Making aliyah has been one long list of celebrations

As part of my aliyah programme, the Jewish Agency have organised a number of events and trips that olim chadishim can join and I've taken advantage of these trips to help me travel around my new country and get to know my surroundings more.

So far I have visited Caesarea, going to the amphitheater and a kibbutz close by and visited the Israel Museum, Supreme Court and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. There have been some other trips offered but I had other commitments so I couldn’t make them, but I hope to replicate them and travel to other places on my weekends off and venture out more often at some point. 

However, a trip that I will always remember was to Ben Gurion Airport.

Before making aliyah, every time I went to Ben Gurion was with a heavy heart; departing from Israel with tears in my eyes... this time I didn’t have this feeling. This time I arrived into a huge terminal full of celebrations. We were about to greet a charter flight full of olim chadashim (new immigrants) about to land in their new homeland. I will never forget their faces as they left the plane and stepped into Israel to start their new lives. I remembered how I felt when I stepped off the plane for the first time as an olah and was full of happiness and pride for them. People of all ages and huge families all leaving their home countries to start their new lives here being greeted by other olim with food and music for them.

Joining me in the welcome party was Issac Herzog, the new Chairman of the Jewish Agency, and one of my Zionist heroes, Israeli politician, Natan Sharansky. I couldn’t resist stopping him and we chatted before posing for a photograph together. 

This experience was not only a celebration - for them, for me, for Israel - but also an affirmation of my decision to move here.