What would it take for you to make Aliyah?

amother

Linen

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 10:46 pm

Money and a solid plan. Maybe my family also going. Better Hebrew skills. A solid support network including educational supports and early intervention. Feeling safe. Finding a way to overcome culture shock. I’m a Midwesterner and Israeli culture is jarring to me. No offense to anyone. I just couldn’t understand why I was the first in line and not only last on the bus, but also sometimes didn’t even get a seat on the bus at all. Or when a shopkeeper would go “tzuh” at me with that pointy hand motion for daring to ask to check out when they were on the phone for 20 mins. I know it’s silly stuff, and there is genuinely so much beauty in Israeli culture too. It’s just not what I’m used to. I love Israel so much and I wish I could live in Yerushalayim. I truly do.

mommy3b2c

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 10:53 pm

amother [ Tan ] wrote:

Isn't it amazing that we are even discussing "the situation in the United States?". Last year, would you have even thought about a "situation"? To me, that is just so unbelievably frightening... somehow I thought the United States would remain immune to antisemitism like it seemed in my childhood....

There is nothing different in the United States. It’s not like anti Semitism has become government sanctioned. You do realize that 9/11 was a much bigger terrorist attack then any of the others?

In answer to op, when moshiach comes or when the US becomes a totalitarian regime with a dictator.

1ofbillions

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 11:03 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

Are elected Congresswomen government enough for your standards? Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib are in control of Nancy Pelosi.

https://www.dailywire.com/news.....apiro

amother

Vermilion

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 11:05 pm

amother [ Tan ] wrote:

Not sure what United States you grew up in, but I grew up in NYC in the 90s and definitely experienced antisemitism. I don't really see an uptick in anything or changed situation. My shul and school always had armed security because of occasional antisemitic threats. It didn't happen frequently, but a few times a year a swastika would be scrawled somewhere in a Jewish neighborhood and it was always an unsettling feeling when that happened. Jews sometimes got roughed up in the street or had epithets hurled at them- again, it was pretty rare, but it happened from time to time, enough to remind us that antisemitism exists. And of course, the hate on college campuses was there then too. And it was intense enough that when I was in high school, it was a frequent topic of discussion in order to prepare us for encountering it. I'm really baffled at how many people are sooo shocked. Have that many American Jews really never experienced finding a swastika in your neighborhood or hearing the K word, or having your shul threatened before 2016?

amother

Tan

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 11:07 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

1. It is very different before shul's were ever attacked, and after they were attacked. Our safety in shul is no longer a given.
2. Antisemitism is "government sanctioned" when large respected news outlets are allowed to post anti-Semitic and inflammatory cartoons and insinuations about Jews causing the measles outbreak. The liberals in government are government sanctioned, and their agenda has gone from anti Israel to anti-Semitic. They are getting very brazen, and it's government sanctioned.
3. Not sure what 9/11 has to do with this, as it was not an attack against Jews specifically?

amother

Tan

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 11:14 pm

amother [ Vermilion ] wrote:

I think the experience of Jews spread out all over the country was different than the experience of Jews in NY. I honestly never encountered serious antisemitism until this decade. For many of us, it is new and frightening. Also, there is a difference between a swastika graffitied on a school building, and inflammatory anti-Semitic cartoons and accusations released by credible, wide-spread, respected news sources. While antisemitism obviously has always existed, there is DEFINITELY a change in the air we're breathing now!

mommy3b2c

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 11:20 pm

amother [ Tan ] wrote:

Our safety in shul was never a given. And unfortunately these large “respected” news outlets were always allowed to post whatever they wanted. Nothing has changed. There was always anti semitism, there will always be anti semitism. There is nothing new under the sun. I don’t bury my head in the sand. If the holocaust could happen then, it can happen now. But until there are actual signs of it happening again, I think I’ll stay where I am.

amother

Tan

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 11:27 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

Please explain what you feel an "actual sign of it happening again" would be?

Israeli_C

Wed, May 01 2019, 12:08 am

Really interesting thread, thanks for starting it Rappel!
I think that if I grew up with the 'American lifestyle' it'd be verrrrry hard to convince me to pack bags and move to the Middle East.

Most of my dad's siblings (double digit Irish catholic family!) moved to the US and I've always associated it with being a place of abundance and luxury. I would get clothes parcels of the most amazing things from aunts and uncles growing up. When I visited family in Philly my jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw the size of their house, their massive fridges and huge washer and dryer where you put things in the top. And the gigantic people!! (Joking! Well, only half joking- I didn't realise there were people that big til I went to Florida, it was insane).

I grew up pretty simply, with a rather unhappy childhood/teen years, so coming to Israel and meeting some genuinely amazing people who cared about me unconditionally (and I still don't understand why!) gave me a kind of yeshua I never could have gotten back in the Old Country. When I left, the job situation was bleak (I was working for free and receiving unemployment benefit - a weird government scheme which has since been stopped, unsurprisingly), living in a very rough neighbourhood where people took drugs and got beaten up in broad daylight for NOTHING (happened me twice) and I'd no true friends to speak of.

I remember sitting on the airplane to Israel and crying. Wondering why I had to suffer so much in the Old Country before being zoche to make aliyah. Lots of painful memories there. Praying that we all should find happiness where we are living right now.

Israeli_C

Wed, May 01 2019, 12:21 am

I find all the posts about safety amusing. I felt much LESS safe on the streets of Europe or during my trip to Brooklyn. In Israel, I wander around at night and it never even crosses my mind that someone would CVS attack me. The security situation in Israel is very good. And I made aliyah 5 years ago when there were rockets heading towards Tel Aviv and sirens on a regular basis.

amother

Chartreuse

Wed, May 01 2019, 12:25 am

amother [ Babyblue ] wrote:

A chinuch system/ hashkafa similar to what's available in the US, especially the oot yeshivish style. And I don't mean niche schools scattered around the country, I mean a bona fide, accepted system.

Not happening because the people who want those schools aren't making aliya.