Hanna Ramras - January 26, 2008
Moving to Brazil II
Where in America?
New York. And he was left in England at age...
Husband: Nineteen.
Eighteen?
Husband: Nineteen.
Nineteen, okay. He had aunts--an aunt and uncle, cousins and friends. And then we saw what was going on in Palestine and how the refugees wanted to come in and were not allowed to come in, the story of the exodus and all that. Something stirred in my mind and I said, "What is this?" These refugees that came--I came here--were allowed to come to in to England. But the refugees that don't want to come to England and want to go to Palestine--there was no Israel--they're not allowed in. Why not? What are they doing there? Why don't they allow these people to live? And then we had friends older than ourselves who went to Cyprus and worked in Cyprus with those people that were interned there...
???
...and uh, my mind began to wonder whether really what was stronger in me--my nationality--my British nationality or my Judaism? My feelings for a Jewish, a Jewish homeland and I saw that was, that was what was stronger.
And you had gotten this all through B'nai Akiva?
Yes, a lot of it woke up in B'nai Akiva.
This was like a youth group.
Youth Akiva. I saw some very heroic things there. People who really came and dedicated their lives and lost their lives--they came in illegally. It was a time of reflection, definitely. And then I, I said to my cousin--Rabbi Unsdorfer--I do want to be able to--I do want to go to Israel when the state of Israel is born.
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