You present yourself at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and fill out
various forms that are required for an exit permit, applying for
family reunion
status to join your cousin, your only living relative,
in Melbourne, Australia.
After a delay of six months, you are ordered back to the ministry and informed that permission to leave has been granted. However, you must surrender your Russian citizenship, your medal, and most of your possessions and money. You are left with only enough money to reach Australia.
After arduous travel over land and sea from Vilna, seeing parts of the world you had read about only in geography books – Odessa, the Black Sea, deserts in Arabia, steaming cities in India, beautiful islands – eventually you board a cargo ship for the last lap of your journey. For weeks you bounce across the Indian Ocean, finally docking in Melbourne.
With your cousin, you try to settle into this new country, but, at
first, you are not comfortable here. One Shabbat morning, as you sit
in the synagogue, however, you close your eyes during the rabbi's
sermon and think: To be a Jew is like being a member of a family;
family is the most important thing.
At that moment, you realize that
you will be happy as long as you have your Jewish family with you.
END