אוירא דארץ ישראל Avira DEretz Yisroel

The Anglo Karmiel Community

Affordability, Integration and Simplicity

Tamar Sobel, Rabin, Karmiel

We moved from Lakewood, New Jersey to Karmiel eleven years ago. Of course, we wanted to live in Yerushalayim, but my sister-in-law who was living in Karmiel suggested we would have a “softer landing” in a small community, and an easier time integrating. At the time our oldest daughter and son were in the ninth and eighth grades. B”H, we all acclimated very nicely.

The first six months, though, were very difficult for the kids. Back in Lakewood they had been very popular in school, and here, not really knowing any Hebrew, they couldn’t understand what was going on. My 11-year-old son was especially upset. One day he threw a tantrum and was literally on the floor, complaining “Why did you bring us here?” and screaming so loudly that the neighbor called the police! It was a very embarrassing scene. If you’d meet him today, you’d never imagine; he’s totally Israeli, and is learning in Beis Mattisyahu, a respected Israeli yeshivah in Bnei Brak. The younger kids also became Israeli, though the ones older than him remained more American.

Like my kids, most of the Anglos here in Karmiel came without really knowing Hebrew. They did come with an open mind, though, trying to learn the language and otherwise integrate. This is very important here, so that one would be able to communicate properly where necessary, such as with the rebbeim and teachers of the children, and with the local rabbonim. It’s not like some other places in the country where a large percentage of the population knows English and you can get by without Hebrew.

So what does attract frum Anglos to Karmiel? As the only Anglo real-estate agent in Karmiel’s frum community, I can tell you from my perspective, and from what I heard from others who have come here or considered doing so.

Housing is much cheaper here than in Yerushalayim or Beit Shemesh. For 2.5 to 3 million shekels, you can get a beautiful private villa with a piece of land and possibly even a pool. For those looking for something really affordable, there are also decent three-bedroom apartments suitable for young or small families going for about 750 to 800-thousand shekels. The Dromit neighborhood – one of the two primary areas where members of the frum community live, and where the mosdos chinuch are located – has many styles of housing at different levels of affordability, all within a small area. This is conducive to the growth of the community, as it allows families at various socioeconomic levels to be a part of the community.

People also come here because they want to be a part of something. Living in a small community far out from the center, each and every family matters. People help each other out and are there for each other. In general, the kehillah, numbering over 200 families, is community-oriented, and the 30-40 Anglo families even more so. We try to do shabbatonim for the Anglo families maybe once or twice a year, to get to know the new families.

It is a small, diverse but cohesive kehillah, all under the leadership of Rav Avraham Tzvi Margalit, shlita, who works specifically to maintain the unity and to otherwise make things happen here. Our shul, headed by Rav Kaniel, shlita, includes avreichim as well as people working in various fields, including health, law and accounting. The more yeshivish and the less yeshivish all get along, forming one kehillah even while sending their children to different schools.

All the mosdos chinuch are under the auspices of Rav Margalit. Although there already was a standard Chareidi cheider here, the rav opened another one to cater to the needs of those who wanted a higher level of limudei chol alongside a serious limudei kodesh program. Aside from some of the Israeli Chareidi families, this included some of the Anglo families, as well as some of the local families who had become baalei teshuvah through kiruv outreach but were not really a match for a classic Israeli cheider. This cheider also has very good rebbeim. There are English speakers among the staff of the various mosdos, which is a big help with integration.

As for boys’ high school, there is a local yeshivah ketanah which is very Israeli and very Chareidi. There are no limudei chol and it is not at all American style. I sent my kids there and I was very happy with it. There is also the recently-established Ziv Ohr high school, a branch of Nehora, which has a limudei chol curriculum but a lower level of limudei kodesh.

I think the success of my children has to do also with our “we are here now” attitude as parents. We were not complaining about or trying to change the system. Even within most Israeli yeshivos there are all sorts of people, and if you come with an open mind you will find others like you. If you can’t or are not willing to mend yourself to fit into one system where you might have to let go of some of your American expectations, look for another one where you can find your way within.

Although Karmiel is a planned city with all the conveniences including malls, supermarkets and a train station, there aren’t too many frum shopping options. From a materialistic point of view, I would say that for frum Jews, Karmiel is twenty years behind. In my opinion, this is a good thing. Even my teenage daughter doesn’t go shopping for clothing more than maybe twice a year, as this involves a trip to the Chareidi population centers. Instead, she spends time with friends by going for walks and other simple activities. Kids grow up more mature and less spoiled or pampered. There are, though, parks all around, places to ride bikes, and the physical space that provides menuchas hanefesh.

Putting Things in Perspective

Reminiscing about our move from Lakewood to Karmiel, my daughter mentioned an interesting aspect of her culture shock.

When we were living in Lakewood, she had attended an upper-class school where there were girls from well-to-do families that would come to school with designer items. Though we were living comfortably, my daughter didn’t have these things, and she felt like she was sort of second class.

