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Richard and Ellen Jaffe, Orthodox Jews and Zionists, believe God gave Israel to them, their ancestors and their descendants. But that is not why they left their homes in Irvine and Laguna Beach, sold Richard's prosperous medical practice in Santa Ana and moved with their four children to Jerusalem.
They believe that if Jews like themselves do not live on the land, it will be lost to Arabs who want it back. But that is not the whole reason either.
At the root of their decision to resettle in the beleaguered nation was an undeniable feeling that Israel is, and always has been, home.
"As soon as you get off the plane, you feel it. . . . This is ours," said Richard, 43. Both his and Ellen's grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe, but Richard said he long felt that the United States was only the last of a series of places of exile from the Holy Land that began in AD 70 when the Romans dispersed the Jews. Besides, he said, "it's hard to be Jewish in a non-Jewish place."
The Jaffes are among 2,500 Americans immigrating to Israel each year, about 40% of whom are "making aliyah," a Hebrew term meaning "going up" or settling in Israel for religious reasons. Aliyah represents the spiritual and geographical ascent in biblical times of Jews who were required to go up a mountain to the temple three times a year.
Even for those who are not religious, the term aliyah is still used, according to Gerald Bubis, professor of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. "The ideological premise behind Zionism is that with the Jews being dispersed and land taken away, they were unfulfilled and incomplete human beings. With the restoration of the land, it would follow that they would be whole and complete and they would go back to the land."
Under this premise, the very act of moving becomes an ideological act, he said. While most Jews don't live by the ideology, they still honor those who do, he said.
Conversely, people who leave Israel are considered to go down or yored, he said.
In addition to an official policy of Israel urging Jews...