To clear up any confusion, and to answer Mia's good question on my last post, a little more background about me. (By the way, thanks, Mia, for motivating me to write about this.) As written in my profile, I'm not Jewish. Only my maternal grandfather was Jewish, so I'm not Jewish any way you slice it. I'm a Christian, and (for reasons that are still unclear to me! lol) I'm considering aliyah. So how does that work? Legal stuff on the Law of Return first: As you probably know, Israel's government welcomes olim with a single Jewish grandparent, as long as they can prove that the grandparent is/was Jewish. (That is why my great aunt and great uncle, who were my grandfather's siblings, will be assisting me, since sadly my grandfather has passed away.) Here is the confusing part: If a person was raised Jewish and has departed from the faith, (ie. converted to a new religion), then they are no longer eligible to make aliyah. If, however, a person isn't Jewish, and was not raised Jewish, they are eligible for aliyah because of their connection through their grandparent. Therefore, I'm eligible because though neither my mother nor I was raised Jewish, her father was definitely Jewish.
The Aliyah Dept. has been very kind in explaining these and other intricacies to me, and I have to say I'm very grateful-- both for the laws and the explanation of them . It's with a lot of respect and concern that I even consider making this move. I know people will be offended by my aliyah. That's a sad fact for me, but I understand it.
If Jewish people dread the question of "Why do you want to move to Israel?" then think how much more I hate it! At least Jews can say "I'm going because it's my home," and that's a hard concept to argue with.
Maybe in another post I'll tackle the "why" question. It will be good practice for my aliyah application, if nothing else! Thanks for tuning in. :)