Highlighting: ‘Because It’s Israel: An Aliyah Odyssey’ by Arthur Miller. 2019. English. Paperback. 194 pages. JSP. ISBN:
978-965-7041-00-0.

When young law student Arthur Miller books a trip to Israel for himself and his new wife, Ronnie, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, he unknowingly begins an odyssey that will last almost four decades. After 35 years of annual visits, he finally fulfills his dream of making aliyah. Join Arthur and Ronnie on their delightful and inspirational journey to figuring out life as Israeli citizens in the book “Because It’s Israel: An Aliyah Odyssey.”

Arthur’s keen observations and hysterical sense of humor, combined with his easygoing American attitude, are a recipe for a unique aliyah experience. His passionate love for the country and its people provides the backdrop against which we see the good in Israel through Arthur’s eyes. From bureaucratic offices and clerks at banks and post offices to hospitals and medical emergencies and travels via cars and trains, the many facets of daily living shine through Arthur and Ronnie’s story.

Whether you’ve already made aliyah and can heartily identify with Arthur and Ronnie or you are in love with Israel and want to read about it from afar, perhaps in anticipation of making aliyah someday, this fascinating chronicle will have you laughing, crying, commiserating, and getting in touch with the infatuation that we all share for our beloved Land.

Arthur Miller grew up in New York’s Lower East Side and attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School. He graduated from City College of New York and Brooklyn Law School and has a master’s degree in law from New York University. After getting married in 1967, the new Miller family lived on the Lower East Side and then moved to Brooklyn, where Arthur donated his time representing members of the Jewish Defense League in their struggle for Soviet Jewry.

Arthur was subsequently transferred to Worcester, Massachusetts. From 1991 until his aliyah in 2004, Arthur was a tax partner with Fletcher Tilton, a nearly 200-year-old-law firm in Worcester. After his aliyah, Arthur is Of Counsel to Fletcher Tilton.

After realizing their lifelong dream of residing in Israel permanently, Arthur and Ronnie have been living in Beit Shemesh, which Arthur describes as “the happiest years of our lives.” The Millers have four children, one of whom lives near them.

By Stuart Schnee