The Search for Rabbi

Many months go by, and we finally give up and call our former rabbi who now lives in Baltimore. Poor guy just can’t get away from us ;)

He wrote a lovely letter attesting to the fact that we are Jewish, which arrived during the December holidays. After working on this application for so long, I was determined to get the damn thing mailed before the end of the year (2007). We mailed the application December 31.

But of course, that’s just the start. You get photographs done, collect all your paperwork, get things notarized, pay the application fee and wait.

Then there’s the NEXT application. Nefesh b’Nefesh, the private organization that arranges for the charter flights and provides assistance, has its own application. Which, for some reason, is FAR more detailed than the government’s application. Go figure. But of ocurse, they need photos too. And notarized documents, and photocopies. And of course, the application fee.

Then we wait.

But while we were waiting, there was shipping to arrange, yard sales to plan, things to throw out/give away/donate/cry over (hey, it’s traumatic when you have to get rid of things because of space!), jobs to search, towns to research, apartments to find, trying to remember why we were putting ourselves through this…