When did you first know you wanted to move to Israel? When did you decide to make aliyah?
I can’t pinpoint one particular point in time that I first knew I wanted to move to Israel. Growing up, Eretz Yisrael was a definite value, although aliyah was not discussed in a practical way. During my time in Israel during summers and in yeshiva, my appreciation of the importance of Israel grew significantly, and I wanted to live in Israel, but had questions about whether it would work.
My wife and I got married in America and came to Israel shortly thereafter—her strong commitment to living in Israel was certainly a big factor in our move. We decided to attend YU’s Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem and see if we could make it work to stay; starting in the Gruss community allowed my wife and I to ease into life in Israel gradually and comfortably. Two years later, after I finished at Gruss, we officially declared aliyah and became Israeli citizens.
How was the adjustment for yourself and your family? Did you have a lot of family in Israel when you made aliyah?
Since we moved right after getting married, our family really began here. Our children were born in Israel, so they are naturals. It gives us great pleasure to hear them babbling to each other in Hebrew, especially when they get excited about something and they sometimes switch from English to Hebrew (though we are also happy that they have good English).
When we first made aliyah, we had very little close family in Israel. Since then, my wife’s parents and two of her siblings have made aliyah, and then my sister and her family moved as well. Sometimes, once one person makes aliyah, it causes his or her relatives to think more seriously about it too (which is not to say that our family members would not have made aliyah without us). But we still do have plenty of family members in the U.S., whom we miss very much.
Why did you choose to live in Ramat Shilo?
The yeshiva where I teach, Lev HaTorah, is right in the neighborhood, and it’s great to have students and fellow rebbeim nearby. It is also a community of real quality people, including no small number of talmidei chachamim. There are good school options, tons of minyanim and other important community services. It is also a community with many olim (and also a few Israelis), which definitely eases the transition for families looking to make aliyah and adapt into Israeli society.
What are some of your highlights of living in Israel?
One of the (many!) special advantages of living in Israel is being able to witness kibbutz galuyot happening, gradually, in front of our very eyes. I can go to open school night and see other parents who were (or their parents, or maybe grandparents, were) born in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, England, France, Russia, Yemen, Egypt, Ethiopia and the list goes on. History is happening here!
Really, every day is a highlight. We get to live with the realization that we are part of a really big historical process and that we are connecting and contributing to something far greater than ourselves. We get to live in the land where God wants the Jewish people to be, where mitzvot are more significant than anywhere else in the world, and which is the only place in the world infused with kedusha. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
By Tzvi Silver/JLNJ Israel
