Growing up, the 4th of July was my favorite holiday. My family celebrated at Cape Cod. Watching impressive firework shows late into the night while eating hamburgers and hot dogs. This past July 4th was the most nontraditional and yet the most meaningful. July 4th 2019 I touchdown at Ben Gurion Airport and begin my first day as a new immigrant.
For anyone interested in making Aliyah, know patience is a virtue and bureaucracy is your new best friend. I disembark from the plane and immediately realize I left my airpods in my seat. I wasn’t about to start this journey music-free, so I force myself back on the plane and retrieve my lost pods. This evoked a fond memory of my last trip to Israel. Where my camper Josh Erani left his passport on the plane and we spent the better half of the morning retrieving it before being able to go through customs.
Ben Gurion is an airport like no other. When I lived in Tel Aviv I would sit on the rooftop of my building and watch plane after plane come into land in a production that seemed to operate like clockwork. In those moments, I understood how alive this small country really is.
My Aliyah flight operated differently. I was met at the gate by a Nefesh BeNefesh representative and swept into an immigration office. They issued me a temporary residency document (teudat oleh) and kindly gave me a financial package and complementary sim card.
In the immigration office I was the only American. But it was full of Russians, French and Europeans who, like me, were also on day one of an enormous journey. The air in the room was ecstatic, unlike any office I had been in. I was welcomed home by everyone and was forced to write down contact information in case I ever needed anything.
I receive my checked luggage and was escorted to the taxi stand where a driver takes me free of charge. This was my first challenge of Aliyah: the hour car ride from Ben Gurion to my sublet in Herziliya with my Russian Taxi driver. We spoke the entire ride. About life in America, Israel and Russia. About politics, culture and economics. About what we like and don’t like. While I had been studying Hebrew for awhile, this experience shows you your abilities and limitations better than any exam. And I passed! He was a very nice man from Ashkelon. He drops me off at my apartment in Herziliya, my home for the next six weeks. As I trek the 4 flights of stairs with my 100 lbs of luggage I laugh to myself about what I have waiting for me.
Since December, the timeline of my Aliyah and draft were clear cut. But the first rule of the IDF is the plan always changes. I bought my Aliyah flight in April, expecting to spend July and half of August living in a soldier absorption center in Hod Hasharon and take classes there.
Sometime in May, my Garin’s program advisor informed us the Ulpan being offered at the absorption center was below most our capabilities and the center itself was overbooked and there wasn’t enough space to accommodate us. So with a few weeks out, we were left scrambling to put together summer plans.
I did what anyone would do and scanned the postings of Secret Tel Aviv and about a dozen other Mercaz housing groups on Facebook. I private messaged so many people, trying to find last minute affordable housing in the Mercaz while also piece together where I could even take Hebrew classes.
It circulated in the Garin that IDC Herziliya was offering a summer Ulpan and it fit perfectly with our time window. I narrowed my online search to exclusively Herzliya and something gave.
A very nice girl, Alli Abramowitz, a current student at IDC Herziliya responded to my messages. Unfortunately, the listing posted on facebook was of her roommate who had already filled the space. But Alli was inspired by my story and took the time to understand my situation. I explained to her I was hoping to take Ulpan at IDC herzliya and just needed a place from July 4th until august 16th (at that point I would be moving with my Garin to Kibbutz Erez).
An American-Israeli herself, she had spent much of her life going back and forth between Israel and her hometown of San diego, California. It turned out she was going to be visiting her friends and family in San Diego, the exact times I was looking for a sublet.
After we talked more and more, she offered to sublet her room to me for the six weeks, an incredibly kind gesture to offer a stranger on the internet. But at that point, we weren’t really strangers. Yes we had never met, but we had a lot in common. We both shared a love for Israel and a complicated dual identity of being both American and Israeli. We both were at a point in our lives where we made the leap, from growing up in America to choosing to come to Israel. We shared a connection and based on that Alli opened her home to me. I enjoyed that summer so much.
Rewind to me walking up the stairs with 100 lbs of luggage. What gave me strength to power through those four flights was knowing what was waiting for me at the top.
I knock before bursting in. Clouds of hookah smoke greet me before anything else. Then the doggo, jumping around and yapping at the strange sweaty man who just let himself in. I see the man I was waiting for, Sam Stein, who puts the hookah hose down before standing up to embrace me.
Sam had finished leading a birthright trip four days before. We had been talking over the summer, and when Alli reached out to me explaining another roommate of hers was interested in subletting I immediately hit Sam with the concept: You, me & Herzliya: a love story. Sam was hooked and that’s how it all began.
After embracing Sam I Introduced myself to our other roommates: Nicole and Vika. Nicole, a sweet charismatic Russian-American girl moved to Israel post-grad to earn her masters at IDC and to be closer to her grandparents who live in Haifa. Vika and Nicole had been best friends from childhood, she now lives in Colombia with her boyfriend and beautiful daughter Mika. Vika had done birthright and delayed her flight home in order to spend time with Nicole and other friends and family she had living in Israel.
And then our fourth roommate: half beagle half doxon and 100% weasel… Zola the doggo is a beautiful soul and Nicole decided to bring her with to Israel.
That summer went in waves. At first, Sam, Nicole, Vika and I lived together. Then Vika left, then sam left. Sometimes Nicole would spend nights in Tel aviv or Haifa and it would be just me and Zola. I cherished every moment with them and living in Herziliya, where my schedule revolved around Ulpan from 830-1. I knew after that summer, life would only get more difficult, so I tried and succeeded on staying grounded and enjoying myself.
Highlights of my summer:
- Cooking and doing rooftop yoga with Nicole, a talented chef and practiced yogi.
- Going on runs with Zola to Herzliya park where I would exercise at the public gym… it was at this gym I learned and perfected skills like the muscle up, the hang and others.
- Grilling delicious food with Sam or wondering up and down Sokolov st. in search of the best hummus or falafel (falafel Gabi took the prize)
- Interacting with Veka and Nicole, whose lives were completely different than mine but we all shared similar Jewish heritage and a respect for Israel.
- Improving my Hebrew at IDC Ulpan and interacting with an incredibly diverse class of students, who came from all around the world to live in Israel.
These were the early days, where I spent my time and energy focused on acclimating to a new society. I started sending voice memos and interacting in Hebrew more. I would eat hummus for dinner and drink Turkish coffee in the mornings. I got an arsim haircut and started wearing clothing from castro. All the pieces were coming into order, and it felt so natural and so right.
The day I moved out was both sad and exciting. That door closed and I was on my way to the next adventure. A journey that took me down south, out of the Mercaz, to the envelope Gaza region. My new home: Kibbutz Erez. A beautiful sleepy community whose way of life is the closest to an Utopian as I have ever witnessed. Kids run barefoot from one friend’s house to another. Grandparents and great-grandparents sit on their porches, drinking coffee and talking about the old days (which for many of them were the days before the Jewish state). Peacocks roam free and there is a magic in the air. This has been my home since August and will continue to be my home for the foreseeable future. I am full of gratitude to the kibbutzniks who welcomed us into their home and who have put in tremendous effort to make sure we feel welcomed and comfortable.
Shout out to Alli and Nicole, who can’t understand how much their kindness helped me transition into life in Israel.
Alli in the middle, Nicole on the right and the weasledog Zola in her arms
David's Blog 