Celebrating YOM HA'ALIYAH Making One's Home in Israel, The Holy Land

 

For the past few years a "new holiday" has joined the Israeli Calendar, YOM HA'ALIYAH, a time to honor those who made aliyah-- immigrated to Israel. My husband and I made the move two months after our wedding in the summer of 1970. You can read about it here part 1 and part 2. 

YOM ALIYAH is celebrated around the Torah Portion Lech Lecha in which Gd commands Avram-Abram (before his name is changed to Avraham-Abraham) to get himself going to the Land Gd will show him.

בראשית י״ב  

לך לך

א- וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃

1- יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

Over the millennium many Jews all exiled over the world have felt these words from Gd personally and made their way whether by plane, boat, wagon or foot to the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, even before the modern State of Israel had been established. I was one of them.

I'll never forget how I broke the news of my plans to my parents, who had barely adjusted to my religious observance. You must understand that we were an ordinary American Jewish family, which lit Chanukah candles, had an abridged Passover Seder, were even members of a synagogue, Conservative-- which was the most popular and rapidly growing in the 1950s. But the kitchen wasn't kosher, and Shabbat and many Jewish Holidays weren't on our family calendar.

When I was thirteen 13 we moved to a different community, and the only synagogue actively recruiting new members was Orthodox, the Great Neck Synagogue. There I joined their Teen Club to make friends. It was a chapter of NCSY National Conference of Synagogue Youth, where I was introduced to "Torah True Judaism" which changed my life. Soon after, one of the local Jewish activists got me involved in Betar and Zionism, icing on the cake of my Jewish Life.

I didn't want any ideological, philosophical arguments with my parents about my plan to move to Israel, so I simply said:

"You couldn't stop me from keeping Shabbat and Kashrut. Living in Israel is just another mitzvah, and you can't stop me from doing that either."

It worked. They had no answer, though sometimes I wonder if they were happy to get me far from my younger siblings as not to corrupt them with my revolutionary life style. Within a few years, my mother enjoyed being the local expert in helping other parents with similarly "eccentric" children.

Obviously, Lech Lecha has always been my favorite Torah Portion of The Week. I live in a community, Shiloh, that is a fantastic stew of longtime Israelis and and much newer ones from all over the world. Our local region Mateh Binyamin, which is like an American county, is the same sort of mix. This year Mateh Binyamin made a big festive event to which we had been invited. I really enjoyed seeing so many people; some had been customers of mine when I worked in Yafiz. The highlight was an old-fashioned Israeli singalong. The choice of songs was just perfect.

It's the truth to say that I celebrate YOM HA'ALIYAH daily. I've never once considered that decision I made as a teenager to have been a mistake.

Memories of Israel Folk Dance Festival, New York, 1970

I'm someplace in this video. I've watched it many times even in slow motion and can't really find myself. My sister also danced in the NCSY group which I had led. I can't find her either, though she should be easy to find. She's relatively short. Ours is the Wedding Dance with the bride. 

The NCSY National Conference of Synagogue Youth was the youth organization that changed my life. By attending its events in the middle 1960s I became familiar with Torah Judaism. I don't like the term "orthodox."

I'm sure you can guess
which is me.

In 1967 I danced in the NCSY group when it was led by the legendary Leah Weiner, Z"L, May Her Memory Be a Blessing. In 1968 we didn't have a group, (Leah didn't head the group then) though we danced in the Salute to Israel Parade. Look at the picture on the right. The parade organizers used the picture of me and my friend for the advertisement for the following year's parade. 

After the disappointment in 1968 that we hadn't danced in the Israeli Folk Dance Festival headed by Fred Berk, I made it clear to NCSY that I'd be taking over the dance group. There was no way that we'd miss another festival.

In 1969 we danced a "Shabbat Candle-lighting Dance." My choreography was considered "horrendous," so the head choreographer put something together for us, and I had the "whip" the girls/dancers into performance shape. I guess I'm a better leader than choreographer, since we surprised them with a well-danced performance. We had been warned that if we weren't up to par, we wouldn't participate in the festival. We were also given tips for costumes and props. I may have sewn all the skirts, which we used again the following year. Possibly others helped with the sewing.

Now for Israeli Dance Festival 1970--

After my experience the previous year, I had decided not to dance with the group. It's very hard to make sure lines are straight and everyone's movements are coordinated when dancing with everyone. And again the head choreographer redid the dance. 

