David Raphael Note: I wrote this essay in 2010 and it was published in The Forward   Two years ago, at age 79, my mother became an olah hadashah, a new immigrant to Israel. We moved her to live in the small apartment above my sister Ruth’s home...

People from every continent come to Israel to find freedom and better lives—and because it’s the Jewish homeland. Each group brings with it different customs from the old country that form a fusion of ideas and cultures in the shared land....