Page 52 - HaMizrachi Sukkot 5783 USA

Stories of the

Ingathering
Shira Lankin
Sheps

of the Exiles

uring my first year of Aliyah, I traveled up of settling into my new life here, I was buoyed by
and down this small but wondrous country, their strength, their bravery, and commitment to this
interviewing Jewish women from all over the incredible place.
Dworld.
Coming from the United States’ Northeast, my family
In my quest to write a book about the challenges and and immediate community’s main narrative was one
triumphs of what it means to be a Jewish woman of surviving the Shoah combined with a long, proud
living in Israel, I discovered sabras, immigrants, and tradition of Ashkenazi and European history. My expo-
refugees who had fascinating personal stories to share. sure to other powerful narratives of Jewish history
They told me about the meaning they had made from was limited to what I was taught in school and what
the stories they had lived, and shared their resilience I inherited from my own DNA. The journey of my first
and hopes for the future. The experience was person- year of Aliyah blew my mind wide open to the expan-
ally transformative for me. The first twelve months sive and extensive trajectories of our people.

Sarah Shlomit
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