I didn't mind not dancing the "dance," because I'd still be dancing the in the finale. For the very first time, Fred Berk had the type of stage he had always been dreaming of. There wouldn't be a theatrical stage with curtains. Fred had always said that folk dance includes and entrance and exit. He envisioned a large area where the dancers would wait together, each group rising and entering when it was their turn. This was able to happen in Felt Forum- Madison Square Garden a huge indoor sports stadium in midtown Manhattan. And since there was enough room, we were to end with all the groups dancing together. You'll see that in the film.

Back to the NCSY group. Somehow we ended up with one too many dancers, but thankfully, two didn't mind only dancing in one performance, rather than both afternoon and evening. And I found it much easier to lead the group to "perfection" when not dancing with them. Being that this was my third festival and second time leading, I was confident that we'd do a great job. 

But... the morning of the performance when we arrived for the one and only dress rehearsal... I discovered that two of my dancers weren't there. They were both out sick. One had a bad flu and the other being checked for possible appendicitis. Okay... yes... and how did we solve that problem?

Even though I had never danced the dance, only supervised, I found myself having to dance. And even scarier, I had to lead a line, so it was hard to cheat and follow the others. But somehow I pulled it off. One of the sick ones felt better by evening performance and participated then. So I don't know if I'm in the dance part of the movie; though I was in the finale for sure.

That's the behind the scene story of the NCSY Dance Group 1970.

Today's The Game- How did I End Up in The Bleachers?

You probably don't believe me, but not only am I not from an athletic family. None of us were sportsmen. We weren't in any of the school teams. We didn't watched sports, not on television and not in the stands. Only once did my father take my brother to baseball game, and that was because his cousin's husband somehow convinced him that they should do a father-son outing together. For a short time in high school, I went to junior varsity basketball home games and did have fun cheering Great Neck North, which probably won every game. None of my friends went to them or the varsity games, even though our school was generally first or second in all categories. Once I became active in the Great Neck Synagogue Teen Club, NCSY* chapter, that was the end of my life as a spectator.

So, it's rather funny to think that today I'm one of the loyal fans, too hyper even at my age, to cheer the Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions from a seat. I guess that I'm considered one of the "local characters" by the team and other fans. "Why?" You're probably wondering.

When my youngest child came back from his post-army sojourn in New York, he was hooked on American tackle football. He tried out for Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions and became part of the defense. And we started going to the games to cheer for him and the team. At that time the Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions was a middling team and didn't win any championships. But I enjoyed watching, being with most of my children, getting to know other fans and the energy surge I felt even as a spectator. After a number of years, my son was appointed head coach, and in his second season, which would make a great movie, the Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions won the IsraelBowl X Championship! That was two years ago, and last year we also won.

Today at 11am in the Kraft Family Sports Campus, we'all watch IsraelBowl XII and cheer on the Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions and pray for a third record-breaking championship in a row, Gd willing. Yaala Big Blue!

*Davka, one of the players in Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions is the grandson of NCSYers from the 1960s.

Salute to Israel Parade, NY, 1970

We've been pulling out old albums of late, and found these irreplaceable photos.

They are from the Salute to Israel Parade. Marching are members of the NCSY Dance Group which had performed in Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden that year. I was group leader. It was the first time the Israeli Folk Dance Festival had performed there.

Previously it had been in Carnegie Hall, which has, or had, an ambience all its own. But festival director, Fred Berk had been itching for a more genuine folk dance festival feeling. He hated the stage and curtains in the illustrious concert hall. When I took his Leadership and Choreography course in 1967-68, he always stressed that true folk dance required dancing onto the performance area and dancing off of it. NO CURTAINS raised and lowered.

At the 1970 festival we all sat around the performance area, getting up to dance on and off when it was our group's turn. Then at the very end of the show, all of the groups and dancers danced together in separate circles.

A couple of months later, at the parade, my dancers and I donned our costumes and danced up Fifth Avenue. We had sewn the skirts the year before for the 1969 festival, but then we added white trim on the bottom plus the "belts" in 1970. And we wore our own white blouses. For the festivals, we danced barefoot, but of course that wouldn't work on the NYC streets.

In 1970, NCSY was given a spot near the beginning of the parade, and Betar was towards the end. So, after dancing the entire way to the end, I quickly, literally ran back down Fifth Avenue to join Betar and march again. Being just a spectator was not for me.

Who else was at that parade?

New York's Salute to Israel Parade, 1969 or 1970

When I was going through pictures the other week, I came across two from the Salute to Israel Parade. Here I am with other members of the NCSY National Conference of Synagogue Youth Israeli Folk Dance Group, which I had led those two years.

Yes, that's me in the middle holding up the Israeli Flag.

