29/10/2020
One Beit El resident shares her thoughts on the town she loves.
Yael Enkin
People often wonder how I came to live in Beit El.
Originally from Ohio in the U.S.A, I have lived here in Israel for about 25 years. All of my family and my husband's family live in America or Canada. We are the only ones here in Israel.
We came here because of idealism, we believed in Jews returning to the land of Israel. Where could that be more appropriate than the heartland of Israel – Judea and Samaria?
When God told Abraham "to leave his land, his family, and his father's house to go to a land that He would show him," Abraham went to the Heartland of Israel. (Genesis 12:1)
We live here in Beit El, The name Beit El, or Bethel, literally means the House of God. It is here that Jacob had a dream of a Ladder reaching to the sky with angels going up and down it , where he got a promise from God that He would watch over him and that all the families of the world would be blessed through him.
The Prophet Samuel used to come to judge people here in Beit El, the Prophetess Deborah judged people nearby.
The Prophet Elijah had a school for prophets here, and the people of Israel would often come up to Beit El to pray for divine wisdom and aid.
The Maccabees fought the Greeks in the Maccabean revolt, in the hills of Beit El - and today we have Hanukkah because of that.
We live in an area which is often called the West Bank. I think we get a bad name in most mainstream media. The truth is that the people here are friendly, hardworking people from all over the world who believe in the importance of family, community, faith and God. We have people here from Russia, Europe, North America, England, South Africa, India, Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Peru, Ethiopia and even Korea. They are all Jews returning to their homeland.
Life is not always easy here, but it is always meaningful. The level of every day luxuries here doesn’t compete with those in America, people don’t make as much money here, and the houses are smaller, but there is a sense of purpose, a sense that what you are doing makes a difference, a sense that you are making history.
Come to Israel, I'd be happy to give you a tour of Beit El.