Sam and Carol Silvester made Aliya to Israel 11 years ago and settled down in Ein Kerem after he got his benefit (pension). During 30 years before they did Aliya they had a flat in Netanya and they were staying in this flat at least 3 times a year. They always wanted to settle down in Israel, the only question was when and how to do it. They have 3 children, all of them are religious, 2 of them are living in Israel. Their son, Gideon is a Rabbi in Jerusalem. "Even after 8 generations in England I didn't feel completely at home", he is telling, "I don't even think that someone expected that I would feel completely at home. The English anti-semitism is very polite that you don't feel the knife penetrates untill you see blood on the floor."
Q: Do you have an example?
A: "I'll give you a magnificent example. A client has come to see me and told me that he always wanted a smart Jewish lawyer. But the meaning of the word 'smart' was in fact 'cunning', and the meaning of the word 'Jewish' was in fact 'a bastard'. Do you understand? It's all very polite, everything is very lovely. In the first 2 years of mine in West Minister, I had to tell my class mates that I didn't kill Jesus, that I wasn't there and that it's not my fault."
His first acquaintance with the horrors of the world was at the age of 12 in a London cinema, there he saw the terror of the holocaust. A year later he saw how the British mandate sending back to Germany ships of Maapilim which arrived to the shores of Israel. In the time that he told about it, the tears strangled his throat: "When I saw my soldiers and my sailors", he said in great sadness, "I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe that a human being can do such thing after what the Jews been through in the holocaust. I was in deep shock."
"I feel that all that have happened in Israel needed to be my story. The 2000 years that I was living in the exile are the most worst waste of time. I'm an old fashioned Zionist. I know it's not fashion anymore in a post Zionist world, there are still couple of people that believe in devotion that there needs to be a Jewish state in this small piece of land, in such a big world. The fact that all the world is hostile to us is a farce. It's ridiculous. In the time of the Intifada, when the most of our haters in Europe spoke against Israel, I found a wonderful solution. All that we had to do is telling the French, the British and the other Europeans that we are coming back. You can describe to yourself how they would have react."
Later on he was asked: "Where is better, here or in England?"
A: "Here is much better, with no doubt. If I want to eat kosher, I have where to eat. I love very much Jews and Judaism. I come from a wonderful nation with a great philosophy."
"When I talk with people in England, when I visit there and they ask me about Israel, I always direct them to "Alice in wonderland" of Luis Carol. I ask them to tell me what their opinion about Israel, I'm taking out the name 'Israel' and replace it with 'England'. And then the story sounds like this: England is being bombed from France with 500 missiles each day, how much time do the English will relate to it in patient? Everyday, French terrorists are entering England and they bomb themselves in busses. What England supposed to do? And they answer right away: "We will make laws against it, we won't suffer it." It's amazing how much fast they change when I do it."
Q: Why do (non Jews in general) hate us so much?
A: "It doesn't matter if you are a secular or religious. The Jews brought to the world the concept of God and of good and of bad. The world is trying to keep a certain standard. When it fails he can't kick God because he can't see him, so he kicks his representative. This is what Prof. Stainer wrote in one of his books."