Adventure at the Israeli Embassy-Part 1

The first part of doing my initial stages for Aliyah is to get my passport, and Israeli ID number so I can start to be processed for Aliyah. I am (supposedly) a citizen born abroad, which means that I don't lose any benefits but I can't go solely through Nefesh B'Nefesh, I have to actually deal with government offices.

For a new citizen making Aliyah from America, the steps to make Aliyah are rather simple. Contact your local Aliyah Shliach, fill out a few forms, contact Nefesh B'Nefesh, fill out a few more forms. Then go through 3-30 years worth of junk you've collected and see what's going to Israel with you, and what's being sold, thrown away, given away, burned, etc.

A citizen born abroad goes through similar steps as a regular Oleh. My problem is that, for some reason, I was never registered as a citizen. So something that usually takes 6 months to do when one is first born, will have to be done in 3 days for me know, because I need my ID number and passport to make Aliyah.

So yesterday I went down to the embassy in Washington to see what I had to do in order to get the required information, and what paper work was needed by me in order to get.

Well, as I was driving around in 'Embassy town' in Washington, I made a wrong turn and would up surrounded by the embassies of numerous Arab countries.

I quickly turned the car around and got out of there as fast as possible. I don't know if you actually have to be in the gates of the embassy to be considered on their territory, or just parked in front. either way I didn't hear any gunshots, so I guess it's OK. (Except for the fact that they for sure got a picture of me, my car, my license plate number, me entry into the Israeli embassy. . .let's just say I won't be going back there.)

Anyways I went through security in the embassy and got in line at the ONE window in the embassy. That's it, that's all they have, one window.

So I spoke with the woman behind the desk and proudly informed her I was an Israeli.

Just one problem I wasn't in the system. According the official registry of Israel I'm not a citizen.

Now if I were to just make Aliyah, I'll have a similar problem that my sister ran into when she made Aliyah, namely that a week before my flight they will call me and tell me that my father is Israeli and therefore I am also and I can't make Aliyah without my passport and ID number.

So I then had to proceed in proving to this woman that I existed and and that my father was my father and my sister was my sister, and that, yes, I was related to both of them, so could she please tell me what I needed to do to get my ID number.

She told me that I had to tell her both my sister's and father's tudat zehut (ID) numbers. So I called my dad who had no idea what his was, called my mom and was unable to contact her. So rejected I walked back to by car and planned to come back tomorrow, after I called my sister and asked her what her number was and if there was any chance she had my father's also.

For some reason, I'm not sure why, I called the Aliyah office, and would you believe it they had both numbers for me. So I turned around and had to spend another half an hour getting through securit and waiting in line for Cranky Lady to finish with the, oh ONE PERSON who was in front of me!

But before I finish there was one positive thing that happened to me while I was waiting in line. There were a few guys who were there to get visas for studying in college in Israel for a semester. One of the guys, a secular guy, was talking to me and he mentioned that "In Israeli, everything just seems to work out. If you don't know what you're going to do about something, don't worry, you'll figure it out!"

Well I know G-d runs the world and I just needed a little reminder that if I'm supposed to be making Aliyah this summer I will be, no matter what.

So after my talk with Crazy Lady, I now have on two more things to do, (which I'll do tomorrow when I go back) and that's giver her my letter of exemption from the army, and pay a precessing fee. After that I get my ID nuber and can start being processed for Aliyah.

(B"H)