The Blogs: My Jewish papers, please | Menachem Elyah Paull
A 70-year-old Jewish man from Montreal recounts his aliyah process, focusing on the bureaucratic challenge of proving his Jewish identity after his family informally changed their surname from Palefsky to Paull decades ago without legal documentation. He describes working with Nefesh B'Nefesh to gather historical records, reflects on the emotional shift from feeling insulted to appreciating the process, and advises others to start document collection early.
Menachem Elyah Paull, a 70-year-old Jewish man from Montreal, recounts his aliyah process in a personal essay on The Times of Israel's blogs. He describes the central bureaucratic hurdle: his family informally changed their surname from Palefsky to Paull decades ago without any legal certificate, making it difficult to prove his Jewish identity to the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B'Nefesh. He spent months digging up old documents, scanning and labeling them properly, and learning that a name-change certificate that never existed could not be produced. The authorities eventually accepted historical documents showing the trail from Palefsky to Paull. Paull reflects on initially feeling insulted by having to prove his Jewishness after 70 years, but came to see the process differently: for once, the papers are being collected by people who want him in, not out. He also describes the parallel paperwork for his Spanish greyhound Gaia, which required a microchip, rabies vaccine, blood test, and veterinary certificate but never asked her to prove her nationality. He advises others considering aliyah to start gathering documents early, call relatives who keep records, and label files properly. He concludes that next spring, God willing, he and Gaia will land in the Galilee.