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Celebrating 8 years since my Aliya to Israel In Parshat Ekev (Devarim 9:23) we read about the importance
of inheriting the Land
of Israel: “And when God
sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and inherit the Land that I have
given you.” But you defied God and did not trust Him and did not heed him.
Although B’nai Yisrael may have initially been afraid to
inherit the Land and were later punished because of it, there are many people
in our time who did everything in their power in order to make Aliya.
As a child, I spent many rallies with Rabbi Haskel Lookstein
and Rabbi Avi Weiss chanting “Free Sharansky Now!” until he was finally
released in 1986. Sharansky’s crime was that he wanted to make Aliya, immigrate
to Israel.
On Sunday, December 6, 1987, I went with Rabbi Lookstein, the entire Ramaz School
and 250,000 other people to Washington
to demonstrate in solidarity with Soviet Jewry. It is said that because of this
“Freedom Sunday”, Gorbachev opened the Soviet borders allowing a million Jews
to immigrate to Israel.
While studying in Israel in 1991, my then boyfriend,
now husband, Josh and I were at a restaurant with two friends when we caught a
glimpse of Natan Sharansky having dinner with his wife Avital. We were shocked
to see these celebrities and heroes and although we would have loved to go over
to them, we did not want to disturb them.
Eight years ago on August 11, 2004, I made aliya on a Nefesh
B’Nefesh flight. My friend, Mia Tepper who was with us in the restaurant the
night that we saw Natan Sharansky was also on the flight. As we got off of the
plane, Natan Sharansky was there to greet us. I felt like I had come full
circle after all of the years of rallies that I had gone to fighting for his
release, here he was welcoming me to Israel!
In 2009, I opened a new Midrasha in Jerusalem called Midreshet Devora where women
18-26 from all over the world could come and study Torah. This past May, my
students went to a conference where they had the opportunity to meet Natan
Sharansky as well! The students who met him from Florida, NY, Santo Domingo,
Sao Paulo and Manchester all dream of making Aliya one day. Now that is what I
call really coming full circle!
Anatoly Sharansky celebrates his freedom with Binyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli
ambassador to the united nations, and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein after his release.
Photo of me with Natan Sharansky and my friends Mia and Noa.
 Natan Sharansky with my students Rut, Elana and Rachel this past May in Jerusalem.
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