Any Successful Anglo Communities in Israel?

LovesHashem

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 6:25 am

I think meitzad was in the 70's.

I don't think it's possible to bring a few hundred people somewhere in a few months and open schools, Shuls, and full infrastructure.

Anything or anyone that claims they can I am very very skeptical of. You need to also be willing to integrate to make it here. I just don't think it's realistic what these people claim they will do. It never pans out.

amother

Chambray

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 6:49 am

DVOM wrote:

A slightly unconventional school set up could work though, no? Sort of like a homeschool co-op. If different ages (and genders in younger grades) could be in the same small classes until the community got large enough? Of course, the new olim would have to be on board with it.

COVID made me very curious about homeschooling, about unconventional school set ups in general. My kids (and I) learned and gained so much.

I live in a different community with a similar set up in Europe.
At this point I am wary of relying on a narrow group of families for all of my kids‘ social life. Differences in chinuch are inevitable, people have different values. You might set yourself up for a disappointment when you find out your kids don’t click with the others and you have nowhere else to look for friends.
I would rather move to a large and less personal place where are more possibilities to find the right fit.

DVOM

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 6:52 am

amother Chambray wrote:

That makes sense. I guess that's the risk in any very small community.

Elfrida

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 8:48 am

DVOM wrote:

The parents would have to be not only on board with it, but capable of doing the teaching, or employing people who match their worldview to do so. As part of that, they would have to be paying tuition, which in Israel is normally not an issue. And the children kept in a bubble would have a hard time learning to balance the bubble environment with the wider environment.

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 9:04 am

WitchKitty wrote:

I'm wondering if these things used to work better, or we just hear about the ones who don't work out, until they are old enough to consider established.
Mattasdorf was such a community. Har Nof, Ramat Shlomo..

har nof and ramat shlomo were not established as anglo communities. They may hqve many anglos, but thars it.

amother

Dodgerblue

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 9:13 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

har nof and ramat shlomo were not established as anglo communities. They may hqve many anglos, but thars it.

Neither was RBS Wink

We know a lot of Israelis who have been here since the beginning and they're offended when people assume it's an Anglo city. There are lots of hebew speakers here in RBS and the Anglos can acclimate and integrate very well if they make an effort.

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jan 13 2023, 9:19 am

amother Dodgerblue wrote:

Neither was RBS Wink

Yes, I know about rbs. I used to live there. Rbs was actually slated, many many years ago, to be cheap secular housing. But that never happened. There were few chilonim that were there in the behinning, about 25 years ago. But they all left.

chanchy123

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 2:57 pm

ChalieB wrote:

Wasn't Efrat started as an Anglo community coming as a group? It's a lot more integrated now, especially with the new neighborhoods

Not exactly, it wasn’t started as an Anglo community, but Rav Riskin did move there in the beginning with many members of his shul in NY - so in a sense it was a group that moved, but the yishuv was not exclusively started by this group.
To my understanding they joined the other not necessarily Anglos or just coincidently Anglos who moved there. I guess as it took off more Anglos Messed there.

amother

cornflower

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 3:10 pm

amother OP wrote:

Several months back there was a thread about Afula that I was following. It was locked I believe because of some uncivil posts so I would love to keep this one open. I heard recently that the Anglo community in Afula that made aliya last summer has folded. I think it was the school that fell apart and families have to send their kids to other places but maybe the whole infrastructure fell apart. I am trying to reach someone who may be able to tell me more. I know we had some amothers who moved there who posted on the thread (and they may come and post that everything is completely fine and functional!).

This leads me to wonder if this Anglo thing (where a group of people with a shared interest make aliya together to a community) has been successful anywhere else. I think there was a Lakewood initiative - did anything happen with that?

I know someone in the Afula community. I wouldn't say it had folded. From my understanding a lot of people got burned and there was no transparency from the "heads" of the kehilla. It does sound like they are trying to get more people in to build it up tho. And help the school grow... so far it sounds like the ganim didn't work out as planned not sure the exact details but the 5 year old gan only just started after chanuka. But it sounds like the elementary is very small but good... this is how communities start up...

shabbatiscoming

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 3:11 pm

Im finding it so interesting how many communities people thought were stated an anglo enclaves when in reality they were started as regular isralei communities and it was just that many anglos have moved there. I dont think there are too many places in israel that have ever been started with the intention of being a specifically anglo area.

chanchy123

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 3:23 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

A lot of yishuvim in Israel were started by groups of olim from one or two countries who came as a group or formed a group in Israel.
Many many many moshavim are like that there are even some kibbutzim like that.
Most of them are started in the 50s and 60s but some much later (into the 70s and the neighborhood I grew up in which was in the early 80s).
Until today there are places which are mostly inhabited by Yemenite, Indian, Kurd, Brazilian, Argentinian etc.

amother

Emerald

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 3:51 pm

chanchy123 wrote:

Those places are more like the Sochnut dumped them there when there was a large wave from whatever area that they come from

Anglos arrive in more of a trickle then a wave

shabbatiscoming

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 3:56 pm

chanchy123 wrote:

So those yishuvim or moshavim that you are talking about were started by olim but not for the purpose of only having those specific types of people there. They were just the group who started the place. Thats not what it seems like the OP was talking about. It seems like she is looking for a place that is specifically being started for anglo olim (as was this place in afula)
But even the place you grew up in chanchy (youve mentioned it in the israel section) may have started with olim, but it is a thriving place with so many different types of people now.
But again, the purpose was not to have a place of only anglos. That was just who started the place. A big difference.

amother

Alyssum

Sat, Jan 14 2023, 4:18 pm

amother cornflower wrote:

I am close friends with a family in the new Anglo community in Afula. It definitely hasnt folded. My friends are so happy there, and with their general aliyah experience. I havent heard anything about a lack of transparency, really the opposite. They love community, the schools...the Gan had a substitute until Chanukah because the original Morah was seriously sick or something, and they just got the real Morah after Chanukah. I agree with you that this is how communitees start up.