Meir and Leah Miller, Sanhedriya, Yerushalayim
It was over fifty years ago when my husband, Meir Miller, first came to Eretz Yisroel as a bochur to learn in yeshiva. He had a strong desire to learn Torah in Eretz Yisroel and therefore worked hard as a waiter for a whole summer just to save up for a ticket (by boat, in case you were wondering). The difficulties that such a move invloved did not daunt him.
He grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, in one of the few shomer Shabbos families there. As there were no options for proper chinuch in his hometown, from the age of eight and a-half he would commute daily to cheider in Boston, Massachusetts, a commute of over fifty miles that took an hour and a-half each way, all by himself. In the following years, he would take along his younger siblings as well. This arrangement lasted until he advanced to yeshiva high school in New York.
Not knowing anything about the yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel, he inquired about them at the Jewish Agency in New York. They suggested he enroll in one of them, but when he arrived at the yeshiva, he found that they could not accept him because they didn't have room. He then decided to go to Yerushalayim. He was referred to a Zionist yeshiva there, but he felt the atmosphere just wasn't right for him.
Soon thereafter he chanced upon a childhood friend from America while walking through the Geula neighborhood in Yerushalayim. This friend had been referred to Yeshivas Kamenitz and was slated for an interview with the rosh yeshiva, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Scheiner,