AACA - Memoirs - The Grossman Family

I may not have been an expert on Israel, but I did know that I needed protektzia in order to survive in Israel. I decided to create the protektzia msyelf.

I didn't act like the previous president of AACA. He was a real go-getter. He used to fly all over the States, recruiting Americans for their local aliyah clubs. He was a tough act to follow.

I wasn't much of a public speaker at the time, and I felt that I could not do much more than pretend that I was a bureaucrat. I leaned on the executive director - the paid position in the organization - in order to make me look good.

It worked.

When I left, they Zionist organizations got together, made me a nice farewell party, and gave me a lovely print, which is now on my living room wall.

But all of this fame and glory could hardly be called protektzia.

Perhaps we can think of it as my first experience in fooling all of the people all of the time. Yes, as opposed to popular politics, it can be done.

Not that I had reached an exalted position, but still, AACA at the time had over 60 branches all over the States and Canada, and I was in charge of them.

Well, all right, between you and me, there were not as many branches. However, that's what the publicity said. Besides, who's counting?

At one ponit, I wrote an article for the AACA monthly magazine, called the Aliyon. It wasn't anything special, you know, just telling it like it is. I didn't feel that I knew how to be a professional writer. Nonetheless, that seemed to work also.

I couldn't get over this.

I was running the group, but not knowing how to run things.

I was writing articles, without knowing how to write articles.

There must be something about either this organization, or the country it represented.

***********

In the early 1970s, the Jewish Agency funded an organization for the large numbers of people throughout the United States and Canada who were planning to move to Israel. Unfortunately, they did not to a very good job of publicizing the organization.

How did I find out about it when others didn�t? Simple. During the late 1960s I was active in the Soviet Jewry movement. I know, that seems irrelevant, but read on:

During those years there was intensive action to help Soviet Jews leave Russia. The goal at the time was for them to move to Israel. (True, many of them moved elsewhere, but that could be the basis for a different article). The Israeli connection meant that some Israeli activists were involved in the Soviet Jewry movement.

The combination of both resources offered me a series of contacts in Israel.

That�s what I wanted.

I wanted the system to work for me. I wanted to be involved in Israeli affairs. I did not want to some as yet another American. I wanted to come as someone who was already part of it.

This desire led me to the nascent Aliyah movement called AACA: The Association of Americans and Canadians for Aliyah. That organization helped me become publicly involved in American Aliyah issues.

Others joined the organization as well. Many of them identified with Israel. To some degree, their hearts were in Israel, but many of them never really seriously considered moving to Israel. I was very serious about my plans.

My active membership in that Aliyah movement helped me maintain my enthusiasm about my plans. Over the course of time, I accepted various administrative positions in the group because so that I could become publicly involved. For the better part of the year preceding my Aliyah, I worked my way up to be the international president of the Association of Americans and Canadians for Aliyah.

As a result, I was sent to Israel for two weeks in order to lecture to the official Aliyah policy-making bodies. I was in touch with some of the major Israeli political offials who were involved in American Aliyah at the time.

That involvement certainly helped my future plans. I made various contacts, which were to my advantage. Would you like to call it Protektzia? Go right ahead.

You, too, should become involved in your local branch of the aliyah movement. It keeps changing form and design, so you'll have to do some investigating to find out about it.

I edited the Aliyon - the AACA magazine for aliyah information. Soon after I left, the publication was terminated. Too bad. In time, AACA itself ceased to exist. It was subsequently replaced by a new movement called the North American Aliyah Movement or NAAM (try pronouncing both A�s in the name). I believe that organization also folded after some time, but there is no doubt that it was replaced by yet another organization. Don't worry about why this happens. It has something to do with politics.

Where do you want to go now?