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Part 2: What has happened till now…..our Aliyah Chronicle
So we decided to try to make Aliyah. With six kids in school and a very settled life here in the 5 Towns, this was a very formidable task. I should say upfront that our Aliyah is probably atypical in its evolution. You usually hear about the years of planning and calculations that went into the decision. We essentially made our decision to try and make it happen sometime in October/November and made the final commitment to actually do it only 4 months later.
We had a ton of concerns. Could we pull it off with teenagers? What about the Army? How would I find a job? What would it cost us to maintain a standard of living that we have become accustomed to (and where are we prepared to make sacrifices)? What about our families – how will they handle it? Where should we live? What about schools? Have we lost our minds?
The truth is, by the time we get on the plane, we will probably have answered only half of our questions. And these are only a drop of the various things we had to tackle.
If you read last week’s article, you know that Goldie and I had been considering Aliyah as an option beginning June 2005, but became serious about pursuing it in late October. We needed some guidance and help in getting ourselves organized and in understanding what we needed to do to get all the legal stuff in order.
In late October, we started visiting the Nefesh Bnefesh website (http://www.nbn.co.il/); we had heard some great things about them and the services they offer. We discovered that they were holding a public Aliyah seminar in the NY region in December.
For those who have never heard of them, Nefesh Bnefesh is a non profit organization that was formed about 5 years ago to foster North American Aliyah. Their sole purpose of existence is to make it easier for more people to make Aliyah. They even provide financial assistance to those who cannot afford the cost of Aliyah – all done in order to encourage and foster North American Aliyah which had dwindled in the late 80’s and through the 90’s.
We all can see the results of their work. Is there anyone in our community that can honestly say they don’t know of at least three families who have made Aliyah in the past 5 years?
The Nefesh Bnefesh seminars are conducted throughout the country on a regular basis. Nefesh Bnefesh (or NBN as they refer to themselves) has professional advisors on hand to work with potential olim on various social, technical and employment issues.
Of course, there are those (like Goldie and myself) who for various reasons may not want to attend a public seminar. For those people, NBN conducts private meetings and consultations in their offices.
So, on a windy December morning, Goldie and I took the LIRR to the city for our private NBN meetings. If we were confused when we walked in, we were dizzy when we left from the amount of information and guidance they gave. They were unbelievable. We felt as if we finally found people who understood what we were going through and had practical advice for us.
Their social services people are great. “Got a 15 year old boy who doesn’t want to move? Let’s talk about the things we can do to prepare him and help him adjust. Need to talk through which communities might be best for you? Sure – and don’t forget to check our website. Want a pen pal for your kids to email and get friendly with in your new community? No problem”. Nothing was too difficult for them to discuss, work through or at least refer us to someone else who may be able to help us.
They also have a tremendous Aliyah department with brochures, charts and checklists detailing exactly what you need to do in order to make Aliyah. They have people who really understand all the various laws and regulations whose sole purpose is to make the process easier for the average Oleh. In our case we needed to find out about not making our oldest son a citizen and how to square that with the army (more on that in a few weeks).
However, the people who we have dealt with the most is the employment department. With six kids, Goldie and I made a conscious decision that the only way our Aliyah would work was if I had a job lined up. We felt that the radical changes and adjustments the kids would be forced to cope with would be too much to bear if there was an additional tension in the house about Abba not having a job/income.
These are not hard statistics, but we have been told that over 90% of olim come to Israel without jobs lined up. NBN forecasts a job search of up to 7 months before some people find work, and in some cases it is even longer. Clearly, we were swimming against the tide. However, we felt that this was an absolute requirement if Aliyah was to work for our family.
The NBN employment services department (it was really Kim Ephrat of NBN, who deserves a lot of recognition from us for all she has done for us) worked with me on tailoring my resume (or CV as it is referred to by academics and/or Israelis as well) to the Israeli job market. They gave me half a dozen networking referrals; people in my industry (non profit management and fundraising) who they thought might be able to advise me on who was looking for help. No more than 2 weeks went by from December to March where I did not get an email from NBN about a job they had found out about in my field.
