Davii Mandel, 58, made aliyah from Teaneck to Rehovot in 2021 with her husband, Izzy Leizerowitz.
Aviva: Where did you grow up?
Davii: Washington, Oregon and California. For high school, I went to Chabad in Crown Heights, which was not exactly anti-Zionist, but also not particularly Zionistic.
Aviva: Did you have any Zionist upbringing?
Davii: Not at all. Izzy was born here. His father fought for the state, but it was a very hard life, so they moved to America when Izzy and his siblings were very young. He always wanted to come back.
Aviva: What motivated you to make aliyah?
Davii: Izzy and I were both married before, and we are still newlyweds. While we were dating, he told me he wanted to live in Israel someday. That was never on my to-do list, so I just put it out of my mind because I figured it would happen someday in the future. I forgot that I’m already past middle age and the future is now. Two-and-a-half years into our marriage, and in the middle of COVID, Izzy told me that every night he was dreaming of his father telling him to go to Israel. I said I would go, but I had only been to Israel once, 17 years before, for my son’s wedding that took place in Bnei Brak, which was my only introduction to Israel. I couldn’t even imagine how people live normally here as we did in America. I thought it was crazy to buy milk in bags and that I could never get used to that. I got my mind around the fact that I was going to step back in time 100 years and that I would just figure it out. To my surprise, we live in a new, beautiful, five-year-old apartment building in a very nice town with plenty of people who speak English and are worldly. Everything has been a delightful surprise.
Aviva: What are you doing professionally?
Davii: For decades, I worked for a number of major caterers around town, and I had my own catering business for many years. I was working at Main Event when COVID hit. That’s when I started a virtual assistant business, and thank God, we have almost 20 clients already. I have two people who work for me, and I’m onboarding the third one. It’s growing and growing. My first baby steps were advertising in The Jewish Link.
Aviva: What about your husband?
Davii: Izzy got his real estate license here in Israel and focuses on selling new apartments to olim.
Aviva: What do you love about living in Israel?
Davii: Israelis are so different and funny, and we choose to take a very humorous view of the things that people get annoyed about. The other day, we asked the pharmacist if they carried a certain product. He was walking very fast and said “Yes” and kept walking. We just started laughing. Another day, I took a walk, and the street cleaner was washing the sidewalk with his power hose. He saw a couple sitting in their car waiting for a truck to move so they could pull out. He stopped for five minutes and washed down their whole car. I just love the Israeli attitude here. It’s really nice being in our own country, and I have suddenly become very patriotic and very pro-Israel. I expected everybody to be rude, to cut me off, to ignore me, or to give me a hard time. We went to the government offices, and they helped us on the first trip.
Aviva: What do you miss about living in New Jersey?
Davii: I miss my kids and my grandkids very much. I have one child who lives here and even he is temporarily in the States for work. My husband has two children out of three that live here, and we get to see them a little more often. I’ve been going back two or three times a year since we got here, so we don’t miss the big things.
Aviva: Do you have a message for anyone who’s considering aliyah, who hasn’t spent a lot of time here?
Davii: It’s all about perspective, what you’re telling yourself and your expectations. Keep your expectations low, and you’ll be happily surprised.
By Aviva Zacks
