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Forum -> Inquiries & Offers -> Israel related Inquiries & Aliyah Questions
All those that made Aliyah during covid 19...
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 8:43 am
How are you faring?
Are you happy with your decision?
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 9:44 am
I know two families that made aliyah in the last month. They are both doing really well.
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essie14




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 9:53 am
We got several new neighbors over the summer who are olim chadashim.
Some are having a hard time which is compounded by Covid but I think most are doing really well BH.
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SacN




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 9:56 am
I have a neighbor friend who did a split aliyah in August, intending her husband to stay there and go back and forth. And of course, the kids aren't is school which really hurts klitah.
Needless to say, that's challenging now more than ever.

I think they are otherwise doing really well.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:02 am
essie14 wrote:
We got several new neighbors over the summer who are olim chadashim.
Some are having a hard time which is compounded by Covid but I think most are doing really well BH.


When you say "doing really well", what does that mean?
There's a lockdown, Schools are closed, many can't work etc.
I doubt those that just made Aliyah during the past few months have even settled in properly.

There was a point when we were considering Aliyah, and one of the big reasons was that it seemed like Israel had this virus under control, and where we currently live was doing terribly- thousands of deaths a day...
I know a few families that made Aliyah during corona, and I heard that there was a huge surge in Aliyah. I'm just wondering if these people are happy with their decision, or if they feel they should have waited for the pandemic to be over before making this decision/move??
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:08 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
When you say "doing really well", what does that mean?
There's a lockdown, Schools are closed, many can't work etc.
I doubt those that just made Aliyah during the past few months have even settled in properly.

There was a point when we were considering Aliyah, and one of the big reasons was that it seemed like Israel had this virus under control, and where we currently live was doing terribly- thousands of deaths a day...
I know a few families that made Aliyah during corona, and I heard that there was a huge surge in Aliyah. I'm just wondering if these people are happy with their decision, or if they feel they should have waited for the pandemic to be over before making this decision/move??
I think for many the pandemic had nothing to do with timing of aliyah.
My husband has a friend who has been planning aliyah for about a year now. His ticket is for december. It will happen if the pandemic has gotten better here or not (then again, he is not living in america).
But I think that the people who have come now, during the pandemic are justhaving a DIFFERENT klita, not a bad one.
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amother
OP


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:12 am
shabbatiscoming wrote:
I think for many the pandemic had nothing to do with timing of aliyah.
My husband has a friend who has been planning aliyah for about a year now. His ticket is for december. It will happen if the pandemic has gotten better here or not (then again, he is not living in america).
But I think that the people who have come now, during the pandemic are justhaving a DIFFERENT klita, not a bad one.


I know three families that decided to make Aliyah during lockdown in USA, and within 2-3 months actually made Aliyah. Supposedly many other families did this as well, based on the unprecedented rise in Aliyah recently.
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:15 am
The whole world is dealing with Covid in one way or another. I don't think it makes that much of a difference what country you live in.

On the other hand, try making Aliyah in a shmittah year. Now THAT was hard! The Arab owned grocery stores had the most gorgeous produce I've ever seen. We had to drive all the way to the outskirts of town to the one store that had a teeny, tiny selection of wilted and miserable looking veggies that had rabbinical supervision.

I need my fresh fruits and veggies to survive. I was stressed from the move, and my immune system was screaming for salads and stir fry. Not to mention that romaine lettuce for Pesach that year was worth it's weight in gold.

If you want to get rich in Israel, invest in running a hydroponic farm.
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banana123




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:18 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
When you say "doing really well", what does that mean?
There's a lockdown, Schools are closed, many can't work etc.
I doubt those that just made Aliyah during the past few months have even settled in properly.

There was a point when we were considering Aliyah, and one of the big reasons was that it seemed like Israel had this virus under control, and where we currently live was doing terribly- thousands of deaths a day...
I know a few families that made Aliyah during corona, and I heard that there was a huge surge in Aliyah. I'm just wondering if these people are happy with their decision, or if they feel they should have waited for the pandemic to be over before making this decision/move??

