Thirty-eight years ago today, my late husband, two small children (and one more in utero), and I arrived in Israel. At the time, new olim were given a temporary identity card at the airport, and we effectively became citizens.

Well, at least some of us did; my husband had spent a year learning in Yeshiva here at a time when overseas students were given Israeli identity cards. When we arrived at the airport, we were told that since he had an ID card, he essentially had already made Aliyah and therefore could not make Aliyah again. (We were warned about this previously but were reassured by our Aliyah Shaliach that it would not be a problem, yeah right!). Not to worry, we were told by the clerk at the airport, you can go to Misrad Hapnim (Ministry of Interior) and sort it out.

In the meantime, however, Yakov, although here physically, was not officially in the country. And so, we arrived in........

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