Tag: aliyah
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Vatika’s vocabulary lesson
Officially twenty years here, and oh how my Hebrew vocabulary and Israeli mindset has expanded and exploded in just one. Words I never thought I’d need, words I figured would take another while to come across. Or words that have completely changed meaning in the course of a day. If I mapped my aliyah in…
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Well I just had a fucked up weekend abroad
I don’t want to talk about it right now though. What I will say is… the returning home is always something. Every time, it’s a weird breath of relief. As uncomfortable (on a technical level) as I may feel here in Israel as an immigrant, it’s a discomfort I’m naturally comfortable with because it locks…
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The privilege to choose where you’re murdered for being a Jew
A reaction from a lot of Americans (including the State Department, apparently): “You can always come here.” I do feel guilt and appreciation around this, rooted in the well-meaningness and love of my friends and family; I understand how irresponsible? selfish? it might seem: “You have American passports. You can always come on a plane…
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Aliyah is a million cuts.
When you’re 22 and pick up and move to another country with a minimum 9-hour flight time, you’re really not thinking about 18 years later when the other shoe drops. The first shoe dropped when you had your first kid, and realized how hard it is to have added yet another family member to the…
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The hard way.
At the ‘חוג בת מצווה’ I’m doing with my daughter, tonight’s session was focused on Jewish Israeli women heroes of the last century; this follows six weeks focused on even earlier historical Jewish strongwomen. Posters that hung around the room exposed us to some oldies but goodies – Naomi Shemer, Golda Meir, Henrietta Szold –…
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The things that change and don’t change in fifteen years.
15 years ago, I landed at Ben Gurion airport and a Russian-accented משרד הפנים rep told me I’ve been spelling my last name wrong my entire life as he prepped my paperwork. Last night, I was helping my son with his math homework in averages and after puzzling over the inaccurate wording of this problem,…
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We cast our lot.
When people ask me why I came here, my answer is that no matter what I believe religiously I’ll always accept the fact that by being born into what I was born I have no choice but to cast my lot with the rest of my people. So even now, as there is this man…
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Expat life: Eleven years.
As of today I have spent a third of my life living as an expat, having made the choice to leave what I knew and start over somewhere else, with specific goals and ideology fueling the decision. And 11 years later I really don’t have much to complain about, which I appreciate is incredibly fortunate.…
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Yom Haaztmaut 5774: Three reasons why
‘Why did you move to Israel?’ We get asked that a lot, don’t we? Here’s my #1 reason 9 years ago, and my #1 reason now: Children who know no differently… The list of reasons for living in Israel grows each year I live and learn here. This year it grew by way of another…
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Home.
I looked up when, among the mumbling, I heard the word ‘מעליב.’ Standing in a long, slow-moving line at a Staten Island department store, I suddenly felt at home. And yet, it wasn’t because I was in Staten Island, or a department store. She turned around to complain about the long line in English, and…
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How do you take your Hebrew? Heavily-accented.
Anglo self-hate. Nothing wins more comments on the Times of Israel than that. The latest? This piece by Noga Martin: Why can’t the Anglos learn to speak? The author made aliyah at 19 with no background in Hebrew. She managed to learn it and speak it fluently, as well as develop an Israeli accent in doing…
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The cost of having kids in Israel.
We ‘have’ kids. Sounds so passive, doesn’t it? Isn’t it more like, we find someone to have kids with, settle in with them, work at it for a few months to a few years, attempt to save money to cushion the initial shock, bring forth a baby into the world with extreme amounts of energy,…