For Judy Grossman, aliyah was simply the next inevitable step in her life, integral to her identity.
“We never asked if we were going to make aliyah; we only asked when,” she says.
Judy is a part of the story of Israel. Her connection to the Land of Israel and to the nation of Israel is constant.
In January 1973, she made aliyah from Chicago. Her parents, Herb and Ruth Selig, and her brother, David, followed six months later. She was raised in a religious, Zionist home, and attended the Ida Crown Jewish Academy, which is so strongly Zionist and affiliated with Israel that after October 7, the majority of senior students came to Israel in December to volunteer for a month.
In her youth, Judy was a member of Bnei Akiva. After graduating from high school in 1968, she took part in Kvutzat Yavne for a year of hachshara, a program that prepares those who are planning to immigrate to Israel. After the year, she returned to Chicago to study at Roosevelt University, where she received a BA in education.
It was in September 1972, at the time she was planning to make aliyah, that her husband-to-be, Andy Grossman, arrived in Chicago from Montreal for two days on a suggestion to meet her. He had made aliyah in February from Montreal but returned to lead the High Holy Day services in the position of cantor. It was a romance that continued with an exchange of letters in the form of audio cassettes.
“Because I wanted to move to Israel as quickly as possible, I left before the day of my graduation ceremony,” she says. “I was granted special permission to graduate in absentia, and my father picked up my degree.”
Life living in Israel
Five days after she arrived, Judy and Andy became engaged, traveled seven weeks later to Chicago to get married, and then returned to Israel.
Eventually, Judy took additional courses in special education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and taught at Beit Micha for two years.
In 1982, during the First Lebanon War, the couple moved to Ma’aleh Adumim. They were one of the first 50 families to move to the new town in the Judean Hills. She called it Desert Suburbia. At that time, there were no trees, no green, only the beautiful desert and hills. They watched the city grow into today’s population of about 40,000 people.
In Ma’aleh Adumim, Judy worked for 27 years at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe. Connecting with the hesder students, who combine Torah study with military service, as well as with the students who came from all over the world to study, was gratifying for her. Being there to listen, she made a difference in their lives. She also worked closely with administrators and staff in various essential roles.
Eight years ago, her husband died, and Judy moved a few years later to the neighborhood of Arnona in Jerusalem.
When she was 38 years old, Judy was diagnosed with an eye disease and is legally blind. She uses a white cane when she goes out so that people will be aware that she is visually impaired.
“Although most people are sensitive to my situation,” she says, “unfortunately, too many people are not paying attention and don’t know what a white cane represents.”
Her friend Leah comments, “I am proud to be Judy’s friend. I consider her a very brave person. I admire her determination and amazing courage. For example, she uses public transportation despite her disability, something that is not easy for anyone. We meet once a week to have a conversation in Hebrew so I can practice the language.”
Judy has a shem tov, a good name, and is known as a devoted friend and a person of good deeds. She volunteered for 22 years at Yad Sarah and continues to reach out to help others in any way she can. Attending Tanach classes is a regular part of her routine, and she is an active member of her community.
“What I find challenging is that I do not want my disability to define me,” Judy says.
Invited by the city of Frankfurt to attend its annual gathering of the second generation, former Jewish citizens and their descendants, Judy traveled with a friend in June 2023. Her parents were born in Germany – her father in Zeilitzheim, her mother in Frankfurt. In 1937, her father fled Germany, and on September 1, 1939, her mother managed to leave on the last flight.
Project Jewish Life in Frankfurt works to memorialize the lives of former Jewish residents through family histories, archives, and witnesses, and strives to facilitate ongoing dialogue from one generation to the next. The project also connects witnesses with high school students to encourage understanding and communication.
“To be in Frankfurt and participate in the meeting of the second generation was an emotional experience beyond what I expected it would be,” she says.
TODAY, LOOKING back over the years, Judy remembers the morning of October 6, 1973, and the morning of October 7, 2023, and the years in between. The memories and images are indelible.
She describes the Friday morning of July 4, 1975. “I was working nearby in a jewelry store when a bomb that was planted in a refrigerator and left on the street exploded near Zion Square in Jerusalem. Fifteen people were killed, and 77 were wounded. I went outside and saw a war zone, an image out of Beirut.
“When I was here on hachshara for one year, it was during the War of Attrition, and I understood that life here would not be easy. There are enemies all around us, but we go on. We are going through unimaginably painful times now, but I have faith in God that things will get better. This is our home.
“In January 2023, my children and grandchildren and I celebrated the 50th anniversary of my aliyah.
“I am happy and proud that we are four generations here. My kids were born here. It was a given for me that my kids would be born in Israel. My son, Eitan, lives in Ma’aleh Adumim with his family, and my daughter, Adina, and her family live in the community of Talmon in the Binyamin region. I am blessed with grandchildren and a great-grandson. My older grandsons are in uniform, and my granddaughter is in National Service in the North. This is our third generation serving the country.
“I look out at the view of Jerusalem from my balcony, and I feel very thankful to be living here.”
Judy has faith in the promise of the return to Israel of the exiles in the Diaspora: “And there is hope for your future, says the Lord, and the children shall return to their own border, ve’shavu banim li’gvulam” (Jeremiah 31:16). ■
Judy Selig Grossman: From Chicago to Jerusalem, 1973