Among her friends in Karmiel were those who had to earn their own money by babysitting and the like to buy their own clothing! This was something she had never seen before, and it helped her put her own challenges and hardships into perspective.

Is Living In Har Yona For You?

R’ Avraham Tzvi Schwartz, Har Yona, Nof HaGalil

The very-affordable rent was what originally brought us to the newly-constructed neighborhood of Har Yona two years ago. We had previously been renting in Chaifa for a short while, but being the population center that it is, the rent prices were too high for us. B”H, we are very happy with our neighborhood, and were even able to recently purchase our own apartment here.

We had several different living experiences here in Eretz Yisroel. After getting married, we first lived in the Beis Yisroel neighborhood in Yerushalayim for a few years. I had been learning in Ohr Somayach, then moved on to Yeshivas Torah Ore of Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg ztz”l, and afterwards learned for a while in Yeshivas Mir as well. We then moved to the kehillah of Rav Nachman Bulman ztz”l in the northern city of Migdal HaEmek, where we lived for about three years. Afterwards, we moved to Kiryat Sefer, where we lived for thirty years.

Over the span of our time in Kiryat Sefer, we were witness to its development into a major Chareidi population center. Public transportation, heavily used by the Chareidi population in Eretz Yisroel in general, got much better, with frequent buses connecting Kiryat Sefer to the other Chareidi population centers throughout the country. There were also some buses to cities with smaller Chareidi concentrations, especially on erev Shabbos. Improvements that came with time weren’t only in the physical realm; there were also upgrades to shemiras halachah on a city-wide scale. For example, a new large-capacity water tower was built, which would be filled before Shabbos with the entire water supply necessary for the whole city for the entire Shabbos. This would obviate the need for pumping in new water during Shabbos, which may have entailed some halachically problematic functions.

While in Kiryat Sefer, I had the opportunity to teach Torah in English as part of a special kollel framework for retirees. Some of the participants had moved to Kiryat Sefer to be close to their married children and grandchildren, a common phenomenon especially among those with several – or even all – of their children living there. Being that it is difficult at an advanced age to adapt to learning in a “new” language, this kollel helped them pursue Torah growth in their native language.

For five years I had been teaching Torah in South Africa, regularly commuting to and from Kiryat Sefer. After all our children were B”H married and had left the house, we left too. We lived in South Africa for about six years, until moving back to Eretz Yisroel. We first moved to Chaifa, where one of our children lived, and then finally moved here to Har Yona. All in all, living in Eretz Yisroel has been a beneficial experience for our family, in each of the various areas of the country in which we lived.

Har Yona is a very young community with nice, quality bnei Torah. It doesn’t bother me that the median age here is several decades less than my own – most heads-of-household here are in their 20’s or early 30’s – as I am quite young in my character. In fact, being surrounded by all of these young people may actually help me stay that way.

People here are serious about their Yiddishkeit, with a high standard of bein adam lachaveiro. They are easy-going and easy to live with, friendly and community-conscious. As is common in Eretz Yisroel, many young families often travel to their parents for Shabbos, and they make their vacant apartments available to their neighbors for hosting relatives, or for hosting those interested in checking out the community. People seeking apartments for hosting, or any other help, use the phone-based or online community WhatsApp groups. There is much chessed happening here, such as the organized help extended to women after birth. The community atmosphere is very special and everyone helps each other.

In addition to the constant stream of families coming to join the community as construction progresses, there is a lot of natural growth as the young families grow larger. There are local Talmudei Torah, a girls school, and kollelim as well.

The mountainous scenery here in the Lower Galilee is beautiful. The weather here is comfortable all year round. In the winter it is not as cold as in Yerushalayim, and in the summer it is very pleasant even without air-conditioning.

Though there are several people in the community who are children of American immigrants, there is not much of an infrastructure for English speakers here yet; for anyone interested in joining, it would be important that they be able to communicate with the local Hebrew speakers at least at some level.

Our future is here in Eretz Yisroel. Simply living here is already a contribution to yishuv Eretz Yisroel; even just being a part makes the community stronger. From my own experience, I believe this is true for all of Eretz Yisroel.

Providing a Home in Eretz Yisroel

Years ago, while my parents lived in South Africa, they also owned an apartment here in Eretz Yisroel. When I first came to Eretz Yisroel to learn, I was able to utilize the apartment. This definitely helped me settle here.

My father passed away a few years ago. Now, in our own home in Eretz Yisroel, my mother lives with us. We are grateful to be able to fulfill the great mitzva of kibbud horim, and in a small way return all that was done for us…

Guidance for Families Contemplating Aliyah With Teenagers

AliyahResearch.com has done and is doing research on olim; my understanding is that a primary focus of his study is American Chareidim.

