When David Kirschbaum, 23, was four months old, his mother took the newborn sabra back to Queens, where she raised him with the help of his grandparents. But his birthplace never left him. “He watched the Second Lebanon War on television with his grandmother at age six,” she said. He initially attended the Solomon Schechter School of Queens, and at home he kept kosher in a “Conservadox” approach to Jewish life.
When his mother, Elana, 53, transferred him to a public middle school, he continued to wear his kippah and tzitzis. Upon graduating high school, he knew that he wanted to return to Israel, serve in its military, and work in the country’s tech industry. “He wore his IDF shirt with pride and got on a plane two months after graduating high school,” she said. “I moved mountains to push his paperwork and to make sure that he keeps kosher while serving.”
“He visited me last month and, when he left, he gave his mother a tight hug. He felt that there would be a war, and this was just before Sukkos,” she said.
Now, Kirschbaum will be joining her son, booking a one-way flight at the end of the month. “Because I had lived in Israel before, it will be difficult to return. I am a returning citizen.” Because she previously lived in Israel, Kirschbaum is not eligible for financial assistance offered to new olim, in contrast to the assistance that her son received from Nefesh B’Nefesh and the government.
She is not deterred, relating the experience to her first aliyah 30 years ago when she was 22. “There were no benefits for me. All I got was a jelly sandwich and a taxi ride to the ulpan. Russian Jews got a check, but I was told that as an American, I had the ability to bring money to Israel,” she said.
Comparing her experience to David’s, she said that Nefesh B’Nefesh and lone soldier organizations have made a big difference in making aliyah less difficult. “It is now a dream for American Jews.”
Kirschbaum’s aliyah during war stands in contrast to thousands of Americans who have fled from Israel on the few available flights and aboard a ship docked at Haifa. “I want to be closer to my son and I want to be with the Jewish people in Israel,” she told the New York Post, which first reported on her upcoming departure.
She is selling off her possessions to pay for the flight and refuses to receive donations, arguing that it is not how her father would have done things. Her baggage consists of six duffel bags and nothing more. Upon landing, she will be sharing a guesthouse with a friend at a moshav near Modiin. Her cousin will assist her with housing and work.
“It’s very comfortable here in New York. But life isn’t meant to be comfortable – life is meant to be challenging, good and bad,” she said. “I’ve learned to fight. I can’t sit here and just wait.”
By Sergey Kadinsky
