Robert and Jennifer Shurtleff landed in Israel knowing they were going to be reunited not only with their daughter, who moved here about a decade ago, but also with their pony, Turk who had been in quarantine.
“Today we will arrive at our house and meet our horse, who was away from us for two months. He immigrated here with all the paperwork and documentation, just like we did,” Robert says excitedly.
Little Turk is a trained therapy horse. “He’s very special. We want to take him out, bring him to places where he can make people smile because he’s very good at that,” says the 62-year-old Robert. “Our pony also loves young children. There was a family of Olim (immigrants) with young children, on our Aliyah flight, who have already said they want to see the horse.”
The Colorado couple landed in Israel on an El Al flight from Newark, along with dozens of others who came with the help of the Nefesh B’Nefesh organization, the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and JNF-USA.
Their plan is to establish a small farm in Kfar Tavor. “We want to be in the business of caring for people who have special needs, both emotional and physical. It will be a journey for us, but we are very excited to get started,” Robert says.
Robert and Jennifer in Ben-Gurion Airport
(Video: Shai Getzoff)
“In America, there are not many Jews like us, who love the land, love animals and love agriculture. In Israel, there are places full of people like us, on kibbutzim and moshavim, so it will be easy for us to be who we are.”
Why did you decide to make Aliyah at this time specifically?
“The war had an effect, and less than two weeks after it started, I flew to Israel and spent three months with my daughter,"66-year-old Jennifer says. "Her husband was drafted into the reserves on October 8, and she has three small children. Now we will all live together in a big house. We were comfortable in Colorado, but we don’t just want to be comfortable, we want to be Jews in our homeland.” Now, she prays that her two other children will move to Israel, too.
Robert says that there is a particular importance in making Aliyah at this time. “We want to help rebuild. The best way to provide support is to be there and build from the inside out; to show the world that we are not afraid and that we will come home. We thought about it for many years,” he says with tears in his eyes.
Did you feel the surge in antisemitism during the war between Israel and Hamas?
“In Denver, in the big city, there was a big problem, but we lived outside the city. We had good neighbors, and everyone was nice," says Jennifer. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the city came out in support of Hamas, with calls to ‘kill all the Jews.’”
As of today, Kfar Tavor is relatively quiet compared to other places in the North, but are you not afraid of Hezbollah?
“No,” says Robert. “It is Hashem’s decision; what happens is in his hands. I’m not afraid of them. I served in the U.S. military for eight years and fought in two wars. I was a part of the battle in Panama, in military operations after ‘Operation Just Cause’, to depose the dictatorial ruler and drug dealer Manuel Noriega, and I was also involved in the Gulf War," he says.
“We are not too worried and do not feel threatened,” Jennifer adds. “We will live in Kfar Tavor with our daughter and grandchildren. Everyone there already knows her and is friendly. We will not live in the city because we don’t like city life. That is why we had our training farm in Colorado. We lived in the city long enough for our children to go to school, and after they grew up, we don’t need to live there anymore.”
Serving in Reserves Even Before Aliyah
Among the 60 new immigrants that came on the flight with Robert and Jennifer, was 21-year-old Tamar Pasternak, from New Jersey who will live in the capital. “Jerusalem is my favorite place in the world,” she says. “I love the stones, the people, the market, the neighborhoods. I love the fact that it’s a very diverse city with tons of culture and history.”
Her connection to Israel is not recent. She had spent a year studying in a religious school in the Old City and also served in the IDF as a Sar-El instructor, assisting volunteers from abroad. She enlisted through the Mahal program which overseas volunteers like her, and was supposed to be discharged in June 2023 after a year and a half of service but decided to extend it by an additional six months.
She was still in the army when the war broke out, and she later served an additional four months in the reserves to continue her work with the volunteers who came to help in the war. “As part of my job, I have to take care of the volunteers and act as their mother and father during their time in Israel,” she says.
How did October 7 affect your decision to move to Israel?
“I think that since October 7, my connection to Israel and its people has strengthened. I have friends who are soldiers and went to fight in Gaza, in the north, and in Judea and Samaria (West Bank). They are risking their lives. Beyond that, I saw civilians running to shelters every day. Once, when I was outside the base one time, there was a siren, and I saw a mother with two small children and a baby in a stroller. She didn't have enough hands to wrap around all of her kids to protect them. I remember how she lay down on the ground with the baby. It’s amazing to see how people can remain so positive in this reality. It’s sad that the unity of the nation only comes from so much destruction and loss, but I feel closer to everyone. I became much more proud to be a soldier, and now I am proud to be an Israeli citizen.”
In the near future, Pasternak plans to work for a real estate company. Later, she hopes to study at university. “My dream is that all Jews will return to Israel and make Aliyah,” she says.
“This is the Home of Every Jew”
Shmuel Webe brought a Torah scroll on the flight. He was moving to Beit Shemesh with his family. “The truth is that this Torah was written in Israel, last Sukkot. It was held in a synagogue in America, and since we are moving here, I decided to bring it back to Israel, where it belongs,” he says
With him are his wife Nikki and their six children. “This is the home of every Jew. When Jews feel unsafe everywhere else, the safest place is in Israel. We have our country, we have an obligation to make this land our home, and that’s what we are doing,” he says. “We are very happy here. It was a process, but we are very excited,” Nikki added. “With everything that is happening in the world right now, this is definitely a good step for us.”