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Considering aliyah- some questions



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amother


 

Post Sun, Jan 11 2009, 5:38 pm
I am posting this here instead of in Israel Inquiries because for various reasons I want to post anon.

I am considering Aliyah and have some questions and would like advice:

1. Where should I look into moving? I am a Chabadnik and want a community with decent Chabad chinuch, a very high standard of tznius (this is something I am very makpid on), and not too Mishichist, if you know what I mean. I also want a place with affordable housing, both for renting and buying. I was thinking of Beitar. Would that make sense? Is there anywhere else I should consider? And what are the housing prices like there?

2. How difficult is it for kids to learn to speak Hebrew if they don't know how to when they come? My kids will IY"H be 7,5, and 3 around the time we would want to move. Also how hard would it be for them to adapt to the Israeli educational system. The older two are boys, the youngest is a girl.

3. How difficult did you find it to learn to speak Hebrew. I can read and translate Hebrew pretty well, but can't really speak it. I would need to be able to speak Hebrew well enough to get a job.

Thanks for your help.
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mamacita




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jan 11 2009, 9:23 pm
I can't speak about the Chabad community in Beitar, but I will address your other questions.

The housing in Beitar depends very much on where you are looking and what size apt you want. Givat A is more anglo, more established, the apts are older and less available. Givat B is newer, apts are bigger, people are younger (babysitter shortage for that reason).

It's a great place for you to learn Hebrew. It's got a nice warm Anglo community, but enough opportunity for you to have to speak Hebrew to get the practice you need rather than more Anglo places (like some parts of RBS) where you could do pretty well in an Anglo bubble.

Many people keep there kids in English until 3. I know a couple of families with 7yo girls who did great coming here, but I don't know what the sitch is for boys since their schooling is much different.

Hatzlacha with your search!
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Tamiri




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jan 11 2009, 9:27 pm
I am not Chabad so can't comment on that area, but your children's ages are just about optimal.
Mazal tov on your decision.
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bubby




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jan 11 2009, 9:52 pm
amother, I have similar concerns but minus the young children (we're going without our kids!) PM me to exchange info if you want.
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justmom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jan 11 2009, 10:47 pm
I can't comment on your chabad concerns, but yes, children that age do learn Hebrew fairly quickly. The first few months are absolute torture-- for the children, and therefore for the parents. They are in school where even if there are other English speaking children, generally the teachers do not speak English, and of course the whole day is conducted in only Hebrew. It is confusing, overwhelming and generally very scary. Even if they come with amazing attitudes it is very different from the reality of feeling so alone. Everyone says that by Chanuka your children will adjust we found it was closer to Pesach.
As far as your language concerns-- I also came being able to read, write and understand (sort of)-- 2 years later I got a job in a field that involves all talking-- so yes, it is possible-- still scary for me though-- I generally think before I speak.
Something else to think about is that many chassidish schools speak Yiddish (I have no idea about Chabad) so could it be your kids will already have a common language??
B'hatzlacha and Mazal Tov!!
All that said, it is sooooo worth it. I love living in this kadosh country.
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RichWithNachas




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jan 11 2009, 10:52 pm
I visited Israel twice, and both times had similar reactions. I would love to live there myself and g-willing soon will be there with everyone,but mainly I felt the excellent quality of education children receive there. The spirit of Eretz Hakodesh seems to make children who live there more mature and and quick learners.
goodLuck to all Exclamation Exclamation Exclamation
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raspberry tea




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jan 12 2009, 3:28 am
PM me if you want.

Last edited by raspberry tea on Wed, Jan 21 2009, 1:14 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Marion




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Jan 12 2009, 3:33 am
My non-meshichist friends wound up in Ramot, and are very happy with the schooling options for both boys and girls. But Ramot is Jerusalem, and rather pricey (I think). They were lucky, but I don't know how much is available there right now.
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amother


 

Post Mon, Jan 12 2009, 7:09 am
mamacita wrote:
I can't speak about the Chabad community in Beitar, but I will address your other questions.

The housing in Beitar depends very much on where you are looking and what size apt you want. Givat A is more anglo, more established, the apts are older and less available. Givat B is newer, apts are bigger, people are younger (babysitter shortage for that reason).

It's a great place for you to learn Hebrew. It's got a nice warm Anglo community, but enough opportunity for you to have to speak Hebrew to get the practice you need rather than more Anglo places (like some parts of RBS) where you could do pretty well in an Anglo bubble.

