Arriving in Israel
Photo: AP
A warm welcome
Photo: Reuters
New olim: We'll accept Israel as it is
A week after they arrived in Holy Land, Ynet continues to follow new immigrants from France. Now they must leave excitement behind and start building a new life: 'We were taught not to complain about the State, and Israel is great'
Last week they landed
in Israel
on two large El-Al planes which carried them to the Holy Land. The Airport was filled with flowers, Israeli flags and some 600 new immigrants from France excited to arrive at the Promised Land. Now, a week later, the olim must put their excitement behind and start building a new life.
An Immigration Ministry representative arrived at the house and held a short festive ceremony in which he gave the parents their blue identity cards. The children jumped up and kissed their excited parents.
Ynet met the Atlan family members at their new apartment in Netanya. The luggage they sent from France has yet to arrive, and the family members sleep on rubber mattresses in the furniture-free apartment.
New Immigrants
Yael Branovsky
French olim say they do not feel at home in France; 'there is a feeling that something is about to happen,' one of them says
The mother, Valerie, apologizes for the untidy apartment, while her husband Richard explains that he was taught not to complain in Israel.
"We must accept the State as it is, and then the State will accept us," he says.
As opposed to immigrants from other countries, who stepped on Israeli soil for the first time on the day they received their immigrant certificate, many of the potential French immigrants keep in close touch with Israel and even arrive to "explore" the country before immigrating.
"We used to visit Israel a lot," says Valerie. "Last February we arrived for a real investigation. We came to Netanya, where I was familiar with the community of French immigrants, and I felt at home.
"When I entered the school the children will study in, I was excited and immediately understood this is the place I want them to be in. On the way back to France we already knew that we are going to immigrate to Israel very soon," she adds.
New immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport, last week (Photo: Yael Branovsky)
Valerie, a bookkeeper, says that if she will not succeed in finding work, she plans to take some courses and maybe even change her profession in order to integrate into Israeli society as best as she can.
Richard, a magician, says that he plans to continue with his profession in Israel. In France, he notes, he performed a lot, also in events organized by the Jewish community. Richard adds that he loves children and his dream is to perform in Israel and teach the local children to be little magicians.
As far as the Atlans are concerned, the most important thing on the agenda is to learn the language.
"We plan to learn Hebrew seriously and regularly at an ulpan (intensive Hebrew school), because without a language we will always feel and be foreigners."
They have yet to meet "sabras" (native Israelis), but their first impression is positive and they can also provide an explanation for the somewhat nervous Israeli mentality.
"This is exactly the definition of the sabra fruit – on the outside it is very thorny, but on the inside it's all honey," says Richard.
"The Israelis are ready to help and support with anything. We understand the mentality, the difficulty of the terror attacks and all the events around them. They did not become so violent and aggressive for no reason. We understand the roots of violence here in Israel."
The Atlan family arrived in Israel as a result of a joint effort of AMI (Aliyah et Meilleure Integration) and the Jewish Agency for Israel. Some 1,500 families have immigrated to Israel as part of the project since 2005, 700 of them from France.
