Twenty-five years ago today, my husband, three children and I arrived on one-way tickets to Israel, making today our silver aliyanniversary.
We left burgeoning careers, family and friends and everything that was familiar for the opportunity to live in and help grow the Jewish state. It was not easy for any of us to adjust to a new culture, a new language, and a new way of life.
But we knew Israel would be the best place to raise our Jewish children (ultimately, we also had two sabras), where, as I have written before, they would learn about their Jewish past, participate in their Jewish present and prepare for their Jewish future, and where we would have a front-row seat to Jewish history.
It has never been easy, and some of the times were harder than others, providing us with a seat that feels way too close to the front. From missing my family terribly, to the struggle to manage in Hebrew, to the internal struggles in this country; from the second intifada and a terror attack within the gates of our own community, to Operation Protective Edge (Tzuk Eitan), to October 7 and the current war and wars-within-the-war.
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Sara and Emunah Oster upon their arrival in Israel 25 years ago to make aliyah
(Photo: Courtesy)
And we have paid the highest price of all for our decision to make aliyah, to bring our one-year-old son and make him a citizen of Israel. Because that decision led to his conscription into a combat unit of the IDF and ultimately led to his death inside Gaza less than three months after the Hamas massacre.
We named our son Amichai Yisrael Yehoshua Oster one year before our aliyah in memory of my husband's grandfather (the second two names) and his great love and support for Israel (the first name). And our son wore it proudly and lived up to it every day of his life.
And still, even as I feel the pain of his death every single day, I am not sorry that we made the decision to move our lives here a quarter century ago.
Amichai would not have been the person he was if he had not grown up here. He told me just weeks before he fell in Gaza that he would have been here fighting even if we had raised him in the United States, and it was a nice validation of our decision. Still, I know that every part of him spent 24 years soaking up the air, the people and the history of Israel.
I am grateful we came here when I look at what my family has so far been able to contribute to our Jewish state, and the great things our children will continue to do here. A researcher, soldiers, participants in national service, teachers, Jewish youth leaders, volunteers and much more. Two have married and we have grandchildren who will grow up here as well. I am so proud of them all.
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To say that our country is in a crisis right now would be an understatement. And the crisis reaches deep into every aspect of our lives – our physical safety, our economic security, and our relationships with our fellow citizens across religious and political lines.
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Marcy Oster holding her grandson, Adi Amichai, named after the uncle he will never meet
It is very, very difficult to read the news and to internalize what is happening here, just as it is difficult to fathom some of what is happening in the country of my birth, and in places around the world.
I saw our entire country band together beginning on October 7 – to support the soldiers, to support the homefront – and I loved this country even more. I still do.
Which is why it has been so disappointing for me to hear, first hand, from young Israelis who express an interest in leaving what they consider a sinking ship, who think that our country is irredeemable, who do not want to stay around to repair it and then make it even better.
Marcy Oster Photo: CourtesyThey want to run from the country which represents the start of our history as a nation, a country that their families may have deep roots in, or one that their parents or grandparents may have come to to escape persecution elsewhere. A country that my family ran to and gave, literally, everything.
We will stay here. We will work hard to rebuild, to repair the rifts, to move forward. To make Amichai and the hundreds of other beautiful soldiers, and the victims of October 7, proud of us and our country. This is why we came.
- Marcy Oster is a Ynetnews editor and editorial contributor