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Forum -> Inquiries & Offers -> Israel related Inquiries & Aliyah Questions

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shabbatiscoming

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 3:22 pm

amother DarkGreen wrote:

I would also love to hear how the new Yishuv is doing. Also very interested in apartments for sale. Are you anywhere near the Rabbi's that had a special Zoom meeting of Afula? Was it Rabbi Chait/Rabbi Berman? Is it near the new area for Chassidim? Do you need a car to get around?

Afula is anything but a yishuv. The population is over 54,000.

OP, can I just ask, I have no idea about this community and when someone wrote about this a few months ago I was amazed that an anglo community was going to be set up there as I knew afula as a very israeli city Smile

so are all of these new olim living near each other or spread out all over afula? Inquiring minds want to know Smile

amother

Valerian

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 4:52 pm

If there's only 24 families then how are there schools?

Also the kehillah owns the apartments? That's a little interesting. That's quite costly. What's the rent like?

Alternative

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 4:54 pm

amother Valerian wrote:

If there's only 24 families then how are there schools?

Also the kehillah owns the apartments? That's a little interesting. That's quite costly. What's the rent like?

Really? How does that work?

amother

Lightyellow

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 4:56 pm

Somebody on here had a really really bad experience with the community... I don't remember exactly who or when.
Tread carefully

amother

NeonBlue

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 4:57 pm

amother Valerian wrote:

If there's only 24 families then how are there schools?

Also the kehillah owns the apartments? That's a little interesting. That's quite costly. What's the rent like?

I'm not sure why, but some of these questions don't seem appropriate to answer on an online forum. All I will say is the community is up and running, and we are all very happy and proud of what is going on here. If you are interested in potentially joining, please contact us through the website and come for a pilot trip to see what is actually taking place. I wish you all the best with your Aliyah plans!

amother

Valerian

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 5:00 pm

amother NeonBlue wrote:

Um I think these are pretty normal questions to ask about a neighborhood. Seems like normal questions people ask on imamother allllll the time about places.

Is it not public information? Why is rental prices and schools options so secretive?

amother

Valerian

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 5:01 pm

Alternative wrote:

Really? How does that work?

From another post and their website it seems they own two entire buildings of apartments and the kehillah rents from them.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 5:02 pm

amother NeonBlue wrote:

What a weird thing to answer, really. I mean, if people are interested, then this is a great place to ask questions and have them answered by people living there.
The fact that none of you ladies who live there are able or wanting to give straight concrete answers is very telling unfortunately.

amother

Teal

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 5:06 pm

I actually seriously considered moving there- spoke to the rav, took a tour etc. Then decided that my kids are not the right age/ stage to be pioneers .
Definitely will strongly consider moving in a year or 2 once I'm sure there are schools with classes the right ages for all my kids..
Happy to hear it's doing well.
Neonblue you said there's a website?
Did the school end up opening with all grades?

LovesHashem

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 5:06 pm

I haven't seen a single answer to a question here really. Sounds a bit off to me.

amother

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 5:41 pm

I'm also getting a bit of a weird vibe that none of the simple straight forward questions are getting answered and we are instead being told to "take a pilot trip and see for ourselves." I really really want to be positive and I was happy to hear from 2 amothers that things are going well for them but why is everything being cloaked in secrecy? What are we not being told?

Kiwi13

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 6:02 pm

Okay, you know what - here goes:

This group has caused tremendous pain to many people, myself included. Again, if you need specifics, you may PM me. When I tried to warn people within the group of some dangerous lies, after realizing the leadership was all "in on it," I was vilified, called a liar, told that nobody would believe me over the big fancy leaders. A damage control "fact v. myth" sheet was sent out, despite my only warning being for people to read the documents they were being asked to sign before blindly believing things. No promises made to my family were fulfilled. I asked the Rav, "As my new Rav, please tell me if such and such is true..." and he lied through his teeth. It was a lie that nearly sabotaged my Aliyah and left my family homeless within a month of our flight.

The reason for all the secrecy on this thread is because the answers are shady at best. You (Afula members) know full well that many of the staff you list on the website have already been kicked out for arbitrary reasons, or asked to leave quietly so as not to rock people's trust. You have lied and taken advantage of vulnerable people - geirim, single parents, retirees...

You might never know the extent of the pain you caused even to my family alone, but this boastful, vague thread is intolerable. I've been on this site for many years and this is the ONLY thread I have ever reported.

But why? If it's so beautiful and I'm so "unhinged," as the 'fact v. myth' sheet and dvar Torah that were furiously written and sent out moments after my expulsion put it (yes, I have copies of both - what a twist of the Torah!), then why do you care if one person, or even a few people think negatively about your community?

You know why? Because you and I both know EXACTLY what you are afraid of.

Go ahead and report this post, I'm sure you will - just as you did any other negative mention, even going so far as to threaten Yael over it. And yes, I am aware that you threatened Yael if she didn't scrub clean any negative mention of your community. But enough is enough. Have we learned NOTHING from recent cases in our larger Jewish world?

LETOELES.

STAY AWAY until this group proves itself a viable community - or at the very least, make sure you are completely financially independent of this group. Do not rent an apartment from them. Do not sign guarantor contracts for fraudulently acquired funds. I can back up every one of these claims in court with dated and time stamped messages and voice notes.

The rabbi after whom this project was named was close to my heart and would be ashamed of this blatant fraud perpetrated in his name.

I'll have you know this is the first year I have ever gone into R"H with serious tainos against other people. I cannot forgive what you did to my family and the way you continue to scapegoat me and others who have been banished from your cult like clique.

I am NOT mochel.

Alternative

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 6:21 pm

Sorry to hear about your experience Kiwi. That sounds awful. I would consider taking them to court.

