Aliya + 1 month – “Thank You”

For the past week or so, since the contest ended, I have been composing a note, with fits and starts, to thank everyone who has been voting, emailing, Facebooking (is that a word?) and more in support of our getting jobs here in Israel. One of the things that has hindered my progress is that I was hoping that I would be able to say that I have accepted a position in that email. Unfortunately, that announcement will have to wait although my expression of appreciation cannot be put off any longer.

The contest that we entered had a few objectives, depending upon your perspective. From the viewpoint of Nefesh B’Nefesh, they were hoping to get as many people as possible thinking about aliyah even if only for a few moments each day and perhaps putting a “face” on the experiences of some olim. I think that their goal was met.

From our vantage point, we were hoping to get some help in searching for jobs in Israel. I think that this objective was met as well. Although I have not yet accepted any offers, there have been numerous people in Nefesh B’Nefesh who have been diligently working either directly with me or directly with the employers or completely behind the scenes making contacts and sending out my resume or reference letters for me to so many companies. Through their efforts (and in conjunction with my own contacts) I have had a number of interviews in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Petach Tikva and I have been in contact with a number of other companies in those and other cities for some very exciting positions in IT Security and Compliance. I know that the good people at NBN have not slowed in their efforts now that the contest is over and that the right match will materialize soon.

I have absolutely been in awe and I am humbled by the number of people who have shown us so much support, making our personal challenge into their personal objective. I have run into people all over, in pizza stores, on the street, in Israel and the US who have told us that they are voting for us each day. It is amazing how many people this contest has reached. I hope that through this exposure some people have given a little more thought to aliyah and will join us here in this incredible country some day soon. And I know that all of your efforts had a profound effect.

I wish the best of luck to all of the other contestants and I hope that each of us will find our perfect job here. So many of them worked hard at following the guidelines of this contest and meeting the challenge emails that NBN sent out on occasion. They made tremendous efforts to reach out to all of their friends and family. And I am sure that NBN will not give up on them either and will work with them to get them settled soon.

This country is incredible. The economy is thriving, construction is ubiquitous and jobs are to be found in practically every industry. Our 3000+ year old connection to this country, our heritage, is felt in the streets of Jerusalem, the hills of Judea and Samaria and the towns and villages of the Gallil and Golan. You see it in the faces of the oldest and youngest citizens and in the pride of the soldiers that you meet each day. This is our country and it is one of the most important things in our lives. The struggles that our ancestors faced just a few generations ago to come here have been replaced by a new set of challenges, but just as they were met in generations past, none of them are insurmountable today. It is time to come home to Israel.

Aliya + 3 weeks – “The Interview”

In the past week I had four interviews including a followup interview for a job that I am very interested in. The initial interview was over the phone but this one was in person, now that we have arrived. Three of the 4 came through Nefesh B’Nefesh and one was an interview that I managed to snag myself through my own networking contacts. I am particularly interested in that one as well.

When I was here back in April-May I had a number of interviews, professional meetings and other networking get togethers so I got a chance to familiarize myself with the interview culture, which is quite different from how it was for me in the US. Back in New York, going for an interview certainly meant a suit, white shirt and tie; cuff-links would be a nice touch. Here in Israel, sandals without socks is a nice touch. So I might have overdone it a bit when I went to one interview in my white shirt with my initials monogrammed on the sleeve, but I was practically out of clean white shirts after Tisha B’Av (does anyone know of a good cleaners in the Gush?)

I was taken aback a bit when one interviewer asked me my age but I should have been prepared for that kind of cultural difference. Many of the job descriptions say that they are for men or women – not something that you are likely to see in a job description in the US.

All of the interviews went very well and I would be delighted to have any of the jobs although they each had their pluses and minuses. The hiring process at all of the companies is considerably longer than what I am accustomed to – along the lines of a month, often filled with 4 meetings. Each position has differing requirements for knowledge of Hebrew ranging from requiring a high level of knowledge, being able to read and write lengthy reports in Hebrew to requiring practically no Hebrew at all.

