Sam Weinstein, 29, made aliyah from the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his wife, Stephanie, and baby daughter, Becca, to Tel Aviv in December of 2019.
Aviva: You grew up in Teaneck. Where did you go to school?
Sam: RYNJ for elementary school and MTA for high school. After MTA, I studied at Reishit in Beit Shemesh for two years. Then I went back to New York and went to YU where I got a degree in accounting.
Aviva: Where did you go to shul growing up?
Sam: Bnei Yeshurun in Teaneck, which is fiercely Zionistic.
Aviva: Was your education Zionistic, too?
Sam: In every institution I was involved with, Israel was always viewed positively, but I think it was my time in Israel, when I was studying in Reishit, that I knew that I would like Israel to be my final destination.
Aviva: How did you make your final aliyah decision?
Sam: I knew that I wanted to be in Israel, but I also wasn’t quite ready to make a rash decision and just stay. I wanted to go to YU, so I went back to college, got married, got a job, worked professionally for a handful of years and then made aliyah.
Aviva: What did your family think about you making aliyah?
Sam: My family is very pro-Israel. My parents and grandparents have an apartment in Jerusalem, and we went many times for the chagim when I was growing up. I attended many summer programs in Israel with their guidance. They were behind us 100% when we decided to move.
I’m one out of five boys. My parents always said that if the majority of the kids are in Israel, then they would come, too. Now the pressure is on them because, as of last month, my third brother moved to Israel. So, now four out of five of us are here.
Aviva: Can you point to something specific that motivated you to want to make aliyah?
Sam: A lot of things in Judaism just didn’t seem consistent to me—we say so many times throughout davening and learning that we wish that we could go back to Israel. It was strange for me to say that when I knew the airports were open, and there was nothing stopping me from going to Israel.
The other thing was that for a Jew living in America, I found Judaism to always be secondary. It was clear to me that in U.S. culture, its holidays were at the forefront, and you have to be Jewish on the side of that. Israel is the opposite, and it’s one of the things I still get a kick out of, even though I’ve been here almost three years. I love seeing that Judaism has permeated everything, even in the parts that aren’t religious, like secular Purim parties in Tel Aviv.
Aviva: What else do you love about living in Israel?
Sam: In Israel, you feel all the chagim, and Jewish identity is the number one thing here, which I love. I don’t think people talk about this enough, but I find that the quality of life is incredible. I love the focus on family here—it’s less of a hassle to be home every day to run bath time for my daughter, give her dinner and put her to sleep.
Aviva: What are you doing in Israel professionally?
Sam: I work for Litify, which is a legal technology system. We sell software to help law firms run in a more business-oriented way. I worked for them for three years in Brooklyn before we moved to Tel Aviv. I am very grateful to Litify for the flexibility and support that they have always provided me in allowing me to work 100% remotely from another country, especially one in a different time zone.
Aviva: What do you miss about living in New York/New Jersey?
Sam: I miss being around family, of course. I miss buying things easily, but I think Amazon’s availability in Israel has helped fill a lot of that gap.
Aviva: Do you have a message for anyone who’s considering making aliyah?
Sam: Israel is an incredible place to live, with a rich quality of life. You can live in Israel and get a great job and have a wonderful social life. In many aspects, I find it to be a significant improvement to living anywhere in the United States.
