When my parents immigrated to Israel, writing letters was the main means of staying in touch their country of birth. Today's immigrants are much more spoiled for choice but getting used to Israel is still no easier.
Last Wednesday, 150 new immigrants landed in Israel on the new El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE:ELAL) route between Sao Paulo in Brazil and Tel Aviv. Waiting in the infuriating traffic jams in the morning en route to my office in Herzliya, I was at least able to listen with pleasure to a moving interview by Nir Raskin on IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal) with the El Al pilot Xavier Rubin.
The interview took place mid-flight when the plane was 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean on the way from Brazil to Israel. The wonders of modern technology linked Raskin in a live broadcast to the pilot's cockpit and allowed Rubin to tell us that, "Everybody is asleep at the moment. We'll wake them up in a few hours for breakfast and prepare them for landing."
Rubin himself was a new immigrant 20 years ago. He was a pilot in the Israel Air Force and after a long period of service in the military he was posted to South America as a Jewish Agency emissary. He is now a pilot with El Al and was chosen for the mission of bringing the new immigrants to Israel last week.
After interviewing the pilot, Raskin spoke to one of the new immigrants - 20 year-old Michelle who was born in Brazil. Michelle decided to realize the Zionist dream, on which she was nurtured both at home and in her youth movement, and immigrate to Israel.
Michelle discussed her reservations, and in particular her concerns about homesickness, and the following day she was again interviewed by leading journalist Ilana Dayan after landing in Israel. Michelle, optimistic and full of joie de vivre, listed the spectrum of possibilities for keeping in contact back home: Skype, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, email, and perhaps even the telephone.
Symbolically on the same day that Michelle landed in Israel, along with 150 excited new immigrants, my parents boarded the return flight to Brazil to visit their family in South America. Symbolic, because my parents themselves immigrated to Israel 50 years ago, just as Michelle and her friends did now.
My father was 21 when he arrived in Israel as a new immigrant from Argentina and my mother arrived here two years later. They were friends even before that long separation, which was imposed on them by an order of the Zionist youth movement. Both clearly considered the Zionist dream to be the most important thing.
They reached Israel by sea, sailing for several weeks via Europe. They were among the first to settle Kibbutz Ein Shlosha in the Negev and during their first years there lived in tents.
Staying in touch with their far-off families was done through letters. Telephone calls were a rare event and sometimes impossible. Family visits happened once every few years and involved a long voyage by boat via the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
So more than 50 years after my parents were new immigrants, Michelle and her friends are following in their footsteps. They have landed in a modern country, where most homes are comfortably air-conditioned and there are more mobile phones than residents, where everybody is connected to the Internet and many are members of Facebook, and Twitter and use Messenger.
They can be in constant contact with family and friends and can pay visits home if they want. The geographic distance remains the same but it is possible to return home in less than a day.
To some extent social integration seems easier. But despite that they will undergo the same exhausting experience involved in getting used to Israel. Let us hope that we will know how to integrate them properly.
Bienvenidos - Welcome to Israel.
Izhar Shay is head of Israel Operations and a general partner at VC fund Canaan Partners.