In general, I would never rent from 'the kehillah', even if they are 100% above board. That makes you overly dependent on them. Not good to mix your social/spiritual/communal needs with your financial ones. Plus they probably have a clause there that they can kick you out for various infractions.

Kiwi13

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 6:40 pm

Alternative wrote:

It's almost Rosh Hashanah. We're ALL going to Court.

(Thankfully, in Olam Hazeh, I noticed enough discrepancies not to sign a single contract - so B"H for that, at least. We incurred other very serious damages for sure, and yeah, it's very hard to forgive.)

There's so much more to this painful situation, but I've been trying my best to settle it internally by reminding myself that if these specific people hadn't filled these roles, others would have been in their place. It was part of Hashem's plan for our Aliyah, as painful as it was. I thank God every day we were kicked out BEFORE we made Aliyah. Yes it was crazy and yes my health hit a crisis over the stress of it and so on, but in the end, B"H we are not in Afula.

As for my tainos? I'm trying my best to give over the heaviness of the debts to Hashem - let Him settle the accounts. I don't need to tether myself to the ones who hurt me.

amother

DarkGreen

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 7:56 pm

Can you just tell us (whoever is living there or part of this Kehilla,) how many families are living in the Kehilla as of now?

amother

Narcissus

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 9:25 pm

If I may, I will just share the teeny tiny bit I know. We briefly looked into it and thought about aliyah but ultimately decided to stay in the US. We live in Baltimore.
There were a number of families from Baltimore who planned on going but ultimately some of them decided not to. I know of one who stayed in the US and two who made aliyah to other parts of Israel.
I know of at least 3 families who did go to Afula and they are all lovely, well balanced, normal, frum people who sound happy from what I've heard from our common friends.
I couldn't tell you the numbers of how many planned to go vs how many did go but I did hear that many changed their minds.

This was just posted in an online aliyah group: (a writer asked for an update on the community. Here are the responses).

Hi. We live in Afula in Givat Hamoreh. Last week we had a first time ever get together between the English of the three kehillos in Afula, Givat Hamoreh, Afula Ilit and the new kehilla who now live in Rova Yizrel. There were approx 50 ladies there including a nice representation from the new Kehilla. We can get contact details if needed. They all looked very happy so far.

They are setting up their own school under Chinuch Atzmai. To my understanding the school is going to be in Kfar Gidon which is 4 km away from Afula and they are getting Hasa'ot to take the children. The ganim are close by. The teachers all have to be bi-lingual to help the children integrate. They seem to have it all sorted and their Rebbetzin is very busy with it. I am not sure if school has started yet for the year. As of last week they had been delayed.
They do have a supersol near them but for better hechserim most of them come to Givat Hamoreh which is not far (or on the bus) for bedatz produce and they can join the Afula Illit or Givat Hamoreh for Mishnat Yosef. (as their kehilla grows they could prob do mishnat yosef themselves.)
They have their own shul and they live in a few quite new buildings.

(a different poster commented:)

The get together with many of the English speaking ladies really was amazing and showed the incredible development of the English speaking community here in Afula. There were so many women in attendance and I realized that there were still a few dozen more that hadn't even made it.
In the past year Afula has received its first mehadrin supermarket in Givat Hamoreh (Netiv Hachesed) and it will soon be joined by another branch of Netiv Hachesed opening up in Afula Illit along with a Yesh that is set to open after Sukkos. Bez"h with all the growth there will continue to be more stores and services for the kehillos here.

Oh, and BTW, this other group is not anonymous and each of these writers have real names and identities.
I have no vested interest one way or another but the tone of nobody trusting any of the posters seems awfully harsh.

amother

Tuberose

Mon, Sep 19 2022, 11:53 pm

We looked into it but decided for various reasons we would not join.
Not the only concern but felt a little cult like. It's usually a community who chooses their Rav not vice versa.
But either way whoever is happy should continue to be matzliach and those who are having a challenge with it listen to your instinct and discuss with a mentor and daas torah.
May we all be zoche to return to eretz yisroel bkarov!

LovesHashem

Tue, Sep 20 2022, 3:20 am

amother Narcissus wrote:

The issue is they keep saying they have schools and would have schools by the beginning of the year, but clearly they don't or when people asked about it here they would of been told there were schools. Why were the posters here very silent in the school issue?

They are planning to set up a school. That's completely different.

Setting up a school can take 5-10 YEARS. It requires funding, people, permits, etc. It's not simple. Do you know in RBS until about five years ago there was only 1 high school for American yeshivish/JPF olim? And it was actually pretty anti Americans/aliyah and hated taking them. People spoke about making another high school for so many years, but it didn't get off the ground.

If there's only 60 English speaking women let's say, that's 60 families. That's not enough for a school.

Regarding the supermarket and pretty much anything that people say is "supposed to open by x date". In Israel rarely does something open/completed on time. Buildings, highways, railroads, all sorts of things usually open 2-10 years after they claim it will be ready by.

amother

NeonBlue

Tue, Sep 20 2022, 4:11 am

I am a mother that sends to the schools. I had the opportunity to stop by one of our schools today, and it is a beautiful, small school where all the children are getting tons of attention, learning at a great level from bilingual teachers. I know first hand that the leadership of the schools haven't slept in several weeks, working out all the challenges of this new beginning. It should be a merit for them before Rosh Hashanah.

Please stop the maligning of our community online. We are real people, and it is hurtful. I also believe mentioning communities and people by names is against the rules of this site.

For our privacy (remember we are real people), I ask again that specific questions about how much rent we pay, and about the ages of our children in the schools, be addressed directly to us through the website. Thank you and have a great day!

amother

Charcoal

Tue, Sep 20 2022, 4:15 am

amother NeonBlue wrote:

what is the website?

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