On Call

Shlichim: sleepless nights, sweaty brows and surprised smiles

At times, Israel appears to be a sea of differences - political, religious, cultural and economic. The lone summit where opinions may converge is on the topic of aliyah. For decades, Israeli shlichim, or emissaries, have worked untiringly to bring that message to Jewish communities worldwide. They are the composite face of Israeli society’s diversity: religious and secular, left and right-wing, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, city and rural. But regarding aliyah, their platform is consistent.

“As the paperwork of processing aliyah immigrants is somewhat mitigated by the streamlining of administration, emissaries have put even more energies into bringing the message of aliyah to a broader audience. The Israel Centre in Johannesburg, run by shaliach Ofer Dahan, put creative marketing to work for recent Aliyah Expos in Johannesburg and Cape Town —a series of workshops focusing entirely on aliyah. Thirteen experts were brought in from Israel to impart information on housing, employment, banking and education.

Celebrating Israel’s 60th Independence Day in UCLA. Shlichim work intensively on college campuses.

Ofer used aggressive facebook marketing, in addition to the more traditional media and synagogue contacts, but “you never really know what to expect,” he admits. “For the first evening, slated to begin at 6:00 pm, we had optimistically set up 160 chairs in the main forum. By 5:45 only a few people had showed and I was on the verge of a heart attack. But, by five minutes to six there were no empty seats. The parking lot below was full, and almost unheard of in South Africa - people were parking their cars on the street! The shlichim scavanged for chairs and squeezed them into the packed room. We managed to cram 260 people in the space, and I had to apologize to the those forty waiting outside. The Chair of the SA Zionist Federation, Avram Krengel, stepped up to the podium to welcome the participants with tears in hiseyes. “I never in my life imagined that 260 people would come to an evening about aliyah and only about aliyah.” The audience was no less moved. More than anything, they looked around them and saw that they were not alone. The following days were almost sleepless for Ofer and the Jewish Agency representatives at the Expos. 400 interviews were conducted in Johannesburg, and soon after, one hundred more in the much smaller Jewish community of Cape Town.

As part of the Israeli Independence Day Celebrations in Odessa, the Jewish Agency representatives organized a large event inviting participants to get a taste of Israel programs, Hebrew lessons, Israeli food and a virtual tour of Israel.

JAFI Chair, Zev Bielski meets with youth and adults about to make aliyah. Aliyah emissary Yehudit Melamed has put particular emphasis on creating group and social structures for soon-to-be immigrants.

Be it Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt or Los Angeles, aliyah shlichim are putting aliyah on the agenda for more and more Jews.