Aliyah

Dov Bear invited me to guest post a couple of weeks ago but I waited until I had something interesting to write that did not involve two wheels. When I tried to post this today it didn't go through. I have apparently been voted off DovBear Island before I even arrived.

Our older son and family will be making aliyah to Jerusalem next week on the last Nefesh B'Nefesh flight of the summer. What strikes me is how rare an event it is for a 20-something family to be taking that step. Whlie Nefesh B' Nefesh has done a wonderful job facilitating North American aliyah, the numbers are, really, dismally low.

Just think about this: Among the 120 or so kids collectively in our older son and daughter-in-law's high school classes, how many have made aliyah? How many are even planning on it? 5? Certainly not more than 10. Why is that?

One might have thought that with our kids going to schools where Zionism supposedly plays such a prominent role, and to shuls where the Tefilah for the Medinah is sacrosanct and the Rabbis' sermons are as likely to be about Israeli politics as Torah, it would make an impression on them? But no. It doesn't seem to be happening.

Indeed, the kids who do make aliyah overwhelmingly get the bug during the year or two they spend in yeshiva or seminary in Israel, certainly not from their environments in galus.

Does anyone else find this strange?