There was a surge in the number of people inquiring about aliyah, and I believe also in the number of applications for aliyah.

That is not the same as a surge in aliyah.
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:25 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
I know three families that decided to make Aliyah during lockdown in USA, and within 2-3 months actually made Aliyah. Supposedly many other families did this as well, based on the unprecedented rise in Aliyah recently.
Im going to assume those that are making aliyah now, during covid, had aliyah on the back burner anyway or were already in the process.

Unprecedented rise in aliyah? I know there were stories that this was GOING TO happen, but did it actually? I dont know about that. Any sources for that?
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essie14




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 10:50 am
The families I know who made aliyah this summer were planning it for a while.
As shabbat said, it's just different, not necessarily bad.
Kids likely wouldn't be in school anyway in the US.
Neighbors are helping them get the hang of online shopping in Israel.
It may not be the first year of aliyah that they dreamed about but they are all happy to be living here.
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Elfrida




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 11:16 am
Klita is never an easy process, and this time the difficulties are different to the 'standard' difficulties. The children aren't in school, they are getting less exposure to learn Hebrew, and finding a job may be harder. Much of this would e the same in America

Maybe people who made aliya just to get away from Corona are regretting it, but people who made aliyah because they wanted to be here and saw their future in Israel are adapting to the challenges.

As for avoiding Corona - during a global pandemic, no one can promise that any place is safe. Cases are rising, but we are working to get it under control.

We have nothing like the violence and riots that took place in America last summer, and prompted people to make aliyah to avoid them. The demonstrations on Balfour ( while not Corona sensible) are a party by comparison - last week they had a Rosh HaShana dinner!
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chanchy123




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 11:29 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
When you say "doing really well", what does that mean?
There's a lockdown, Schools are closed, many can't work etc.
I doubt those that just made Aliyah during the past few months have even settled in properly.

There was a point when we were considering Aliyah, and one of the big reasons was that it seemed like Israel had this virus under control, and where we currently live was doing terribly- thousands of deaths a day...
I know a few families that made Aliyah during corona, and I heard that there was a huge surge in Aliyah. I'm just wondering if these people are happy with their decision, or if they feel they should have waited for the pandemic to be over before making this decision/move??

Yes, but these don’t necessarily have to be things causing your Aliyah to be a bad experience. Pretty much every spot on the globe is effected by corona, and it goes from moderate to severe. In a way making Aliyah now can be a soft landing, because there is less interaction with the outside world. More family time and getting your bearings on the basics, your new home, grocery shopping, banking etc. Less social interaction. So yes, it’s deferring some of the struggles but by the that time the olim will be more settled in other aspects.
It doesn’t have to be bad.
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Rappel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 11:33 am
I imagine it's very lonely to make Aliyah right now. How are everyone integrating into their communities?
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 11:48 am
Rappel wrote:
I imagine it's very lonely to make Aliyah right now. How are everyone integrating into their communities?
The families that moved into our yishuv during the past month or two have either been known by others so other people took it upon themselves to help them out and hopefully make introductions when able. One family actually put themselves out there on our yishuv fb group telling us all about themselves. People make do. And if not, it happens a bit later on.
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essie14




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 11:53 am
Rappel wrote:
I imagine it's very lonely to make Aliyah right now. How are everyone integrating into their communities?

We have a neighborhood WhatsApp group. We've been meeting masked people in the park.
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amother
Seashell


 

Post Wed, Sep 30 2020, 11:55 am
We were planning to make aliyah this year but decided to pause the process b/c of covid. Now that we're picking it back up again, the waiting lines are insane.

So it wasn't just people applying 🤷‍♀️ idk if there's going to be a massive wave of olim once things settle down. Right now there are a lot of delays in the US in terms of processing (passports, apostille, etc) but only time will tell if all the people in front of us for an interview actually end up moving or not. I think a lot of people realized "as long as things are going crazy everywhere, I'd rather be in Israel."

