The school year has begun and with it a new challenge for the city Aliyah department. 

After a long summer vacation especially for those who made Aliyah,  have a new home, new country and basically a new life, now begins the second stage of Klita- sending the kids to school.

All is ready and the kids have been walking around the house for a week with their school bags on their backs, asking "Mommy, when are we going already!!" And then the big day arrives!

Jonah Zacks, Kovi Talmud and Yonatan Moshkovitz arrive at Gan Lotus! What excitement, new friends, new teacher and a big mixture of Hebrew and English. For Jonah, it is his second year in Israel and in gan, and very quickly he takes on the roll of the aliyah representative of the gan!

In the elementary school, it's a little different. There in 1st grade, all the children are new! David has found a new friend who moved to Ariel just a week ago and together they are beginning Kita Alef.  The school principle, Ofra, has made a real effort to try and get as much assistance as possible for the new olim children, and together with the community aliyah program has managed to arrange extra lessons for them.

At home it is suddenly very quiet. The kids are back at school and it is time to start unpacking those boxes that have been sitting there for almost a month. And time for the parents to start thinking about their own absorption.
Finally the parents have a moment to let it sink in ........."We have made aliyah. "