Aliya: Three Generations of American-Jewish Immigration to Israel

Having been to Israel twice, most recently in March, 2013, I was intrigued to discover people's motivations to make the move to Israel. The author presented the characters in a way that I could relate. Being an American Christian does not allow me not to yearn to return to Israel. I do not doubt anything revealed in the book. Superb, awesome, inspiring. Makes me want to make aliya immediately!!

good

For anyone who's wondered why a person, or a family, would pick up and move to Israel, or for anyone contemplating such a move, "Aliya" by Liel Leibovitz, is an excellent investment of a few hours. It might even take less time than that, since "Aliya" is a hard book to put down.Leibovitz tells of a couple from "The Greatest Generation", a Baby Boomer, and a family with young children. He lets his subjects tell their stories, warts and all. They are stories of passion, and idealism, and of frustration and heartbreak. They illustrate the clarion call the Holy Land still sends to a people that has endured millennia in exile, to return home.Interestingly, these new Israelis don't leave their American heritage behind. During an Israel Independence Day barbecue the participants observe that their celebration in May feels a great deal like the Fourth of July. Some habits die hard.

Interesting book.

ALIYA by Liel Leibovitz is an incredible exploration of the ideals and values that propelled three Jewish-American families to move from the United States to Israel. It examines how these ideologies apply to the American-Jewish community at large and how they have changed with each generation. Illuminated by Leibovitz's masterful prose, Israel comes alive anew in each section of the book. Moreover, as Leibovitz traces "aliya" from the 1940s to the present, he vividly describes the experience of moving to Israel, with all the requisite joys and challenges, and his compelling storytelling draws readers in to each character's story. This marvelous book is an essential and enlightening record of Israel and American Jewry, and it is a must-have for every history buff.

Despite being a non-isreali-non-jewish-non-immigrant, Aliya provided a host of characters I could identify with. I was surprised how frequently I understood their motivations, despite these motivations sometimes being based on something as intangible as unbridled desire. Of course, I also found myself growing irritated with some of the characters and their "Fievel Goes West" attitude ("There are no cats in Israel!").But that's the beauty of this book. I really did learn a lot, and was pleasantly surprised to find that many different people make Aliya for many different reasons. Rather than beat you over the head with "The Answer," these stories bring you close to the people who made this journey, which is really the only way one might begin to understand why they did it in the first place.

I didn't care for the author's writing style, which was overly verbose and prose-heavy. The author set out to answer a question, mainly to assuage his own guilt in leaving Israel (he is a 9th generation Israeli!): what draws people to move to Israel and settle there permanently, especially people living in affluent America? While each of the 3 stories profiled were fairly interesting, he did not answer this question convincingly.

In this timely and interesting book the question of American Jewish immigration to Israel is explored from the point of view of an upper class American wondering 'why would anyone leave America for conflict ridden Israel'. The book explores the stories of three generations of Americans who made the journey and takes as examples one family or person from each generation. The reader is presented with Marlin and Betty Levin who came in 1947, Mike Ginsberg of Brooklyn who came in 1969 and the Kalkers a family that made aliya in 2001. War appears throughout. The Levins experience the 1948 war of independnece, and Ginsberg comes on the wave of excitement following 1967 and participates in the Yom Kippur war in 1973 while the Kalkers come during the Second Intifada in which some 800 Israelis died in suicide bombings and terror attacks.Approaching the subject from the standpoint that all American Jews are wealthy the author seems to have a prejudiced view in the sense that he neither understands the religious attachment to Israel or the fact that many American Jewish immigrants are not from wealthy backgrounds and plenty of them do not have good jobs or 'comfortable' homes in the U.S. Nevertheless this is an interesting exploration of these people's lives and what made them 'give up the U.S' for Israel. What is missing is some sort of context, some sort of general history of American immigration to Israel and some sort of exploration of the way in which Americans have influenced Israel (perhaps a nod towards Golda Meir, Rabbi Meir Kahane, Stanley Fischer and Mickey Marcus would have been worthwhile). It is interesting to explore immigration and Israel from the standpoint of just a few people, but one cannot understand waves of immigration this way. One Mexican does not tell the story of 40 million Mexican-Americans. A half dozen American Jews do not tell the story of tens of thousands of American Jewish immigrants to Israel, where they have lived, how they have coped, what they have achived and if they have failed.Much more could have been included and apparently the subject of American Aliya is still waiting its historian. Nevertheless this remains a nice book that many with interest in the subject will enjoy.Seth J. Frantzman