There’s one completed research paper accessible online; here’s how it’s listed on the site:
This is also online:

Aliyah: Why Your Rabbi Can’t Make the Decision Instead of You

Accepted at Last

Chaim Ekstein, Romema, Yerushalayim

The plane tickets for our move from Monroe, New York to Eretz Yisroel were booked well in advance, on Chanukah of 5780 (2019), before anyone thought about corona. The original date for our flight was July 1, 2020, but it was pushed off time after time due to coronavirus regulations. For two months we were living out of our packed boxes. It happened more than once that my kids would ask me in the morning if we were leaving that day, and only later in the day would I have an answer for them: the flight had been postponed once again.

We finally left for the airport after the sixth time our flight was rescheduled. When we finished with check-in and were finally ready to go to the gate, we saw a sign that the gate was a thirty-minute walk away. The problem was that the flight was in only forty minutes, and the doors usually close fifteen to twenty minutes before take-off. We started walking quickly, and five minutes later we heard an announcement on the loudspeaker, “Delta airlines paging a group of nine.” That was us. They announced that if we didn’t board soon, they would take off our luggage. After all these weeks of anticipation, would we be let down once again, and at the last minute? I cannot begin to describe the feeling.

In those last fifteen minutes before we did B”H make it to the gate and board the plane, we felt as if maybe Eretz Yisroel was rejecting us. We were thinking, why doesn’t Eretz Yisroel want us? It just didn’t make any sense to us. I now realize that these hurdles were actually gifts from HaShem, granted to us so that we will appreciate Eretz Yisroel even more, and be thankful to HaShem for helping us overcome them. This appreciation and thankfulness led us to designate the day of our arrival as a new family Yom Tov, to celebrate our “yetzi’as America.”

It all started over twelve years ago, with a 10-day visit to Eretz Yisroel. It helped me see that a real and physical Eretz Yisroel exists “al pi p’shat,” and its existence is not to be understood only on some deeper, mystical level, just as with other mitzvos. For example, the daled minim may allude to different things, i.e. the vital organs, the different types of people etc., but this does not negate the literal aspect of them being four physical objects which HaShem’s will is that we should take on Sukkos. The mystical aspect of tzitzis does not minimize the “simple” act of wearing it to literally perform HaShem’s mitzvah, and we can be happy about that, too. I felt the same way about Eretz Yisroel; not perceiving it as also a tangible reality – HaShem’s Chosen physical piece of Land, where He wants us to be – is really to be missing out.

For the past twelve years, at every Shabbos table, the subject was Eretz Yisroel. When we would get to the end of the Pesach seder, I would explain “l’shana haba’ah b’Yerushalayim” in a most literal sense. During this period, I took my family four times to Eretz Yisroel for a few weeks. Each time, we left with such a longing and broken hearts that we weren’t staying. Every time we did renovations in our house, we felt sorry that it wasn’t in a house of our own in Eretz Yisroel.

I began to appreciate the challenge of Avraham Avinu. At first I thought, what’s the big deal? How is “lech lecha” a nisayon? Anyone who would get a directive from HaShem to go somewhere would surely do so. I then realized that it very well may be that HaShem did direct people to go, but it was only Avraham that actually took the next step and went. “Vayelech Avram,” that’s the chiddush here. Though nowhere near the magnitude of Avraham’s challenge, I felt many times that I couldn’t get to that next step, until HaShem gave me the strength to come and be part of history, to be a part of this Geulah process. I believe that we got here only in the zechus of the countless tefillos of our ancestors over the past two thousand years.

As a business consultant, I tell people that if they want to be successful, they should speak to successful people. If you want to be a good plumber, speak to a successful plumber. If you want to be successful in real-estate, speak to someone successful in real-estate, not to a plumber.

I understood that this concept applies to aliyah as well. Hearing ten reasons why aliyah cannot be successful from people who didn’t succeed, would not help us succeed in making aliyah. We understood that we didn’t need or want support groups comprised of people who may be interested in aliyah but have not succeeded as of yet. Certainly, asking people point blank in shul (who are still in chutz laAretz) what they think about aliyah was not going to foster success. What was important was to create our own support network comprised of the people who did succeed.

As author of an Amazon bestseller, “Escape from the Prison of Comfort & Create the Life of Your Dreams,” I’ll let you in on another tip. People may be stuck in their status quo, prevented from changing jobs or relocating, including to Eretz Yisroel. They think they need a clear picture of the future, with a plan they’re able to follow through to the letter, without which they will not proceed. To move forward though, you might just have to jump in. Of course, you must be responsible and address whatever needs to be addressed, but must not forget to trust in HaShem and that He created you as well as everything you need to succeed.

Responsibility

Before making the move to Eretz Yisroel, I went to consult with a chashuve rav in Monsey. He told me why such a move cannot work; the school system is different, the culture is different, and there are so many other challenges. I countered that I did not come to take his advice on whether to make the move; that has already been decided.

He then literally jumped off his chair, and said to me. “Wow! I am so jealous of you! How can I help you?”

I then realized that people really do want to help. It’s just that they cannot take the responsibilities that people want to throw off of themselves. These kinds of decisions have to come from you; it’s you that has to decide that the reward of living in Eretz Yisroel is worth you taking on the challenges. Once you do that, people will be glad to help.