Aliya Fantasy Camp Anyone?

A letter to Yishai Fleischer of Israel National Radio
and kumah.org

Dear Yishai,

Hi, this is Fran. I was at your Kumah meeting in NY last year
when you talked about the "aliyah boat". I have another idea
for your listeners: I call it Fantasy Aliyah!

In the Jewish newspapers in NY they are advertising a Glatt
Kosher, Shomer Shabbat Fantasy *baseball *camp with one of the NY major league teams. I root for the OTHER NY team, but in any case I would not spend ridiculous sums of money to go do such a thing since being a baseball player is not
my fantasy.

However, I really wish I could make aliyah, but for personal
family reasons I am not yet in a position to do so. My husband
and I are working on a longer term plan, but meanwhile we

are bringing the family to Israel this summer.

Instead of vacationing in the expensive tourist bubble of
four or five star Hotels and fancy tours, I planned a trip
where we are renting a house for three weeks in a community
we would consider living in where we have some friends. We
will be attending an unveiling ceremony, and also a wedding.
We will visit friends,do some fun things for sure. Most important is that I want to learn to ride the buses, the train, shop in the supermarket, shop at the mall, visit the community pool, the library and practice my Hebrew. I may even rent a car and try driving in Israel (scary thought!)

At first I was calling this my pre pre pilot trip, but now I am
calling it Fantasy Aliyah! For three weeks I'm going to imagine that I'm really an olah chadasha! My daughter
even picked up an NBN hat for me at the salute to Israel parade!

I'm hoping that this will be a good experience, and make the
idea of aliyah less scary. I'm hoping that I will get more
comfortable with being in Israel, and that one day G-d
willing we can make aliyah for real.

Meanwhile "Fantasy Camp" in Israel, is better than not
coming at all! We hope to turn our Fantasy into reality some
day soon.

You may read this email on air as an idea for your listeners,
and I hope to visit Beit El and all my radio friends at INR.

Fran