Nof Ayalon ! | Imamother

amother

Wed, Oct 17 2012, 12:51 am

Hi, we are planning on making aliyah and one place that came highly recommended for us is Nof Ayalon.
If you know anything about it, please respond!

We were told that it is more chardal, than just regularDL, which we were told includes gender segregation for kids in school adn youth groups, less TV and unfiltered internet. Is that so?

Also we were told that there is a big problem in lack of rentals and real estate available. In fact Nefesh bnefesh told us that htey have stopped recommmending people to look into it becasue of that. Does anyone know anything about availability of rentals or purchasing homes in Nof Ayalon? (4 bedroom minimum, BH we are a relatively large family)

Thank you in advance for your advice.

lst

Wed, Oct 17 2012, 5:33 pm

Ok, so I recently moved here, but I lived in the immediate area before that.
The yishuv is a bit more chardal I guess. Everything above gan age is separate for boys and girls-schools, chugim, bnei akiva, ariel, etc.
There are plenty of families without TVs at all, but there are definitely families that do have. I think pretty much everyone has internet (but I have no idea if more people have filters or not). The schools are alright here. If you want info on that, let me know...
Yes, it is hard to find a place here. Renting is easier than buying. Average rent for a 4 or 5 bedroom house can range between 5000-6000 nis/month, maybe a bit more for newer, more spacious houses. Housing is not cheap here at all. There is also a new project that is being completed now, families have started to move in. This isn't part of Nof Ayalon, it's technically part of the kibbutz (Shaalvim), but it is it's own community. I believe there are a few things available there for sale, and for rent as well.
If you have more specific questions I'd be happy to help out.

Also-we love living here, the people are great, it's a really nice community. It's also in a great location-half an hour to Yerushalayim and half an hour to Tel Aviv. Modiin is minutes away, so you have everything that a big city has to offer. Also, a car is pretty necessary if you want to live here. There is very, very little public transportation.

amother

Thu, Oct 18 2012, 12:41 am

OP here. Thank you so much 1st, your post was really useful information.
1 Would you mind tellling me a little bit about kibbutz shaalvim, what is it like to live there,
2 what are rentals and purchase prices like there in the new areas that they are building and in the older part?
3 would you say that shaalvim is also a more chardal type community like nof ayalon?
4 do you have to be connected to the yeshiva to live there?
5 are htere schools there or does everyone use the nof ayalon schools?
6 is it a nice community to live im?
7 what else can you tell me about it?
btw, what would you say is the cheapest rent and cheapest price to buy, for a four bedroom in both nof ayalon and also shaalvim?
8 who are the main rabbanim of nof ayalon and shaalvim?
9 is there a significant number of english speakers> are there ever shiurim in english ?
10 do you know if there is help in hte schools for olim, ie for my kids who range from early teens to toddler?

thanks in advance. in what way would you call nof ayalon/shaalvim more chardal than just DL, would you mind trying to define it for me please> Coming from chul it is not so easy to understand. Basically, we are machmir on tznius dress, no TV, limited internet, no gender mingling for kids, so I think chardal is more our speed than regular DL, please correct me if I am wrong.
in nof ayalon and shaalvim, are there any charedim, does everyone wear sruga, or do some wear velvet, etc?

I really hope that you have time to answer al these questions, we are trying so hard to find the right place...

I really appreciate your time and efforts

lst

Thu, Oct 18 2012, 1:57 am

No problem-I'll answer your questions to the best of my ability, but I don't know so much about the new project on the kibbutz...I can ask a friend who lives there, but most people who bought haven't moved in yet.
There they have rows of houses and town house type of things. The crowd seems mostly younger though I believe there are families with teenagers that will be moving in. Nof Ayalon has a lot more families with teenagers. I'm not sure about rental prices there but some of the townhouses were selling for 1.5 million shekels (approx $400K). It is definitely not cheap. Those have 3 bedrooms, and if you have a ground floor I believe it comes with some sort of basement, and if its the second floor, you have rights to the roof-meaning you can always add on. The houses are a bit bigger and I don't know the prices, but one rental that I saw was gong for about 6500/month, and I think it was a four bedroom.
I'm not sure what types of families in general will be living in the new community, but my friends who moved there are more chardal than dl. You do not have to be connected to the yeshiva. The kibbutz is not connected to the yeshiva at all, the yeshiva has it's own housing for the people that learn/work there. All the schools are technically kiryat chinuch shaalvim schools-not really nof ayalon. I would say the majority of elementary aged kids that live here go to the schools here. Many girls don't go to the high school here. I don't know that much info about the schools as my oldest is in kindergarten, but if you want, I can try to get more info about them.
The main rav of Nof Ayalon is Rav Gidon Binyamin, and he is the Rosh Kollel at the yeshiva. The Rosh Yeshiva is Rav Yechezkel Yaakovson. There are a lot of other rabbanim in the yeshiva as well. The kibbutz also has a Rav, I think his name is Rav Mertzbach.
There are a bunch of English speakers, but it is an Israeli community. There are definitely a bunch of anglo families though. They have a rosh chodesh shiur for women, in English, once a month. Every once in awhile they organize a shiur for something. There is also a chofetz chaim heritage foundation tiferes group that meets once a month.
I know what you mean about being hard to define yourselves. I'm not even sure exactly how to define each term, and I don't know if there are set "rules" on how people dress, act, etc. Everyone here is religious. The majority wear kippot srugot, but there are definitely people who wear other types of kippot. It is a very wholesome yishuv. People are generally machmir on tzniut- All the women cover there hair, mostly fully, some partially. All the women wear skirts. Most women wear sandals, though I think there are some that cover there legs completely.
Sorry-its hard for mean to define chardal vs dl. I hope I answered most of your questions!!
Good luck.
Another possible community to check out is maybe Mitzpe Yericho, and if you want more Israeli-Mevo Choron is a yishuv similar to Nof Ayalon, and it's around the corner from here. It is slightly less expensive and more Israeli.

amother

Thu, Oct 18 2012, 1:50 pm

OP here, thank you again 1st, I truly appreciate your detailed post.
Honestly, my heart has been telling me for some weeks now that Nof Ayalon is hte place for me, which is funny becasue I don't even know enough about it. Biggest problem I can see, is the house/rental prices, which are a bit on the expensive side, and mine and my dh's professions are not typically well-paid (don't want to mention our profession in case I end up losing my anonymity here!).

I am not discounting it yet though.
If you do have more time to respond, I would really apprecitate hearing more about the general hashkafas of nof ayalon and shaalvim, I n what way would it be considered chardal, etc. I hate labelliing, but it seems to be the way things are done in israel/...
TIA