About Eliesheva

Welcome to the page that is all ‘About’.

Fun facts:

  • The first time I visited Israel - when I was 12 - I was turned off by the modernity of it and only appreciated anything related to its ancient history.
  • I grew up in New York, surrounded by Israelis, and for most of that time, considered them a different species.
  • The day I was supposed to make aliyah, I couldn’t find my passport and missed my flight.

The shpiel:

Somewhere in the middle of 2004, a college friend told me about LiveJournal and this concept called ‘blogging’. I scoffed at him and went back to writing my thesis.

Then another college friend told me about LiveJournal. I scoffed at her but I started to become curious.

Somehow, I was convinced by the two of them to open an account and start writing about myself. I thought this to be incredibly egotistical and obnoxious, but I figured, If I have a good spin - i.e., chronicling my process of aliyah (my life-altering, Jewishly-inspired move to Israel from New York) so that other future olim could read about my process and learn from my silly mistakes and Anglo-Israeli experiences, then maybe this whole blogging thing doesn’t seem so self-centered.

I was also happy to have an outlet for creative writing, as the thesis was consuming all the time and energy my fingers could take typing (never mind my poor brain). That makes it one hell of a writing exercise, begun in 2004 and not completed yet. Finally, not finishing what I start is worth something.

So, here I am, over three years, my own domain name and two blogging platforms later, and quite a story is still being spun.

Need something? Email. I still live up to my original purpose of helping future olim learn from my silly mistakes and Anglo-Israeli experiences. And in the years I’ve been here, there have been plenty.

The rest:

I also author better than misery, about my experiences as a mediation student here.

Mideast Youth is a media center where bloggers from all over the Middle East and beyond come together and share their experiences - through writing, photos, videos and more.