Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home - A Book by Jason Alster

Very little has ever been written about those who have made Aliya to Israel, their dreams, their accomplishments and their return to their native countries. 

When making Aliya one faces huge cultural and financial challenges - and most Americans who have made Aliya to Israel have not been fortunate enough to make Israel their home for life. Whether it be paying the bills for rent, food and a car - there are just not enough jobs and money to help Olim survive.


On a bright note there is a wonderful organization named Nefesh B'Nefesh which working with the Jewish Agency has improved the odds greatly for making a successful Aliya.


Jason Alster, in his book Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home describes in the most creative detail all that Olim experience.

From eating at an Israeli McDonalds, adapting to Israel humor, the Ulpan experience, serving in the Israel Defense Forces, marriage and divorce, to enjoying Israel's historic sites, long sandy beaches, the craziness of Israeli driving, Israel's relationship to the Holocaust and quest for survival to coming back to one's native country - as a Jew who has been home and has returned home.


Whether you dream of moving across the US or to another continent or are returning home after a prolonged absence, Jason Alster’s Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home is an illuminating and inspiring read. This book is about the courage to change, to take risks, and to trust oneself regarding that place we wish to call home. Page after page, readers will discover the keys—and occasionally the secrets—to fitting in.

Jason Alster, M.Sc., is also the author of Being in Control: Natural techniques for increasing your Potential and Creativity for Success in School, Creative Painting for the Young Artist, and Anyone can Improve their Handwriting.

He worked in the allied health and behavioral medicine fields of neuro-diagnostics, sleep research, and biofeedback, published many research articles, and received a major award for his work in medical research.

In Israel, the author worked as a biofeedback practitioner/learning specialist, and over the years has helped hundreds of learning challenged students with ADHD, dyslexia, and test anxiety to succeed in school using natural techniques.

Today Alster, who lived in Israel for 23 years, is a learning and studies strategies consultant based in Hartford, Connecticut.

This book will also tell of his success in developing these techniques and how being in a different environment contributed to this process.



This most positive book on Israel and those who contribute to it is a must read for anyone who has made Aliya, thinking about it or wants a better and more honest picture as to Israeli culture, Judaism and Zionism.

Amazon.com: Leaving Home, Going Home, Returning Home: A Hebrew ...

 6 reviews - $18.99 - In stock

Whether you dream of moving across the country or to another continent, or you are returning home after a prolonged absence, Jason Alster's Leaving Home, ...
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=== Israel Cultural Highlights in New York ===

