Darche Noam Institutions exists to teach Torah and promote religious growth. Promotion of aliya is not one of our overt goals, yet the facts testify that our Yeshiva and Midrasha are accomplishing what many Israel programs, even those whose purpose is to encourage aliya, have not. Let's meet some of these alumni.

Deena Cohen studied in Midreshet Rachel in the pioneering years of 1983-85, when it had first opened its doors. After learning in Israel, Deena moved to New York where she met and became the wife of Rabbi Francis Nataf. The Natafs moved to Indianapolis where Rabbi Nataf was the assistant principal of the yeshiva-day school. Deena relates that after the birth of their first child she and her husband made a promise to themselves to make aliya by the child's fifth birthday. Though the five years in the States were very productive for the Natafs, Deena felt that "there was something special about Eretz Yisrael. The Torah life there seems more pure."

Deena feels that her intense exposure to Torah learning at Midreshet Rachel cultivated a sensitivity to that special quality that is Eretz Yisrael. Mrs. Nataf has come full circle and now is on the faculty of our Midreshet Rachel College of Jewish Studies for Women, where she teaches Tanach. Deena is inspiring a new generation of Midreshet Rachel students to know the profundity of Torah, which so often leads to an appreciation of Eretz Yisrael and the desire to live here. She is also an editor at the Shalem Center, a prestigious "think-tank" founded and run by Yoram Hazony and Dan Polisar, two more Darche Noam Institutions alumni who have made aliya and are making their mark on Israeli society. Rabbi Nataf teaches at the Sephardic Educational Center, Beit Midrash LaTorah, and gives the twice-weekly evening community shiur for Shapell's/Darche Noam.

Dan Polisar, mentioned above, came to Shapell's after graduating from Princeton with a BA in Political Science. He spent the next two years (1987-89) in the Yeshiva deeply engrossed in the study of Torah. Dan returned to the States and enrolled in the Doctoral program in Political Science at Harvard University where he completed his course work before making aliya. While Dan had considered aliya as a "theoretical" possibility, his tenure in the Yeshiva pushed him to actualize that theory, "My years in Darche Noam clarified for me that the fate of the Jewish people was my central concern in life and Israel is center stage for the playing-out of that fate."

A month after the Oslo Accords were signed Dan founded Peace Watch, a coalition of concerned activists from all sides of the political spectrum whose function is to monitor the adherence of both parties to the agreements. Peace Watch has published regular compliance reports which have won praise and respect from the left and the right. In addition to his work at Peace Watch and the Shalem Center, Dan is currently working on finishing his doctoral thesis begun at Harvard. Dan is married to Jocelyn and they and their four children live in Eli.

Liz Curran hails from Tasmania, the island-state of Australia. She grew up in the town of Devenport in which there were no synagogues at all. Liz visited Israel several times and, though it was not within an Orthodox framework, her Israel experiences caused her to rethink the meaning of being a Jew. Liz utilized the resources available in Tasmania to learn about and adopt a life of Torah and mitzvot. She spent last year in Midreshet Rachel. During her intensive months in Midreshet Rachel Liz decided to make aliya.

If it was just a matter of being in a place that offered more Jewish resources than Tasmania, New York could also have sufficed. Liz explained, "I have seen places in the world that, from a tourist's vantage, are more scenic than Israel. Here I feel a connection to the Land that is hard to explain...When I have really needed something here, it just seems to happen. One senses G-d's watchful care." After her year in Midreshet Rachel she returned to Australia for five months to make preparations for her aliya. Liz returned to Israel four days before this article was written as a proud citizen of the Jewish State. Her first Shabbat back in Israel was spent at a Midreshet Rachel Shabbaton in Alon Shvut. Liz plans on first attending an intensive Hebrew Ulpan before she resumes working in her profession as a registered nurse.

In 1980 Yakov Greiff earned his law degree from Harvard Law School while concurrently completing an MA in Far Eastern Studies (Yakov speaks fluent Chinese!) at Harvard University. After law school he worked for two prestigious firms in New York City and then worked for seven years as a prosecutor in the office of the District Attorney in Brooklyn, eventually supervising 70 other lawyers. In 1990, Yakov came to Yeshivat Darche Noam/Shapell College of Jewish Studies and spent the next two and a half years immersed in intensive Torah learning. At the height of the Gulf War Yakov married Jolie Lewis, who had previously shared an apartment with Deena Cohen (Nataf)! The Greiffs decided to remain in Israel and moved to Be'er Sheva, where Yakov worked as a prosecutor for the District Attorney. Last year the Greiffs returned to Jerusalem where Yakov now works in the office of the City Attorney of Jerusalem. Jolie is a very-much-in-demand freelance writer.

Yakov came to Israel attracted by the opportunity to participate in what he feels to be "the most significant current 'project' of the Jewish people," namely the reconstitution of the Jewish nation in its ancestral home. He felt that each person who comes to Israel will have an impact on this endeavor and he wanted to "help make Israel work". During his tenure at the yeshiva he developed a sense that there is a special sanctity to Eretz Yisrael. Yakov explains, "The Talmud says that the air in Israel has a special effect but I have allergic respiratory problems that make it difficult for me to appreciate that! What I do feel is that somehow the light in Israel is brighter!" Yakov maintains a daily learning seder after work in the Shapell's Beit Midrash with Zeev Landau, who had been his chevruta when he learned full-time in the Yeshiva and who also decided to make aliya.

While the previous several generations labored to create the infrastructure of Israel, we now face a different challenge: the implanting of a Jewish soul into the body of the Jewish nation. Many hundreds of former Shapell's/ Yeshivat Darche Noam and Midreshet Rachel students, profoundly bonded to Torah, have been inspired to sink deep roots in Eretz Yisrael. We are very proud of our alumni and take great satisfaction in the contribution that Darche Noam Institutions has made to the miraculous return to Eretz Yisrael.

Dan and Jocelyn Polisar	Yaakov and Jolie Greiff