Although most of the positions are in the Tel Aviv (Petach Tikva, Ramat Gan, Hertzelia) area, some positions are in Jerusalem which is a lot closer for me. Although driving during rush hour to Hertzelia could take me close to 2 hours during rush hour, I would not eliminate practically any position from consideration on any one issue. You never know – by the time you reach your 2^nd or 3^rd interview, you might hear a different story.

In the US, I would often find job descriptions that match my background almost perfectly. I generally do not find that over here. But that is really not a problem – I would be delighted to share what I have learned over my professional career while learning new skills here. It is always good to “stretch” a bit, pick up a few new tricks and learn how they cope with the unique challenges that they face here.

Of course, certain things are the same as in the States. I always make sure that I know about the company that I am interviewing with, I come with a positive attitude and I always find that I have a few questions to ask about the specific job – is it a new position, what happened to the prior person who held the position (hopefully he was promoted), what are the biggest challenges that they face, how large a group I would be working with, etc. And if it is clear that the one that you are interviewing for is just not right for you, it does not hurt to ask if they have any contacts that would be more appropriate.

Most of all, I know that I have to just keep working at it until that right job comes along and I’m sure that it will soon. Probably when I finally break down and wear sandals to the interview.

Aliyah + 2 weeks "Smelling the Roses"

We rushed into this past Shabbat, putting last minute touches on so many things before we had to light candles. I managed to forget to put tape on the switch in our refrigerator (thank goodness Pearl remembered) and when I finally got to the beit Knesset and sat down, I gave a big sigh. I needed this shabbat a LOT. I was speaking with someone later and mentioned that for the first time, I am looking forward to Tish’a B’Av because it will give me an additional day of rest this week.

We have been so busy getting things done that we have not had much of a chance to just sit back and enjoy the fruits of our hard work. Yesterday, our appliances were installed so we were able to have our first home-cooked meal – that is certainly something to celebrate, especially after a long day in Talpiot, choosing tiles and bathroom fixtures and (finally!) buying the two beds that we need for the family that is arriving for Ilan and Julia’s wedding.

Morning clouds over Beitar Illit

This morning I looked out of our window and saw the lovely sunrise on a cool, dry summer day. I could see Beitar under the clouds that stretched out to the Mediterranean Sea. It was a sight to behold. Last Friday we saw a painter across the street, setting up her easel to paint the magnificent view that we are zoche to see every day. I never lived in a place that would warrant the attention of an artist before.

This morning we are going to have pancakes on the porch and I plan on just relaxing and sipping my coffee for an extra few minutes while breathing in the fresh air. There are so many things that need to be addressed “dachuf” (urgently) but they will just have to wait a few minutes longer. Sometimes you just have to take a moment to smell the roses.

Aliya + 1 week – “A Letter From Home”

Aliya + 1 week – “A Letter From Home”

Dear Friends and Family,

We just got Internet today so we have a lot of catching up to do. Thank you so much for all the updates and keeping on top of the voting! I am so glad that you are following through with this even while we were offline. It has been an interesting week since we arrived last Wednesday. I have not yet decided what to mention in my blog but so much has happened that I cannot imagine covering even a fraction of it here.

At Newark Airport

The Nefesh B’Nefesh people were so calm and helpful throughout. Besides guiding us through the processing at the airports and assisting at getting us our teudot zehut and oleh, they helped get our customs file open by faxing those papers to the customs office. That probably cut a day or so off of the time that it takes to get us our lift. And while playing the Jewish Geography game we found that we are second cousins to one of the NBN people.

We managed to rent a car for a month since we could not find a reasonable car to lease or buy. This way we are buying ourselves some time - our most precious commodity right now. We had a LOT of trouble getting our cell phones set up correctly but we are finally good now. We got a great deal from HOT Mobile - they are giving us the cell phone service for 50 NIS / month for everything including the ISP for the home for free! That makes the home Internet very cheap - something under $25 / month from Bezek (since you pay separately for the ISP and the infrastructure here).

