Negative Feelings Towards Aliyah

"What are we seeing here? Jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs." - Rachel Berger, NBN

NEGATIVITY TOWARDS THE IDEA OF MOVING TO ISRAEL
The amount of people who have reacted negatively to my decision to make aliyah is overwhelming.

Take Susan S., who has lived in Israel for over 20 years. In response to a post that I wrote on a yahoo listserve, she stated: "I guess you're religious. I can't see why anyone would otherwise want to make Aliya these days. The situation here is pretty terrible from all points of view, and the only good thing is the weather in the winter." Her response was typical. Others responses wondered why I would move to a country that "Amenijad has in his sights" and they believed that "Israel has too many Americans anyways and besides, there are no jobs here." Similarly, one of my former rebbeim from yeshiva happened to be in town last week. He lives in Telstone, Israel and he called me mushugana, mentioning that many of his neighbors are unemployed.

In America, I have received similar luke-warm to outright pessimistic comments. An owner of a local kosher restaurant overheard my wife speaking about our decision to make aliyah. He interrupted her mid-sentence to tell her that he once made aliyah in the early 80s. He shouted - "In Israel, employers won't even give you enough money to cover basic needs!" He was appreciative that his aliyah failed so that his kids wouldn't have to go to the army.

ARE THERE REALLY NO JOBS IN ISRAEL?
The message I received on my pilot trip was drastically different. If my pilot trip was a novel, its theme would be similar to Jacob Richman's CJI webpage: "Reason #843,008 to make aliyah: There are jobs in Israel!." I met with Rachel Berger from Nefesh B'Nefesh's employment division in its large headquarters in Jerusalem. She went through various websites with job listings (such as Linked-In groups). As she went through each source of employment information, she would repeat the mantra: "What are we seeing here? Jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs."

By the way, the official NBN statistic is that 97% of NBN's olim find a job within their first year of living in Israel.

I also met with successful olim, like Goel Jasper, Paul Shindman, and Paula Stern, who immigrated to Israel years before and were successful in their careers. The official reason for meeting these olim was to spend 20 minutes to find out general information about particular careers in Israel. However, each meeting ended up being an intense session that took several hours. We discussed how they started in Israel, what their Israel experience has been like, and about how there are definitely jobs for Olim in Israel!

Most importantly, I met with a friend, David C., who made aliyah several years ago. David is my hero and in my mind, the epitome of the successful oleh. He could be the NBN poster child. He has worked diligently to make a name for himself in Israel in the field of internet marketing -- and he has been extremely successful. With David as an example, I see that it is possible to make it in Israel.

YOU HAVE TO TRY

Recently, Rabbi Gottlieb of Baltimore's Shomrei Emunah Congregation announced that he will be making aliyah to Israel. In a recent Shabbos drasha, he explained his reasons for making aliyah. He started by giving profuse thanks to the congregation for allowing him to be his Rav. He then proceeded to say that one might wonder why he would give up so much in chutz l'aretz to take such a risk for an uncertain future in Israel. His reply was he concluded - "It's Israel, we have to try...It's our home, we have to try."

I guess my reasons to moving to Israel are similar. Ostensibly, it is totally crazy that I am moving. I have a very decent job, my wife and I are both slated to receive promotions in the near future, etc. However, something inside both of us is screaming that we belong in Israel. Yes, it is risky. However, my wife and I both feel that we have to try to make it in Israel.