Israel is a Part of Me

Giga is making aliyah with his wife, Natia and son Luka – they are from Tbilisi, Georgia. Giga tells their story.

All my family members and relatives have moved to Israel, and I want to reunite with them and try a new life for me and my family.

It is a little difficult to explain clearly why we want to make Aliyah, but I guess there are several reasons. I have been in Israel as a tourist, and I like this country and I feel that it’s a part of me. Other reasons are my work and payment here in Georgia. I work to be alive and not to live, so I don’t want my son to struggle because we are so poor. So, a third reason is that I want to be able to give him a chance to create a brighter life and make his dreams become real. Also, we wish to be closer to our relatives and family members and this is another reason to make Aliyah.

I never sought privileged situations in my life, but I see I am privileged to be a part of Israel. I know there are many challenges in Israel, but through these challenges my hopes can be realized. So, I know my family life will be better there in all areas - emotional, mental and financial.

I will miss my parents and friends who are staying in Georgia. I will miss my house and the places that made my childhood happy. But I am sure I can come back again and take rest in this country with lovely people. It’s a very emotional time now.

We had to prepare a lot of documents in our aliyah process. Ezra gave me advice on how to get started and encouraged me every step of repatriation. All the expenses were covered by Ezra, and you have to know that these expenses sometimes very high for families. So, we were glad and thankful for this help in our life. It made our process faster and on time.

It is good that you appeared in the life of my family. A big, big thank you to everyone engaged in this process and thank you to all who gave their own money to help poor people.