Portraits in Passion

Many people have a passion, a dream, a mental vision of doing something special with their lives, but not many have had the courage to bring that goal to fruition. This book is an attempt to take a closer look at the lives of twenty-one diverse Jerusalem women who have taken their American know-how and fulfilled lifelong ambitions to become citizens of the State of Israel. I call them women of vision - though they, for the most part, do not recognize themselves in this role. They do not, despite the fact that they identified a sense of longing for something and turned it into reality. Although you will only hear from twenty-one of them, they represent hundreds of other American-Israeli women.

They lived in America as Jews and therefore as members of the minority. As Israelis they belong to the majority. In the minority culture they might have availed themselves of the advantage to seek self-fulfillment, the goal of most of their age peers in the "me generation". In Israel, as members of the majority, they realize the more powerful pull of a duty to build a community and a country, in addition to growing as individuals. Similar to their countrywoman, Golda Meir, who was also an American-Israeli, the Jewish women in these stories have all foregone the comfortable life of an American in order to settle in Israel. Their aim, like Meier’s more than a half century before, was to build a worthwhile life for themselves and their families and to help improve the State of Israel. I am fascinated by the concept of women being motivated to make such major changes in their lives.

The number of immigrants from America to Israel - and we always bear in mind that these are immigrants because they have chosen to come here, they are not refugees - is rather small in comparison to immigration to Israel from other countries. The impact of American immigrants on the establishment and development of the State, and on almost every aspect of life in Israel, from pre-partition days to the present, has been tremendous. Ask Americans: "Who makes aliyah (the move up to Israel)?" and they will give you a composite description of a committed person with a pioneer spirit, but the details of the individual will be sorely lacking. I hope that Portraits in Passion will give depth and reality to this amorphous collection of newcomers and will go more than skin deep.

It is my goal to have Portraits in Passion take you to the scene of everyday life in Jerusalem’s various neighborhoods and put you in touch with the pulse of the challenges these women face. The courage and dedication that flows from these women toward children, soldiers and other immigrants they encounter is inspiring. It startles as you connect with women taking on projects that include major social change in the courts, in the streets and in society. Like the light refracted by a well-cut gem, the facets as you approach it are brilliant.