Out of necessity, we have become quite efficient at getting things done. Before lunch today, we brought our clothing to the cleaners (so that we can have them back before the 9 days), got our dud shemesh (solar hot water) fixed, got confirmation that our lift will be delivered on Tuesday and managed to go with the contractor to Talpiot (where else?) to shop for all of the things for the bathroom, especially the tub, toilet and tile. And while  setting up our bank accounts and credit cards this morning (it is so nice being able to take care of business on Sunday!), we had one of those "only in Israel" moments when we saw the teller wearing a gun. Amazing!

Putting up the mezuzah on the front door

As soon as we got the car on Friday, we (Yair and I) ran over to Kever Rachel to say a few tehillim for Jeffery Hamber (שרה אביבה בן יעקב פתחיה רפאל). I had that as a very high priority on my list of things to do. Kever Rachel's placement made it the default the place where the Jewish people would visit on their way into and out of galut, so I wanted to go there, now that we are returning from galut.

I joined several members of the yishuv to daven in Mearat HaMachpela on Friday morning - they do that every Friday before shabbat mevorchim. Next stop - the Kotel.

"Welcome Home"

Ilan and Julia joined us for our first Shabbat here. Although we had practically no furniture and were sleeping on mattresses on the floor, Pearl managed to set up Julia’s room with a little night table by flipping over a basket and putting a cloth on it and put a few flowers in a cup to make it feel just a bit more homey. We were invited to about 5 meals so we had to take a couple of rainchecks. And we had so many people stopping by before shabbat with flowers, wine, cake and challah, not to mention mattresses, chairs, water kettles, etc. It was a nice touch to get flowers and a bottle of wine from our contractor!

 But I think that the highlight of the week was getting an aliyah at mincha on shabbat, when everybody sang Veshaavu Banim L'Gvulam. We are finally home.

Now if I can only think of what to write for this week’s blog…

-Daniel and Pearl

1 week to aliyah – “What Really Matters”

I have seen a lot of activity on some of the discussion lists related to what people want to do in the days and weeks leading up to their aliyah. Some want to catch that last Broadway show and some want to hit some of the restaurants that they never had a chance to go to before. Some make sure to go to the cemetery for what might be the last time in a long while.

In the last few weeks before our lift went off, our schedules were very hectic. There was not a lot of time to do much of anything other than sort out our things and prepare for the move. Although there are still many items that need our attention, things have certainly calmed down quite a bit in the last week leaving us with a little time to do the things that are most important to us.

 

Pearl, Bert, Netanel, Ezra, Ernie, Mikayla and Jessica in Sesame Place

This past Shabbat we had a lovely time with Rachel and Yony and Yehoshua in Elizabeth and on Sunday, we went to Sesame Place with Ezra, Jessica, Netanel and Mikayla. We had some quiet time last night over coffee with some friends and this Shabbat we will be having meals with other friends. We’ve got a lunch date with a few other friends later this week and a large BBQ that yet more friends are making and are inviting practically everyone else. Although we are looking forward to seeing some of these friends and hopefully all of these relatives very soon in Israel, these last few days here that we are spending connecting with those who are so important to us will be remembered and cherished for many years to come.

"Shiv’a Asar B’Tammuz – Past and Present"

This Shiv’a Asar B’Tammuz brought back vivid memories of another one eight years ago, just after Rachel and Yony got engaged in Israel. Pearl and I arranged to arrive there shortly after their formal engagement and spent the next week or so with them and also attending our nephew’s bar mitzvah.

On Shiv’a Asar B’Tammuz we were up north in the Golan and Galil. Although it is a fast day and it was somewhat warm, Pearl and I felt strongly about taking advantage of every moment that we had in Israel and doing some activity that would have meaning for the day. We planned a trip to Gamla with my reasoning being that Shiv’a Asar B’Tammuz represents the start of the destruction of the 2^nd Beit HaMikdash and Gamla represents the start of the war that resulted in that destruction.

