650 Frenchmen and a cat
It was another emotional day. Rockets were falling. People were missed by a matter of moments or yards. When a news person asked the Russian immigrant who had witnessed one of the hits in Haifa and who had gathered the ball bearings and other devices that were packed into it to inflict maximum harm on a civilian population whether perhaps he regretting having come to live in Israel, the man was incredulous. He said, “This is the safest place for a Jew to live.”
So it didn’t surprise me a bit when today two planes filled with new immigrants arrived– 500 from Paris, 150 from Marseilles. Our new citizens were welcomed with joy and singing and they couldn’t have been more elated.
This afternoon, we took another new immigrant (this one from Oklahoma) over to the airport to pick up the last member of their family to make aliya, their cat, “Lila Tov Chatul” (Goodnight, Cat). She too seemed anxious to begin her new life here.