If you ask Josh Shron, now formerly from East Brunswick, what motivated him to make aliyah this month with his wife Mairov and three of their five children, he shared a conversation he had 19 years ago at his sister Carla’s wedding to Elie Sprung, with Elie’s mother. Shron asked Rebecca Sprung, z”l why her family decided to make aliyah in 1988. She responded, in part, that one of the many benefits of living in Israel is that no matter where her children decided to live, they’d be relatively close by.
The conversation stayed with him and as his and Mairov’s five children got older it started to make a lot of sense. So they accelerated the aliyah plans they started in 2007 and on Wednesday, Aug. 23 they made aliyah on a Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight on El Al from Newark to Israel.
Mairov added that with all of her Israeli-born mother’s family living in Israel, it was a relatively straightforward decision. As Josh’s parents Hedy and Rabbi Jeffrey Shron and his sister and brother-in-law now live in Israel, he felt a similar draw. Their 17-year-old daughter Sela echoed this sentiment, telling The Jewish Link she was most looking forward to “being near my family.”
The Shron family will be moving to Modi’in. They will be joining their 20-year-old daughter Ellie, who made aliyah in January and attends a nursing program in Machon Tal (Jerusalem College of Technology.) Their son Simcha, 23, who is in the semicha program at Yeshiva University, and daughter-in-law Dalia plan to join them in Israel within the next few years. Sela will be starting seminary at MMY, while their 15-year-old son AJ will attend Yeshivat Sha’alvim. Their son Tobey, 10, will attend school in Modi’in.
For Josh and Mairov, this move is perhaps a greater leap of faith than it may be for others as neither has lined up a new job. Yet they are confident that with the skills and experience they’ve gained in their careers, he in marketing and she in real estate, they will find their way in Israel. (Josh is looking for a role in marketing and Mairov is switching careers and looking for a position in accounting; if you have any leads, they’d be grateful). They credit Nefesh B’Nefesh for its wonderful help in streamlining the aliyah process and giving them lots of information as well as creating a vibrant online community on Facebook that has been a great source of advice.
Middlesex County residents may be familiar with Josh from his longtime role as DJ on the weekly Israel Hour radio show, on 88.7 WRSU FM radio on Sundays at 11 a.m. and online at myisraelimusic.com. Josh is happy to inform his fans that he will continue his work on the radio show by recording the show from Israel in advance and posting it online; it will continue to be broadcast on Sunday mornings and also be available as a podcast.
Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County Editor of The Jewish Link. He can be reached at [email protected].