Those were our costumes made for the big Israeli Folk Dance Festival, which had been run by the legendary Fred Burk. I have a feeling it was the 1970 parade, because I think we added the white trim on the skirts that year. We wore them without the trim in 1969, if I'm not mistaken. I led the group both those years, before I got married and made aliyah.

In 1970 I marched the parade twice. First I marched/danced with NCSY and then ran back to close the beginning to catch Betar and march with them, too.

I participated in all the parades until our aliyah, from the very first. And in 1977, we visited New York in the spring and marched again with Betar if I remember correctly. I know we were there. It was the end of our two year shlichut, doing Jewish Zionist youth work in London, and we visited family in New York before returning to Israel.

Does anyone else have great memories of those early Salute to Israel Parades?

Shabbat, Enjoyed by Ivanka Trump and Family

In an interview in Vogue Magazine, the glamorous, heiress and businesswoman Ivanka Trump Kushner praises Shabbat observance.

Trump converted to Judaism, traditional Orthodox, before her marriage to Jared Kushner.

Ivanka Trump with her husband Jared Kushner and daughter Arabella. The couple use Shabbat to spend time together as a family. Photo: Instagram.

After almost half a century of Shabbat observance, I personally can't imagine how I'd survive without it. Shabbat is one day I can't be rushed. I go no further than to synagoue and neighbors here in Shiloh. No telephone! No email and even no blogging!!!  I don't cook either. All the food is prepared in advance. All I have to do is cut salad and serve. When necessary, the cooked food is heated up on the electric platta hotplate.

I have no doubt that my health would be much worse if I was on the run 24/7. G-d sure knows best!!

My NCSY Story on the NCSY 60 Site

I was asked to tell my story for the site celebrating NCSY's 60 years.  Here it is:

NCSY CHANGED MY LIFE
Written by Batya (Beth Spiegelman) Medad, Blogger and NCSY Alumna 
The title of this says it all, or it says nothing. And it’s certainly not unique. Even here in Shiloh, so far from North America, I have quite a few neighbors who also have NCSY stories.

All those decades ago, yes, half a century plus, as I danced and sang those Torah tunes at every chance I had, my feet pounded on the floors, and the vibrations can still be felt here the other side of the world a half a century later.

The fact that NCSY changed my life shouldn’t be such a surprise to anyone who knew me or NCSY in the 1960’s. The surprise was that I ended up in NCSY. An Orthodox Jewish Youth Organization was not the sort of place I’d be expected to join. From infancy until the age of thirteen we lived in Bayside, NY, and my parents were founding members of the Oakland Jewish Center, which was Conservative. In terms of religious observance our home was pretty far removed from the norms of Conservative Judaism of the time or even Reform. There wasn’t any Shabbat observance besides occasional candle-lighting and chicken soup. I never heard Kiddush, and “Shabbat” wasn’t weekly.

When we moved to Great Neck in 1962, my parents ended up joining the Great Neck Synagogue for reasons far removed from Jewish commitment and rituals. Rabbi Wolf offered a membership deal my parents could afford.

I hated living in Great Neck. I just couldn’t connect to the prevailing customs, values and materialism of Great Neck North. After being there a few months, my father noticed that I didn’t have many, if any, friends and decided to take action. One Saturday night, as I remember, late December, 1962, he forced me into the old, small, dark second-hand car with the holey floor he had bought from a former neighbor and announced that he was taking me to the shul.

“They have a Teen Club. I read about it in their bulletin, and you’re going to join it, and you’re going to like it, and you’re going to make friends whether you like it or not!”

You could say that the joke was on him, because he was the one most upset with my transformation.
Batya Dancing in a Salute Israel Parade Ad

At first I didn’t really notice anything odd or religious about the group. There certainly was no pressure on me to adopt any religious observance. We just did regular teenage things like play Ping-Pong, talk and on occasion go to bigger events run by a youth organization called NCSY. I liked the people, and they seemed to like me. Meetings were mostly on Sundays, which didn’t interfere with the rest of my life. Nobody ever told me to change the way I dressed or asked what food my mother served at home. The boys wore kippot, but they did that at the Oakland Jewish Center, too.

Before I knew it, these activities became the center of my life, and that included going to NCSY Shabbatonim, National and more. I just lived for the events. When my parents wouldn’t give me the money to pay, I used my babysitting money. At the same time I was learning about Shabbat and Jewish Law, I was also running the best dances in Great Neck for teens. They were in the shul as our big fundraising events. You must know that in those days even Orthodox shuls had “dinner dances,” so for us teens to have a dance was not a rebellion. I was on the committee to audition the band, and kids came from all over Great Neck to attend.