In mid December, we returned to midtown, to go to the Jewish Agency and apply to become Olim (immigrants). The Jewish Agency opens a file for each prospective Oleh called a “Tik” or folder. There are a million forms to fill out in duplicate and you need to come with uncountable amounts of letters and documents to essentially submit proof to the Jewish agency that we were indeed of Jewish parentage and entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return.
We also had to clear up some issues regarding our oldest son (Chaim – age 15) and his status as a non-Oleh (more on this in my column on the kids in a future issue). Through it all, our shaliach aliyah was helpful and just plain nice. We thought this would be a difficult process, but since Goldie is extremely organized, we had all the paperwork put together within a few weeks.
In January, I went to Israel for my nephew’s Bar Mitzva and what might also be considered a “pilot” trip, where I investigated schools (thanks to information provided by Avi Silverman of NBN whose expert advice has been a source of strength to us) in the community we chose to settle in (Beit Shemesh) as well as continued to job network and interview. I spent the entire week following up leads and then following up on the leads that came from the leads.
There isn’t enough room in the paper to describe the excitement I felt during that trip. From the Yerushalmi Yid who came up to me on Erev Shabbos after I had missed the bus to Netanya and miraculously arranged a ride for me (just because he thought I looked distraught), to the guy in Alon Shvut who drove me into Yerushalayim when I asked him for directions to the bus stop, to the feeling I had walking from Rechavia to the Tachana Merkazit (Central Bus Station) and especially the thrill when all the minyanim reach Shemoneh Esreh at the Vassikin minyanim at the Kotel on Erev Shabbos and you can literally hear the birds chirp as you daven – there is truly no place like Israel and Yerushalayim to make a Jew feel like a Jew.
Of course, it was Nefesh Bnefesh’s Yerushalayim office that referred me during that trip to a fundraiser for a well known Israeli Yeshiva who, after a discussion of my qualifications and capabilities, promised to keep my “CV” on file “in case he heard about something. It was just one of perhaps twenty similar discussions that week, but it would eventually bear fruit.
After I returned to America we continued the job search. At some points along the way, we were discouraged. We felt that things just didn’t seem to be coming together, and our dream of Aliyah would never become a reality.
Some time in late February, we got a letter from the Jewish Agency that out Tik Aliyah was approved and that we should come to the Israeli consulate in Manhattan to get Aliyah visas put in our passports. Since we weren’t yet sure about the job issue, we put that on hold and still need to actually go to get our visas.
I was still sending out resumes, and meeting with Israeli Yeshiva representatives in America, but there was still nothing promising on the job front. I realized that part of the problem is also the same reason that the overwhelming majority of Olim come to Israel without jobs. Israeli employers want a new hire to start work immediately. I had at least 10 organizations/yeshivos say to me, “too bad you are not yet in Israel – so we won’t interview you.”
There were several jobs that I was offered that for a variety of reasons I did not take. I have a specific vision of what my talents and abilities are, and I did not want to take a job where I thought I honestly had little potential for long term success. Additionally, I didn’t want to take several part time jobs. I wanted to work full time for only one place.
In mid February, two of the networking contacts scored hits. I interviewed on the telephone with two separate Yeshivos and I felt that both positions were viable options; both also seemed as interested in me as I was in possibly working for them. We began the investigative part of the process. Checking references. Talking to Board Members/major donors about each Yeshiva. Discussing outlooks, expectations, responsibilities and goals.
After much discussion and negotiation, in late March I made a decision of which job I felt would be the best fit for me, and we set up to meet face to face for the first time in order for both sides to make sure they feel comfortable that this job is for me and close the deal.
We made the mental commitment to make Aliyah.
Since the last week in March we have literally been overwhelmed with all the things we need to do to get things going. We have planned a trip for the week after Pesach to close the job deal and make living arrangements. We’ve met with shipping companies about arranging for our lift. We check the NBN and Beit Shemesh Yahoo lists daily, in search of new information that may be useful to us.
We need to pack up our lives, and set up our new lives and we have about 8 weeks in which to get it all done.
Next week……….from Woodmere to
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