Israel.
I periodically make small investigations online into what's happening in Israel, what's happening with Aaliyah... I've visited there three times now and always yearned to stay, as crazy as that is. One friend of mine seemed to get it, when I explained the PULL that Israel has on my heart. Despite the distance, despite the news, being there is electric. Being there is incredible. Being there and being Jewish is such an intense and amazing experience, in a country that is complex and quite central to the story of God, it's not a big surprise that it brings up a passion in people one way or the other... Personally, there's something in the air, the land, the water, the PEOPLE that gets in your lungs, on your skin, into your dreams. I dream of returning and staying and being a light in the darkness.

So, back to my Google-detective work. I was disheartened at one point to realize that I was not quite eligible to make Aaliyah with my faith in Yeshua... Until May or June 2008, when I read of the recent court ruling regarding non-religious Messianic believers. The first site I read about this on was Derek's blog...

Now there are organizations coming together to offer Masa-sponsored programs (FREE) to offer young Jewish people 5 months of time interning in Israel for free. It's called Israel Service Corps. I have fond memories of meeting Momo in Israel and at Rutgers, so it was fun to see his picture (in an Obama-campaign-inspired graphic no less!) and hear that he's still looking to get the young Jews together to fall in love with Israel and make Jewish babies!

Now... I do wonder how complicated it would be to try to make Aaliyah now that the law has been changed. I've read a number of blog posts about the change, such as this, "The God Blog" on Jewish Journal (now, why don't I have a Jewish Journal blog? How did they get such a gig?). Brad Greenberg describes himself as “a God-fearing Christian with devilishly good Jewish looks,“ and explains a bit about his employment at the Jewish Journal, giving commentary on Judaism and where culture, politics, life, from a Christian point of view. Very neat.

Anyhow... My question has been... How do you make aliyah as a Jewish person who believes in Yeshua? Is it the same as everyone else? Do you need a lawyer to make sure things go through smoothly? What's the deal? I can't google this one on my own, so we'll see what I find out now that I've begun writing to other people/bloggers/etc...

Blessings.