Everyone had to put up with my history lesson, explaining how Nero sent his general Vespasian since he was an older man in his 60’s and Nero was just hoping that Vespasian, being a bit calmer than the other generals, would quietly put down this pesky Jewish revolt. Vespasian chose his first battles wisely. He did not want to jump into the fray, going straight for Jerusalem. Instead, as he arrived from the north, he thought that he would get the message out by snuffing out some of the hotbeds of the revolt as he approached them.

Gamla was unfortunately one of the first to suffer. The battle was fierce and many of the Jews ended up jumping off of the cliffs to their deaths than risk being taken as slaves.

Rachel, me and Yony at Gamla in 2005 (Pearl is taking the picture)

Although Pearl and Rachel managed to get away with only my history lesson, Yony was not so lucky. My new future son in law knew that he had practically no choice and was going to have to take the walk over to the ruins with me. I assaulted him with more stories along the way, telling him how there must be thousands of arrow and spearheads lying along the path from the assault 2000 years earlier. I think he was hoping that if he found one, he could exchange that trophy for a “get out of jail free” card. No such luck.

This morning in the selichot we said “We rebelled against Him who dwells in the loftiest heavens, therefore we were scattered to all corners”.  “We were scattered without finding relief”. But we end the slicha with the lines “Turn to us, You who dwells on high, gather in our dispersion from the ends of the earth. May your hand once more acquire this awe-struck nation, and may You say to Zion ‘Rise!’ and transform the 17^th of Tammuz for us to a day of salvation and consolation.”

May we all merit returning to Zion, speedily in our days.

See you on the other side.

2 weeks to aliyah – “What is that voodoo that you do so well?”

For pretty much all of my professional career, people (including my family) have asked me what I do in the computer field. Of course, my role has evolved over the years so the answer to that question has evolved along with it. But now, especially with me being in this contest and so many of my friends and relatives passing along all of their networking contacts, I thought that this would be an opportune time for me to explain what it is that I do for a living.

Of course, if I were to spell out all of the gory details I would lose most of my audience in the first paragraph and thus not accomplish at least part of my goal. On the other hand, since there might be some potential employers reading this, it would be helpful to be at least a little specific. I will try my best to explain this clearly and concisely to satisfy the golden mean. Hopefully, all but the most ardent Luddites will be able to get some appreciation of what I do and maybe some of them might even say, “hey, I know someone who I ought to introduce to Daniel”.

Although my title is Information Security Officer (ISO), that title means different things in different companies here in the US, so when you transplant it to Israel, it practically loses all meaning altogether. The best way to describe my job is that I am responsible for 4 areas in the computer environment in the company, (or in Information Technology (IT)). They are:

• Security (אבטחת מידע),
• Compliance (ציות),
• Risk (סיכונים ניהול) and
• Audit (מידע מערכות ביקורת). 

(Have I lost any of you yet?)

Security is probably the most commonly known part of my job. It is like the lock that you put on your door or the bars that might go on your windows. They are designed to keep the bad guys out yet not impede your own access to your house. Similarly, a company makes strides to make the computer environment as secure as possible without making it too difficult for the people who do need access to the computer – either customers or employees – to do what they need to do. You can never make the environment 100% secure.

On the other hand, you can and should make your environment 100% compliant. Compliance means following the rules. For example, your auto insurance company might dictate that you have an alarm on your car or that you use seatbelts. If they catch you violating those rules, they might deny you coverage. Likewise, if an auditor discovers that you are not adhering to the regulations dictated by law or even just by the company’s bylaws itself, you can find yourself in trouble.

For that reason, in the US the focus tends to be on compliance whereas in Israel, they certainly concern themselves more with security. In general, it is best when the compliance regulations make sense to the employees. Otherwise, they tend to try to bypass the rules. It is my job to make the policies relevant so that they understand why it is important for them to adhere to them.

 

When compliance regulations do not seem relevant
to people, they often find ways to bypass them.

There is a great deal of overlap between the areas of security and risk. I would often conduct formal and informal risk assessments to determine how secure an environment is, where the holes are, and what can be done to stop them up. Risk assessment and management is an ongoing responsibility in which you are constantly determining the appetite that the organization has for risk vs new threats that are being discovered every day.

