Tag: aliyah

  • Lizrael Update: seven years.

    So here I am, in Israel seven years today. Did I consider where I’d be in seven years when I got in the plane from New York? Never bothered to go that far. Maybe in the back of my mind I always wondered if the seven-year itch would grab me. It hasn’t. A rarity, maybe,…

  • Letting go.

    Into my seventh year of aliyah – living in Israel – I finally, finally, finally have been able to start what every oleh needs to do the second they get here. I’ve started letting go. Letting go of my pride. Letting go of my mistakes. Letting go of my fear. Maybe it’s my bilingual kid.…

  • The time has come to return to Israel.

    They’re talking to you, Israelis. The Israeli government has been enticing Israeli ex-pats back for a  while now. But it seems they’ve added emotionally heart-tugging videos to their Jewish guilt arsenal. The Returning Home Project – not just for born-diaspora Jews anymore. The campaign seems aimed at getting friends and family still in Israel to…

  • What could have been.

    Being back ‘home’ is always a pleasure. After almost seven years, the bad has faded away, and the good nostalgia remains. The hometown is glorified, the old friends still taste fresh in a few quick bites. It allows the pangs for what could have been to creep to the top. What could have been if…

  • Kindergarten report.

    Kindergarten report.

    Ultimately, I blame myself for my nearly two-year-old turning more and more Israeli every day. Isn’t that what I always wanted, immigrant-self?

  • Get a job in Israel when you make aliyah… and more.

    Wrote up some mostly career-oriented advice for someone who is considering moving to Israel in the next couple years. With that much time to mull it over and prepare, there are lots of things you can do to make it a smooth(er) transition with the right kinds of expectations set. So here’s what I got;…

  • You know you’re a veteran when…

    You know you’ve been in Israel a while when you can remember when chumus prices ranged from 8-10 NIS for that giant kilo tub. Nowadays, you feel completely lost (and old) when you see it for 15 shekel at the cheap supermarket. When I was your age…

  • Paging JFK.

    Maybe this isn’t very nice because once upon a time, I was just starting out, making aliyah, making ends meet, figuring it all out. But at the same time, I don’t think I was ever a brat. I’m just tired of hearing about/from people who are debating whether to make aliyah, but the angle they…

  • On living outside Israel.

    It happens every time I visit the States: I spend about 35% of the time thinking about the reasons I could and couldn’t live there. By now, the couldn’ts far outweigh the coulds. So it stands to reason that I’m going through the same process here in Melbourne. It’s different, of course, because it’s not…

  • How did you do it?

    Funny how, so often, for so many, aliyah means getting on a plane with three bags instead of two. That’s how I did it. I had school plans in the near-distant future, a few phone numbers. Knowing I could go back and visit New York at the right price. No pressure-aliyah. With a five year…

  • Coming, going.

    In the past four weeks, I’ve heard about a total of five actual (three)  and potential (two) yeridot – leaving Israel after making aliyah. I’m not necessarily homesick, so the news doesn’t really hit me that way. It’s more like this this bizarre feeling of, am I doing something wrong? Is there something I don’t…

  • The future.

    Last night I found myself hanging with ‘the girls’ in Modiin. We picnic’d next to a man-made lake somewhere along the road near the mall. It’s like a (very) poor man’s Central Park. In a good way. I watched groups of teenage boys go back and forth in their boats, fighting each other with oars,…