Cultural Highlights - November 17 - December 1

In this Issue Music - Pinchas Zukerman& Yefim Bronfman Music - Michael Peer Architecture - Maya Barkai Visul Arts - Boaz Vaadia Literature - Dolly City Visit our calendar  www.israelfm.org/culture or Follow us on Twitter -@ArtseeBlog Pinchas Zukerman, violin, viola & Yefim Bronfman, piano Saturday, Nov. 20, 8:00pm @ Carnegie Hall MOZART Violin Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 454 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata in F Major, Op. 24, "Spring" JOHANNES BRAHMS Viola Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120, No. 2 Zukerman, who is winning over audiences in Ottawa as music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, returns to the concert stage on both violin and viola. Bronfman was a Carnegie HallPerspectives artist in 2007-2008, and gave a mammoth recital program here last April. They now come together for audience-pleasing favorites. Price - $8.00 - $108.00 For more information - 212-247-7800 http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_14425.html?selecteddate=11202010 Opera Night - Michael Peer Sunday, Nov. 28, 7:30pm @Carnegie Hall Michael Peer, Bass-Baritone Concert Debut Produced by Lydia Mushe Michael Peer-Bass-Baritone, Debut concert at Carnegie Hall with String Quartet Attacca Mikhail Hallak- Piano, Ziv Shalev-Guitar. Guest Artist: Yasmin Levi-Ellentuck, Samantha Malk and Anna Noggle Works by Shember, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Puccini, Mozart and more. Price: $55, $60 , $65 For more information please call - 718-812-8112 E-mail:Mmick21@aol.com  Visit - WWW.CARNEGIEHALL.ORG Maya Barkai in "Playwood, Concrete, Paint" Thursday, Nov. 18, 6:00pm @ The Center for Architecture In the last two years, sidewalk sheds, of which there are more linear feet hanging above our heads than there are yellow cabs in New York City, have been getting a lot of attention. There's an entire section on the real estate website Curbed NY, devoted to exposing "Scaffolding Nightmares" around town but people are doing a lot more than just sitting around complaining. The Downtown Alliance for New York, ArtBridge, the Center for Architecture and most recently, the Department of Buildings (with support from the Rockefeller Foundation), are just a handful of the many organizations that are using construction sites and materials as platforms for Public-Art making. Art is playing an integral role in connecting the public to the space around them, even as it is in development and not yet complete.  Panelists Include: Joe Covello, Vice President and Co-Owner of United Hoisting and Scaffolding Maya Barkai, Public Artist Rodney Durso, Founder, ArtBridge Olympia Kazi, Executive Director of the Van Alen Institute Moderator: Katie Denny, The North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition Tickets: $25. for more information: http://art-bridge.org/installations/plywood-concrete-paint/ http://walking-men.com/   A Conversation with Boaz Vaadia Monday, Nov. 22, 6:00pm @ The Ukrainian Institute of America Boaz Vaadia is the internationally known sculptor whose timeless, evocative stone figures now inhabit museums, cultural sites, art galleries, and private collections. As major installations at prime buildings, parks, and homes around the world, they set a tone of peace and serenity.  The Art of Leadership series is a forum for art collectors and art world professionals to identify and discuss the vital issues facing collectors - those who have existing collections, and those who plan to acquire more art during these challenging economic times.  Please join us for the discussion which will be concluded by an open Q&A session, reception and refreshments to follow. Due to limited seating, a reservation is required. Please RSVP at the Art of Leadership website: http://artleadership.com/ArtL/RSVP.htm   Dolly City by Orly Castel Bloom As part of Hebrew Literature Series Now in bookstores By Dalkey Archive Press. Translated by Dalya Bilu. Gruesome, unhinged, and hilarious, Dolly City is widely recognized as one of the most disconcerting-and brilliant-literary works ever to come out of Israel. "Dolly City-a city without a base, without a past, without an infrastructure. The most demented city in the world." In the midst of a futuristic-primitive metropolis, the accumulation of all our urban nightmares, Doctor Dolly (certified by the University of Katmandu) finds a newborn baby in a black plastic bag, and decides to become a mother. Overcome by unfamiliar maternal urges, Dolly dispenses with her private lab of rare diseases and turns all her surgical passion onto her son. Ceaselessly cutting and sewing, Dolly is the scalpel-wielding version of the all-too-familiar Jewish Mother archetype, forever operating upon her son with destructive, invasive love. In this grotesque satire of war and the defensive measures taken to survive it, Orly Castel-Bloom, one of Israel's most provocative and original writers, turns her own scalpel upon that most holy of institutions, the myth of motherhood-and its implications in the life of a nation. For more Information: http://www.amazon.com/Dolly-City-Hebrew-Literature-Castel-Bloom/dp/1564786102 About the Hebrew Literature Series: http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/info/?fa=text126 For more events visit -   www.israelfm.org/culture  Office of Cultural Affairs   Israeli Consulate, NY

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He serves as a digital PR consultant to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has consulted the US State Department on Web 2.0 social networking logistics.

Leyden legally controls information on the Net - reaching up to 40 million people within 30 minutes!

Joel Leyden, who has university degrees in journalism, psychology and mass communications, resides in Ra'anana, a suburb north of Tel Aviv, Israel and in New York City.

=== Global Media Talk About Joel Leyden ===

London Jewish Chronicle - Cyber Warriors

Ex-Wife Ordered Jailed for Alienating Children From Father

Mark Fass

New York Law Journal

June 08, 2010

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A Long Island, N.Y., judge has sentenced a woman to six weekends in jail for repeatedly undermining her ex-husband's relationship with their two daughters.

Supreme Court Justice Robert A. Ross in Nassau County ruled that the mother, Lauren R., willfully violated a court order by deliberately alienating the elementary school-age children from her ex-husband, Ted R.

Ross held Ms. R. in civil contempt and ordered her to report to the Nassau County Correctional Facility every other weekend this summer.

Her term was to have begun on Friday, but was temporarily stayed pending appeal by a judge from the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, on Thursday.

