Spend five minutes with Michael Landsberg and guaranteed he’ll have you ready to pack your bags and move to Israel.
As executive director of the North American Aliyah Delegation of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Landsberg’s job is to persuade Jews to immigrate.
He’s very good at it.
Landsberg rolled through town last week, checking up on his Bay Area satellite office, the Israel Aliyah Center based at the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay in Oakland.
While here, he reconfirmed what he’s found all across the country.
Despite more than two years of intifada, suicide bombings and other Middle East troubles, Landsberg reports that the number of Jews making aliyah has increased 35 percent from 2001 to 2002 (470 North American emigres last year, 1 million total over the last 12 years).
That upward trend hasn’t slowed. The first quarter of 2003 saw another 5 percent jump, including more than 50 Jews from the Northern California-Pacific Northwest region.
Such positive figures please Landsberg but don’t surprise him. He has his pet theory as to why so many North Americans are prepared to make the big move:
“We have more and more people saying, ‘Now is the time Israel really needs us,'” notes Landsberg. “In these times of intifada, people think, ‘You know what? After Sept. 11, the D.C. shooter, 100 murders in Oakland, I’d rather be in my own place.”
To facilitate that, Landsberg and the Jewish Agency have tried to make the aliyah process as easy as possible, offering a brand of Zionism that comes in a variety of customized colors and flavors.
“We have several ‘appetizer’ programs,” says Landsberg. “They can last two weeks or as long as you want, with many options all over country.”
For young people, those programs include a short-term kibbutz and ulpan work-study for college credit and opportunities for young artists through the World Union of Jewish Students.
Hot off the griddle are new programs to earn a bachelor’s, master’s or advanced professional degree, or a private high school education, 100 percent free. More than 9,000 young people from all over the world took part in these programs last year, with an astounding 98 percent earning matriculation certificates (the programs are open to those who officially emigrate).
Of course, aliyah isn’t just for kids. Adults up to age 65 may volunteer in a wide variety of programs, such as the Magen David Adom ambulance corps, helping to save lives from their first day in Israel.
Others may serve as civil guards or Israeli police assistants; hospital, nursing home or schools aids; some even lend support to the Israeli army by preparing meals or folding parachutes.
All these and other such opportunities are meant to entice visitors and volunteers to take the plunge and become full-time Israelis themselves.
Once they arrive, the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency shift into overdrive to make the resettlement process unfold as smoothly as possible. Grants, stipends, housing and employment assistance, Hebrew language classes and, of course, nice Jewish neighbors, all come bundled together for new olim (immigrants).
Says Landsberg: “Research shows that the Israel experience is the most important thing influencing life as a Jew.”
His own Israel experience certainly prepared him for his chosen career path. Born in Haifa, Landsberg is the son of a father who survived Auschwitz and a mother who was a veteran of the Dutch Jewish underground. Both raised their son never to forget that Israel was the eternal Jewish homeland, and he absorbed the lesson well.
“My Zionist approach came out of the youth movement and the scouts,” recalls Landsberg. “I felt I had a responsibility to my people, and I wanted to do something.”
After serving in the Israeli army, he went on to help establish a kibbutz in the Golan Heights, launching his career as an aliyah salesman at the same time. “I saw we needed olim there,” he says, “and in two years we changed the demographics from 95 percent sabra [native-born Israeli] to half-sabra, half-olim.”
Over the years, Landsberg proudly wore the label of shaliach (emissary), bringing scores of diaspora Jews to Israel. His resume includes postings with Habonim Dror North America, the Labor Zionist Youth Movement; Hamagshimim, Hadassah’s youth movement; stints running Zionist youth camps in the former Soviet Union; and service as secretary-general of the World Labor Zionist Movement.
As aliyah director for the Jewish Agency, Landsberg has his hands full. He currently oversees 16 satellite offices across the United States and Canada, with special outreach efforts to Russian, Iranian and Latin Jewish communities.
Landsberg feels a sense of urgency in his work, not only because of the worldwide resurgence in anti-Semitic violence.
“Facts are facts; we lose 50,000 Jews every year through assimilation,” he says. “If we don’t do something, Jews here will become extinct.”
Despite the alarmist talk, Landsberg actually remains upbeat about the future.
“For good or bad, in summer and winter, we are there for the Jewish people to make a choice,” he says. “Zionism is winning every day.