Personally if we were to go before a vaccine I would be a little bummed. I definitely had dreams of going out to eat while we wait for our lift to arrive, going straight to the kotel, maybe taking the kids to see the beach if we have the time/energy, etc. Being stuck in an apt for 2 weeks wasn't how I imagined it would be, and the "settling in" also will be harder I'm sure. But I don't know if there's ever really a "good" time. I think a lot of successful aliyah is about grit and rolling with the punches (but I haven't done it yet lol so what do I know).
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amother
Seagreen


 

Post Thu, Oct 01 2020, 7:09 am
We moved back a month ago after several years in the US (pre planned, not COVID related).
It's very tough to move now, and I'm Israeli, so I have some family support, I know the language, understand the bureaucracy...

Israel is in lockdown. It's unclear for how long. Some of our kids sort of know Hebrew, some know nothing, and it's really tough with them being out of school. They have no way to learn the language. We can't have people over for meals, can't have playdates. Socially distant playdates at the park now and then isn't enough to learn. If you thought managing remote schooling was hard in the US, try doing it with a kid who doesn't understand the language. So we do what we can, but they're falling behind. And remote learning here is much lower quality than we had in the US. I hear some teachers are doing OK, but it's really hit or miss. There's no comprehensive program. Some teachers don't even have a webcam. Ours doesn't know how to mute kids on zoom and spends 15 minutes of her daily 30 minutes doing name call. It's ridiculous. Even after lockdown is over, only grades 1-4 are going to school every day *this year*. I think grades 5-6 are hybrid and the rest are remote (I've got younger children, so I'm not sure. Look into this if it's relevant for you).

Also, we can't buy furniture. Ikea is closed. We got our lift and everything is just sitting in boxes because we don't have enough closets and shelves.
And as people said before, getting US documentation was very slow.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be here, but this is a really hard time to make the transition. If you're OK with just hunkering down with your family in your apartment for a few months then it'll be fine. If that's what you were doing in the US anyway, then you might as well do it here.
But if in person schooling is important to you, I don't know if you'd want to make that gamble right now.
Who's managing COVID better is too volatile a thing to base decisions on. It can completely change within a couple of weeks.
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amother
Seagreen


 

Post Thu, Oct 01 2020, 7:17 am
amother [ Seashell ] wrote:
I definitely had dreams of going out to eat while we wait for our lift to arrive, going straight to the kotel, maybe taking the kids to see the beach if we have the time/energy, etc. Being stuck in an apt for 2 weeks wasn't how I imagined it would be


Being stuck in an apartment for 2 weeks is only the beginning. Even when you get out of mandatory quarantine, everyone is in lockdown now. You're not allowed to go anywhere. The only places I've been to are the supermarket and a couple of government offices Sad
Oh, and no Amazon, so if you need stuff during quarantine, too bad. Besides grocery delivery you'll have to ask people to bring you anything you need.

I'm much happier being here rather than the US during the pandemic, but one needs to be very realistic about what that entails.
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amother
Aubergine


 

Post Thu, Oct 01 2020, 8:23 am
We recently made aliyah, to the North, to a yishuv where we knew no one. Bidud was awful. It was extremely difficult to be stuck in a new place especially without our things. Every appointment that we "had" to make and show up at was also extremely complicated. There are still a few we haven't been able to coordinate. Now with the Seger, life has been reduced to meeting our daily needs. We eat and sleep, and try to find ways to keep busy. It is very isolating. People here have been fantastic, but there is a limit to how much interactions we can have. My kids are not learning Hebrew without school, and zoom participation is excruciating when they have no idea what is flying. On the other hand, there is a lot less pressure when it feels like life is totally on pause. There is no acclimation, because there is very little life happening. We planned for Aliyah before Covid. I would still do it. This is where we are supposed to be. But yes, it is incredibly complicated.
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