An Advocacy: the Rise from Aliyah to Activism

Making aliyah, it seems, is not the fruition of that idealized dream. And by “it seems,” I mean I once thought it was. I came here to live because I can and We can and We should and from there everything would work itself out. Somehow.

Yet that Somehow still hasn’t shown up. Or rather, that Somehow has transformed into a Someone: a Me.

Israel is a complex country: a country that professes the ideals of democracy yet attempts to retain loyalties to a historical and religion responsibility. Israel is a country that needs my help along with your help.

Living here, I have come to realize, is not about finding the most comfortable place to live, that town that reminds me most of back home or the location that will best suit my needs. Living here is about us—about the community of Am Yisrael—and what we can do to ensure that such an entity exists and continues to exist, even beyond the borders of Israel.

This past summer I met a group of solid people. They were all young and intellectual and motivated and strived to affect change. They were part of the PresenTense Institute, a Creative Zionism summer program. Their website tells it best: they enable “socially-minded entrepreneurs from the fields of hi-tech, business, social action, education and the arts to turn their envisioned projects into reality.” Basically, they are a bunch of young minds who care and do something about it. It's pretty impressive.

Become part of this active reality at http://www.creativezionism.com.

Read what they have to say. Think about what they have to say. What do you have to say?

We are living in precarious times. The meaning of Zionism is up for debate. It is a term we afford great prominence; it is the subject of much debate and discussion and yet in some sectors it is slowly being replaced with alternate values and morals.

What is Zionism? What do we want out of this place, anyway? How are we going to actualize such goals in an age of post-modernism and equality for all and pluralism and individualism and social concern?

The folks at Creative Zionism know. Do you?