Aliya and Stress - Telfed

The above adjustments are common to all immigrants and today’s olim join astream of immigration to Israel that began with the first aliya in 1882.What is special about aliya that is different from other immigrant experiences?Immigrants to Israel differ from other immigrants because they belong to thesame national entity as the absorbing Israeli society, the Jewish People. Thiscannot be said of one's ancestors who came from Lithuania to South Africa, or offamily and friends who have immigrated to other countries.The question is: are olim immigrants or native foreigners?Israel’s stated national goal is to be the homeland for every Jew in the world.The presumably shared identity of immigrants and veterans, arousesexpectations among immigrants that they will be welcomed as “homecomingkinsmen”, and that they will feel more at home in Israel than they did in theircountries of origin. In reality, this is not always true; an immigrant is animmigrant and there are not shortcuts in the immigration/absorption process.Although aliya is declared as the primary goal of Zionism, not all of today’sIsraelis believe that the ingathering of the exiles should be a national goal. Olimcan find this perplexing.Israeli cultural behavior is different than in South Africa.For example notstopping at a “red robot” at night in Tel Aviv may get you a traffic ticket. IsraelisSouth African Zionist Federation (Israel)19/1 Schwartz Street, Raanana, Israel 2141442רחוב שברץפקס:‏ +972-9-7446112 Fax: • טל:‏ +972-9-7907800 Phone:info@telfed.org.il • www.telfed.org.ilהפדרציה הציונית דרום אפריקה ‏)ישראל(‏1/91, רעננה,‏ ישראל