"The evidence before me demonstrates a pattern of willful and calculated violations of the clear and express dictates of the parties' Stipulation of Settlement," Ross wrote in Lauren R. v. Ted R., 203699-02.

"The extensive record is replete with instances of attempts to undermine the relationship between the children and their father and replace him with her new husband, manipulation of defendant's parenting access, utter and unfettered vilification of the defendant to the children, false reporting of sexual misconduct without any semblance of 'good faith,' and her imposition upon the children to fear her tirades and punishment if they embrace the relationship they want to have with their father."

The extraordinary hearing to determine whether Ms. R. should be held in contempt for violating the couple's stipulation of settlement began in May 2009 and stretched over 23 days of hearings over the next nine months.

During the hearing, Mr. R. testified to dozens of occasions in which his ex-wife either interfered with his visitation rights or purposefully alienated the children from him.

The judge described about a dozen such incidents or patterns in his eight-page decision.

In the winter of 2007, for example, Ms. R. prevented Mr. R. from seeing his daughters for six weeks, Ross wrote.

"I observed the plaintiff smirk in the courtroom as defendant emotionally related how he was deprived of spending Hanukkah with his children, and was relegated to lighting a menorah and watching his daughters open their grandparents' presents in the back of his truck at the base of plaintiff's driveway," the judge wrote.

Mr. R. also testified that Ms. R. consistently scheduled theater outings and social activities with her children so that they would conflict with his visitation, thereby putting him in the position of either consenting to a missed visit or risking disappointing his daughters.

The "crescendo" of Ms. R.'s contempt involved false accusations of sexual abuse against Mr. R., the judge wrote.

"Allegations that defendant had injured the child were found to be baseless and, by making such allegations, plaintiff needlessly subjected the child to an investigation by Child Protective Services, placing her own interests above those of the child," Ross wrote. "This report was not made in 'good faith' -- rather, the investigating agency warned the mother not to re-utilize the allegations and her children in her custodial litigation with the defendant."

In addition to the contempt finding and the temporarily stayed jail sentence, Ross ordered a hearing to consider a change of custody and to hear Mr. R.'s application for more than $134,000 in attorney fees. Those hearings were postponed pending Ms. R.'s appeal.

Ms. R.'s attorney, Kieth I. Rieger of Barrocas & Rieger in Garden City, N.Y., praised Ross, but criticized the decision, likening it to last week's missed umpire call that cost a Detroit Tigers pitcher a perfect game.

"I think all of us make mistakes, and I think he's just made a good-faith, honest mistake in his assessment of this case," Rieger said. "That's why there's an Appellate Division. I think he just did not accurately assess my client."

Stanley Hirsch, also of Garden City, represented Mr. R.

"I'm very hopeful that this case will be some type of warning to those who don't have the children's best interests at heart when they conduct themselves with their spouses," Hirsch said. "It has great significance to my client, but I think it has a terrific overall impact on people who are going through a divorce and not getting along and involving the children in their disputes."

Beware of Gossip, Rumors and Lashon Hara !!!

Lashon Hara: One who tells disparaging things that are false is referred to as a
motzi sheim ra, that is, one who spreads a bad report. This is considered the
lowest of the low.

Leviticus 25:17 says: "You shall not wrong one another."
This has traditionally been interpreted as wronging a person with speech. It
includes any statement that will embarrass, insult or deceive a person, or cause
a person emotional pain or distress.

Why is this being brought up?
Because a woman in Ra'anana was accused of child abuse back in February. Child
welfare looked into it and warned the woman.

This ex-wife then began a campaign of Lashon Hara to prevent her ex from seeing
their child. She charged him with child abuse!

In New York, child welfare would investigate within 48 hours using a team of
forensic psychologists.

In Israel, the court and child welfare do not investigate.
They simply take away the rights of the father and the child to see one another.

Acting on Lashon Hara, and nothing else.
No witnesses, no evidence, no psychological interviews - the family court and
child welfare support the vindictive parent in destroying the father / child
relationship.

The child no longer sees the father.
The mother (sometimes the father) then brainwashes the child against the other
parent. This is called PAS - Parental Alienation Syndrome.

If you hear gossip or Lashon Hara - do not listen to what is being said. 
Look at the person who is spreading hate and then make your own decisions.

Shavua Tov,
Joel

Director
Fathers 4 Justice Israel
http://www.fathers-4-justice.org
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109357902456722