I was elected to chapter and regional office. I dreamt of being a National Officer, but I still ate traif and was mechalel Shabbat.  I didn’t see the irony. I was just happy that in NCSY I was accepted. In NCSY I was popular. I loved NCSY even more than NSCY loved me. This was not quite what my father had envisioned that winter night, but in actuality it was exactly what he had demanded of me. I did have lots of friends in NCSY and I’m still friends with many people I first met in NCSY.

How did NCSY succeed in changing me? That’s a good question. Rabbis Stolper and Wasserman created an atmosphere and organization that used so many different methods and techniques simultaneously on so many teenagers, that it’s hard to say what worked on whom. This wasn’t a very organized chemistry experiment.

Part of it was the singing, the dancing, the sessions, the talking, the fun, the friends, the being away from parents and school.

NCSY of the sixties suited the sixties, and it suited me in particular. I just can’t imagine living any life other than the Torah life I learned about in NCSY. And not for the first time, I wish to thank all who were part of inventing that great Jewish youth organization.
Batya Receiving an Award at an NCSY Convention in the 60s

Batya has lived in Shiloh with her family since 1981. She has been a writer for various publications and has her own blog called Shiloh Musings. Batya is also the initiator of Women’s Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Tel Shiloh.

Saying Goodbye to 50 Year Old Sweatshirts

Nowadays it's hard to find anything as strong and warm as my old 100% cotton sweatshirts, which I've held onto for almost half a century. I got them from NCSY and YU Seminars.  Here's a picture of me wearing one to high School.

This is a seminar sweatshirt decorated with SSSJ Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry buttons. In all honesty I must admit that this picture, and the sweatshirt, is probably only forty-eight (maybe 47, but not younger than that) years old, not fifty.  But when something is so close to half a century old, you can round it off, even if you're a CPA's daughter.

My sweatshirts made their way to Israel with us in 1970, and for most of the years, they hibernated peacefully in my closet. A few years ago I began sleeping in them on cold winter nights.  And now they really look their age:

So I decided, in a fit of Passover cleaning, considering that the tears exposed my shoulders to the cold making them pretty useless, to retire them. I actually threw them out.  I'm very proud of myself.

My old flybaby buddies should be proud of me...

So 21st Century, OU's Invitation to Today's Salute to Israel Parade

The OU's invitation to join them marching in the Salute to Israel Parade is nothing like the invitations I remember from the earliest parades, which I had marched in with NCSY.

ORTHODOX UNION

Support Israel: March with the OU in NY on Sunday, June 2 Gather at 10:45a on Fifth Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets. OU T-shirts, hats and sunglasses available while supplies last. We'll also supply the float, music and good company. You bring water and the sunscreen. See you Sunday!   www.ou.org

In those days we didn't bring water and sunscreen was pretty much an unknown.

We not only survived but we loved every last minute; at least I did.

Trying to Eliminate the Clutter

What can I say?
Clutter is my middle name.
I've always had trouble throwing things out. 
I have lots of stuff I really don't need and I'm an awful housekeeper.
It's hard to clean when you can't find the floor and everything is so full of former treasures. 
I have tried to improve things and stopped buying books.  My husband buys enough for both of us. But I do receive books to review...  Since I haven't paid for them, they are easier to give away.

Last night I actually got rid of a very valuable sweatshirt.  It's from my past; I wore it in high school.  That was almost fifty years ago.  Yep!  I'm that old, and so is that sweatshirt.

In recent years I've been sleeping in my old heavy cotton sweatshirts in the winter. They are finally falling apart. The one I threw out was missing its neckline and didn't provide any warmth and protection for my shoulders, so it wasn't quite doing its job.  I loved that sweatshirt.  It brought back memories.  It was from NCSY the youth movement that changed my life.  It introduced me to true Torah Judaism. I'd wear my NCSY sweatshirts in my fancy GNN high school, where others wore their expensive clothes from Lord & Taylor, bought full price, with genuine Pappagallo shoes.

Here I am in a YU Youth Bureau TL Seminar sweatshirt of the same sort of ambience, when I was in high school.

The pins are SSJ Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.

I must admit that I laundered the sweatshirt before throwing it in the garbage, not quite sure I'd have the guts to do it.  Also, I felt that I had to show it some respect...  Being an active part of NCSY and going to Seminars were crucial in helping me become the person I am today.

I may no longer have that sweatshirt, but I still have yiddishkeit,  Shabbat, Jewish Holidays and all that Torah True Judaism includes.  Thank G-d, Baruch Hashem.