Today is our Bar Mitzvah Aliyahversary. Nefesh B’Nefesh asked me to share a few words about what our Aliyah means to us 13 years later. Here is what I had to say, which you can also find on Facebook. ‘Mommy, can we make Aliyah again?’ These were the words my four-year-old asked for months after… Read More Mazal Tov On Our Bar Mitzvah!
Last week, my supervisor and I were discussing the upcoming Nefesh B’Nefesh flight arrival and our plans to attend. We were sharing a sense of wonder at the indescribable nature of the experience and the Aliyah process. In what other country in the world do people wake up at 5:00 in the morning to scream… Read More Our Modern Day Rock Stars Have Arrived
Today is our Aliyaversary. We got onto the plane 12 years ago today with two little boys, a baby on the way and our whole lives ahead. I still can’t believe we did it or how rich and vibrant our lives would be as a result. But as I reflect on 12 years, there are… Read More Mazal Tov! It’s the Sussmans’ Only Bat Mitzvah!
Josh arrived home from his last work trip to the States with a few goodies for each kid. For Yakir, he secured an adorable squishy El Al plane toy. It was one of the promotional pieces that El Al had on display at the Nefesh B’Nefesh fair that Josh coordinated and at the end of… Read More It Takes an International Village
This post was first published on the Times of Israel website at http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/alone-no-more/. It is hard to describe what it feels like to stand in a room of more than 1500 lone soldiers from around the world. But I will try, because that was my experience today. Today, in Tel Aviv, more than 1500 lone soldiers… Read More Alone No More
There were so many amazing and awe-inspiring moments yesterday at the Nefesh B’Nefesh arrival ceremony. But the one that was the most inspirational for me was to watch my oldest son, Matan, with his Israeli friends. Matan arrived in Israel at the age of four. Here is Matan waiting to board the flight to Israel!… Read More And the Shofar Blows
Sometimes I wonder if my blog should be renamed “Tears in Israel.” Sometimes I write about happy tears. Other times they are sad or angry tears, but I seem to mention tears a great deal in my blogs. What can I say.Last week I was in the grocery store catching up with another mom. She was away… Read More Welcome Home Guys
We are a people of so much hope, so much faith, so much joy. Yesterday, 228 Olim (new immigrants) from North America stepped off of a plane and became Israeli citizens. In his speech to the new Olim, Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-founder and Executive Director Rabbi Yehoshua Fass called them heroes. They are heroes for coming at such… Read More The Promise of Tomorrow
We arrived in Israel on a Wednesday, on July 14th, 2004. We were the living statistic of the ‘average’ Nefesh B’Nefesh immigrant that year…we were both 33 years old and we had 2.5 children. And here we were. (We are on this video many times at times 1:46, 2:29, 2:45, 2:46 and more. Catch us… Read More A Decade of Dreams Fulfilled
We all have boxes that we check off when something bad happens. I assume a psychologist would tell me that it’s a coping mechanism and that it’s human nature to do so. Someone is killed at 10 pm on a busy street next to a movie theater and you think in your mind, “Well, I’m… Read More Not Boxed In
