Back Home

Well, we're back home.

Malkah and I had a great trip to the USA - short and sweet. We started at the Manhigut Yehudit annual dinner where we got an award and I spoke. That went very well, and set the tone for the rest of the trip. The whole time I was praying to find the Nitzotzot - the the hidden holy sparks - of America and the Jewish diaspora there. (I was going to write Exile instead of Diaspora, but you know what? Its not an exile because the Jews choose to remain there. It is therefore a diaspora, that is, simply a Jewish community outside its land.)

One of the pleasurable things about the diaspora was surprisingly food

Here is our classic NY-style pastrami sandwich at Mr. Broadway's


Another fun thing was the Hershey's store


We had a serious meeting with Josh Danziger, a Kumah friend, and soon-to-be-Oleh


Another aspect of our trip was the advent of a new Kumah pin!!! The message is simple: "got home?" Yes, I am very excited about this new campaign (details soon)


We handed out pins at Yeshiva U and Teaneck and gave more pins to Shulamit and Jeff Cohen to hand out in Brooklyn and NJ. End the Exile!


Amazingly, we found out that Nefeshb'Nefesh was having small Aliyah flight on the same day we were flying back. At first the travel agent told us it would cost $450 to change the tickets, but the next day she said that she could do it for free. Awesome - once again it was go time!



Here are two INCREDIBLE interviews I did with new olim:
Hear Oleh Nathan Mintz and hear Oleh Mike Wein and also, check out Ezra's very good article.

It's good to be back home, even though my car is smaller and doesn't start when its wet, even though my caravan is nothing but a glorified tin can. This is the Promised Land, and if G-d has held up His promise, I'm going to take Him up on it.