Page 2 - ChicagOlim Chronicles

The Batyah and Benji Cohen family

of Skokie

They have five children: Tzadok (21), Meir (19), Pelah (18), Naomi (16)
and Danya (11) and plan to make Aliyah in August 2021 to Modi’in.

Appeared in Kol Shabbat, 14 Av, 5781 – July 23, 2021

Chapter 1 Batyah describes the background to their Aliya decision

Benji and I met in Israel. We were both in different programs and through an odd series of events beyond the
scope of this article, we were introduced, started dating and eventually got married. Throughout our marriage,
getting back to Israel has been a focus of conversations but for various reasons, it was never “the right time”.

January 2013, before our eldest’s bar-mitzvah we were able to take the whole family to Israel. It was a first for
them. For us, it had been a long 15 years. Walking the land and seeing it through our children’s eyes and their
wonderment at being a place where their history came alive was inspiring. We had a fabulous tour guide who
really let the kids’ day school education be put to work as she had them retell the stories that happened at the
different places we saw. I’m pretty sure it was on that trip that Tzadok fell in love with the Land of Israel. For
Benji and me, it made us realize we were never (Bli Neder of course) spending that much time away from home
again.

The next wait was B”H only 4 years when we went for our middle daughter’s bat mitzvah in 2017 and were
able to spend the whole summer there. Our kids went to various programs and we saw them bloom and feel
good about themselves as Jews, experiencing things in a society that supports our religion unapologetically. It
was after that trip, we started having serious family discussions and creating a timeline for our Aliyah.

As we had mostly teens at the time, it was important they had a voice in when this would happen. Tzadok was
entering his senior year of high school with plans to go for a gap year and make Aliyah which he eventually did
in the summer of 2019. Pelah and Meir requested to be allowed to finish high school in Chicago. Benji and I
easily agreed as everyone says “don’t move kids in high school”. That left Naomi (entering 7th at the time) and
Danya (entering 2nd grade).

By this point, Naomi had already expressed her desire to live in Israel and we began to look into high school
options for her. We also realized that we’d have to move before Danya entered high school (7th grade in Israel)
in order to make it less traumatic for her. Once Naomi firmly decided to attend Ulpana Amana as part of the
Naale initiative, it became time to shift from the theoretical of Aliyah to the practical of Aliyah. Pelah graduated
high school this year, and Naomi completed her first successful year at Amana so it’s time for us all to come
home.

Helpful Hint #1 Start getting documents in order now. Whether you're considering Aliyah in a year or ten
years from now, get documents apostilled. Apostilles authenticate the seals and signatures of officials on such
public documents in order that the document can be accepted in Israel. This includes, all birth certificates,
marriage certificates, death certificates (in the case of a deceased spouse), and divorce decrees. Official copies
of these documents may have to be ordered first before requesting the apostilles and this process can take time,
especially if some of these life events happened outside the state in which you currently live.