Many people keep there kids in English until 3. I know a couple of families with 7yo girls who did great coming here, but I don't know what the sitch is for boys since their schooling is much different.

Hatzlacha with your search!


Thanks for responding. Can you tell me a bit more about housing? I would be looking for something four rooms or larger, 100 square meters or more, preferably ground floor. What price range would I be looking at for both buying and renting?
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amother


 

Post Mon, Jan 12 2009, 7:12 am
justmom wrote:
I can't comment on your chabad concerns, but yes, children that age do learn Hebrew fairly quickly. The first few months are absolute torture-- for the children, and therefore for the parents. They are in school where even if there are other English speaking children, generally the teachers do not speak English, and of course the whole day is conducted in only Hebrew. It is confusing, overwhelming and generally very scary. Even if they come with amazing attitudes it is very different from the reality of feeling so alone. Everyone says that by Chanuka your children will adjust we found it was closer to Pesach.
As far as your language concerns-- I also came being able to read, write and understand (sort of)-- 2 years later I got a job in a field that involves all talking-- so yes, it is possible-- still scary for me though-- I generally think before I speak.
Something else to think about is that many chassidish schools speak Yiddish (I have no idea about Chabad) so could it be your kids will already have a common language??
B'hatzlacha and Mazal Tov!!
All that said, it is sooooo worth it. I love living in this kadosh country.


My kids actually do speak some Yiddish, but I doubt that there are any Yiddish speaking Chabad schools in E"Y, if there are we would love it but I somehow doubt it
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amother


 

Post Mon, Jan 12 2009, 7:14 am
yuki wrote:
Hi amother, my DH has checked out the Beitar community. I would describe myself and situation a lot like yourself. I have boys the exact same age, plus a couple of older and a couple of younger kiddos than yourself.

We plan to make our aliya this summer. My DH checked out a lot of places. He had only nice things to say about Beitar. Especially the boys Chabad school. He was really impressed by it, out of all the schools he visited. We have video of it, I wonder if I could somehow get you a copy of that portion if you would like?

My DH wasn't/isn't so comfortable living over the green line, isn't it surrounded by Arabs?? But, that's just him, the area in general he thought was nice looking. (If that sort of thing matters to you.) I could give you the name of the chabad yeshiva director, he speaks English. A very nice man who took my DH around and lives there in Beitar(has kids could tell you more of what you wanted to know.)

As far as mischist stuff goes I think you are going to find it everywhere, to some sort of degree. That's just the way it is there.

RBS also has a Chabad school. Girls and boys share the school, I think it was boys upstairs girls downstairs. Although housing there is not affordable! Sad Not on an Israeli salary) But it is a beautiful community and my DH felt really comfortable there. The community does have a very friendly NON-mishichist minyan that meets on Shabbos. And there's another shul that's has minyanim all the time, but that one is definately mishichist, although you will find non ones davening there too. I have seen the Lubavitch contacts for that community listed here on Imamother. I could look them up for you. They would have more to say, and would probably know about Beitar as well because it's not far from them. Also really nice people.

We looked into Rechovot. My DH wasn't so impressed with the boys school. We have only heard praises for the girls school which is in a near by community. The people there were really nice too, very welcoming. But, housing is A really hard to come by in the Chabad community, and B pretty exspensive. Another thing that may bother you is that it's really big on yechi there. The Rav explained it to my DH. There are those who like to be vocal, and that's what you see, but not eveyone here is that way. Some just can't take it.

I want to check out Tsfas. I know the shliach is nonmishichist. I know of other famlies there who are not. I just don't know what kind of empolyment opportunties if any are within the area. But it is very beautiful there.

Like I said we are still figuring things out, but we have done a lot of research to. So if you want to pm me I can try to help you out. It really isn't easy looking for the right Chabad community to come to when you already have kids. NBN surely doesn't have that info we needed. You need to do a lot of the research on your own.

Hatzlachah!!

We still aren't 100% were we should go. My DH will probably be making another trip here soon to do some more research. It's not easy, especially when you are doing this with kiddos. You want to get it right, at least try to anyways.


Thanks, that is very helpful.
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raspberry tea




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Jan 13 2009, 5:30 am
OP, maybe you should post this in the Lubavitch section? I know a lot of the ladies there live in Israel, maybe you would get more of a response.
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