260), and a voucher for a free taxi ride anywhere in the country.  Those of us who finished were then directed downstairs and met with our interior ministry representative, and arranged a time to meet with them in one month to register for immigrant payments, after which we were herded into another line.  Here, we signed our paperwork to receive our Israeli Teudat Zehut (permanent Israeli identity papers) where government officials signed the forms we had filled out with tablet PCs on the plane ride over.  This line took a full hour, and was extremely taxing, but it was later explained to me that the only reason this was a problem was because huge numbers of personnel had been diverted to other functions due to the war in Lebanon, otherwise they would have taken care of everything on the plane and we wouldn't have had a line at all.  We then proceeded to get our bags, passed through customs officials who didn't check too closely, and were on the street, flagging down taxis to take us to our final destinations.  I arrived here at my cousin Amonon's at about 3 PM and collapsed on the bed.

 

All in all, it took about 6 hours from the moment we touched the runway until we were in our taxis.  Some of those with less Israel experience were complaining about all of the paperwork, but those of us who had lived here before tried to explain it to them.  Typically, each one of these official visits to the absorption ministry or the interior ministry would require a full day.  And that's not to mention the full day it takes to get a hold of someone on the phone and arrange the appointment, never mind the extra two days you have to spend one week later to arrange and show up for another appointment when you realize that you've made a mistake and forgotten some obscure paper.  Nefesh B'Nefesh cut right through the red tape and got us through about six months worth of endless paperwork in four hours.  Also, often new immigrants don't even know about their rights until after those rights have already expired, but here we were automatically signed up for everything we needed.  The operation was clean, smooth, and efficient, and got us on our feet and moving in six hours rather than six months.  Kol haCavod (way to go) to Nefesh B'Nefesh!

 

P.S. I will have pictures shortly but am not now at a computer which will allow me to upload them, so we'll just have to wait.