Where would we fit in E"Y?

someone

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 1:23 am

amother Peach wrote:

When do they age out? My dh made aliyah at 21 and was never given a letter to draft even when he stopped learning.

Honestly I don't think the army would of wanted him at all with his medical issues and he couldn't of handled it either, but I always wonder about that.

There have been so many different structures (that's not the right word, I can't find the right word in English) for this that it totally depends at what stage he made aliyah and when he stopped learning.

amother

Peach

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 1:24 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Army service only applies if you are Israeli citizen. AFAIK you can make aliya but decline citizenship. I know one French lady who declined citizenship for her sons because of the army service.
At a later stage in life it's possible tonchange over to citizenship.

Yes but at the end of the they don't have to pick a system and if they choose to pick a path that's not open to everyone else, it does set them apart from their peers. If they do go to college and they are under the draft age, they will be out of place.

amother

Teal

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 1:30 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Maybe someone answered about it 18 a child cannot stay on a parent student visa so that you don’t need to become a student them self by learning full-time. My son wanted to go to college. She did not want to stay in. Kollel so we had no choice but to become a citizen and to do his time in the army. He has this is not easy and he will be in the reserves for a very, very, very long time. But there’s not such an easy way to get out of it. I have a few kids over the age of 18 in they’ve all had to become citizens. Even though as the parents are still on a student visa.

amother

Chicory

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 1:41 am

What about Raanana? Huge range of frum Anglos of different flavors, and French, and South Americans and South Africans. It used to be a magnet for olim chadashim. It's a lot less of a bubble. Mixed city, also a lot of secular and native Israeli presence.

amother

Antiquewhite

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 2:52 am

As parents it's not our choice if our boys go to the army. No parent would want their kids to risk their life, but if you live in Israel you have a duty to help defend the country. Either by serving in the army or by seriously learning in kollel and defending the country that way. Why is national service ok , but serving in the military not.
To answer your qs it's either rbs or rechovot. Depends on the age of your kids.

Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 3:09 am

amother Teal wrote:

AFAIK there is something called toshav kavua permanent resident which is same as citizenship with the exemption that your cannot vote in elections.
I'm not very well versed in these things.

Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 3:15 am

amother Chicory wrote:

Raanana is perfect but *extremely* expensive.

amother

Tanzanite

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 6:02 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

AFAIK there is something called toshav kavua permanent resident which is same as citizenship with the exemption that your cannot vote in elections.
I'm not very well versed in these things.

That’s not true, toshav kavua doesn’t get a teudat zehut.

salt

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 6:09 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Raanana is perfect but *extremely* expensive.

Not sure it's perfect, is there a population that fits into OPS's description?

We're JPF BTs. I wear a sheitel + stockings, DH wears a black hat on Shabbos.
We both have advanced degrees from secular universities.
We have smartphones, internet at home but are careful about what we consume and the children don't use screen media.
We're not into cartoon characters/pop culture stuff for the kids but they are allowed (encouraged!) to read as much as possible of Jewish and secular books.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 6:45 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

How would that work? You become a citizen automatically when making aliyah.

Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 6:59 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

How would that work? You become a citizen automatically when making aliyah.

There is a status called toshav keva AFAIK which very similar to being a citizen.
Again I am not an expert in this matter.

amother

Clover

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 8:47 am

The problem is that Israel is very striated. There's no real JPF like you describe. You are either charedi with no Internet etc (or lying about it) or you are dati-leumi serving in the army. You can try to live in an American bubble like rbs or givat hamivtar but eventually the bubble bursts and you don't fit in anywhere.

Signed,
Just moved back to America after over a decade in an American bubble.

amother

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 9:17 am

Thank you all so much -- this is really the "aliyah for dummies" advice that I need and I'm really grateful!

We will look into R'Haber/Netzach. It sounds wonderful, though I'm a little concerned that RBS is a recreation of the tristate area in a bubble.

If we go, we want citizenship and to have our kids contribute via army/service/etc.. If their peers will be, it's only fair that they do, too, in their own ways.

One of my biggest fears is what a poster above said about not fitting and then things falling apart for us/our kids. We are considering aliyah dafka because we find we don't fit in an "in-town" scene (anyplace intellectually that we'd want is too into the Western, upper-middle-class, materialist lifestyle and anyplace religiously what we'd want is too anti-intellectual and closed-minded).

Anywhere in Yerushalayim that would be a fit? We're city people so that just makes sense to me, but I know nothing of the different neighborhoods/school systems.

amother

NeonPink

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 9:32 am

I don’t live in Israel but I’ll just throw out 2 areas that I know Americans live in.
One is givat ze’ev and the other is not as well known but I recently heard about a few American families who moved there. It’s called mitzpeh yericho. From what I understand this area used to be more to the left and very Israeli but recently some American families who are more towards the right moved there.
Personally I would need all the support I could get with such a big move so I would probably start off in rbs.

amother

Clover

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 9:39 am

OP, I'm the poster who wrote about moving back to America after ten plus years in Israel. If you want to go off anonymous for a minute so I can see your username, I'm happy to pm you, and we can discuss things in more detail.

amother

Whitewash

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 9:56 am

amother OP wrote:

My friends just made aliyah from the Midwest (small OOT city) to RBS (ramat shilo) and they're doing GREAT!
The kids go to Magen Avot.
They're very very happy.
I do not find rbs to be a copy of "in town" but I'm nowhere near chareidi. I am solidly DL.

amother

Slategray

Tue, Feb 13 2024, 10:04 am

I agree that RBS would probably be the best fit. And while it is pretty much an American bubble it is still very different than "in town" america.

Another thing to look into is more torani/chardal communities. They are probably more "tzioni" than you but hashkaficly very similar. I know people who sound similar to you and ended up in torani yishuvim instead of rbs and are very happy