Page 25 - Issue 21

Workshop didn't happen. It's been continuous for
70 years, and I would like to see aliyah be the
same.”

Evan Shnaidman, 20, from New Jersey, decided to
make aliyah after spending a year studying in Israel
in Tel Aviv.

“I felt I had a
purpose in
Israel, and I
didn't feel I had
as much of a
purpose in the
U.S.,” Evan Shnaidman

Shnaidman, Who wants to work as a psychologist
during his service in the Israeli military, said. “I felt more
satisfied meeting people from all over the world who
have something in common. Not Judaism exactly, but
Jewish culture. We could learn about each other's
homelands, but also have a common homeland.”

When he returned to America to continue his
studies in New York, Shnaidman felt the difference.

“In America, everyone is always pessimistic all the
time,” he said. “Every joke is a complaint, and
everyone is very negative. In Israel, it just was a
different mindset.”

Arieh, 33, from Colorado, had planned to make
aliyah in early February. He preferred for his full
name to remain undisclosed. He, too, expressed
misgivings about continuing to live in America.