My involvement with IT Audit was primarily as a liaison between the infrastructure support people and the auditors. I would not conduct audits myself, but I would be the person translating the auditors’ requirements into meaningful terms that the systems people would understand and then reviewing the evidence that they would gather to determine if it was the correct information to pass along to the auditors. Although this sounds much like a paper pusher in some ways, this was actually a very important role. Just as you would not necessarily want to represent yourself legally – you would hire a lawyer – it is not wise to have the systems people dealing directly with the auditors. That would just be asking for trouble and at worst, might get the organization into legal hot water.

There are some aspects of all of this at which I am particularly adept and have enabled me to be very successful in making two large companies more compliant and secure. Much of that is attributable to my more technical background in Operating systems programming and administration than the average person in IT security. That has given me a practically unique combination of skills that has proven very effective in my dealings with both the systems people and the auditors.

Well, there is a very brief idea of what I do. There is of course a great deal more that I could say about what I have done but I think that I tested the limits of my audience already. So any hiring managers who would like to hear more, I still have some slots available for interviews.

Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of my job to help some of you to better describe my role to your contacts. And of course, it will give some employers a little insight into my background as an IT Security Officer.

3 weeks to aliyah – Pesach for a Month

I am writing this at the end of a long day, with my PC precariously perched on my aching knees. The house looks so empty even though it is filled from floor to ceiling with boxes. Most of our lifetime possessions have been carefully wrapped up, boxed and labeled and are ready to be loaded on the container tomorrow.

The planning for this was meticulous. What do we need for the next 3 weeks here and for the week after our arrival in Israel? Whatever we hold onto had better fit in our luggage or be disposed of, but whatever we send on the lift had better be something we can do without (like chairs, tables, blankets and beds). It seemed rather like preparing for Pesach, but this Pesach was going to be a month long and we had to separate not only our food and dishes but everything in our house. Not an easy task.

Pearl and I walked through the house when the movers left, assessing what is complete and what still needs to be done. Pearl took pictures and I marveled at seeing corners of the house that I have not been able to see in close to 27 years. It was bittersweet. I can’t help but reflect back on a time about 20 years ago after my father passed away when my mother decided to pack up and sell our family house in Maryland and move up to a small apartment in NY.

Granted, my mother’s 4 sons all lived far from her – two in the Philly area, one in NJ and me in NY. She was selling a beautiful house in a lovely, tree filled neighborhood and moving to a small, old apartment in a dirty city. She was going to have to start paying rent and get around in unfamiliar surroundings without the benefit of a car for the first time in decades. I thought that she would never pull it off when she first told me about it, but she did it and made the best of her new life by attending courses in Brooklyn College and participating in a few neighborhood groups. She tried every restaurant that she could on my restaurant website (http://www.nachas.org/BethYehuda/kosher.html ) and gave me her reviews practically on a daily basis.

Yet, it saddened me and my brothers to see her give up the comfort and security of a house that she and my father lived in for 27 years (funny how that is how long we lived here…). After today, I now appreciate a little more how our children are feeling about us selling this house.

The circumstances of my mother’s move and ours could not be further apart. Pearl and I are finally realizing a dream that we have had for over 35 years. I am embarking on a new adventure with my best friend. We are not moving into a drab, old space rather into a beautiful house that we plan on making into our new home. We are not preparing for the end of our lives, rather for a new start. This is exciting and fulfilling, adventurous and bold. We are beginning a new phase of our lives together and we could not be happier about it. I hope that our children will come to see it that way as well.

It is a little sad and scary to give up this house that we lived in all of these years. We threw away a lot of junk that was weighing us down. Sometimes you have to take on some risk in order to make some major strides forward. “To make an omelet you have to break a few eggs”. We are hoping to make one amazing omelet.

4 weeks to aliyah – “The Lord works in mysterious ways”

Some of you have been asking me to explain to them how this job contest works. The whole concept seems a bit odd and unfamiliar and they have been trying to figure out why NBN would want them to vote for me and what the purpose of all of this is.

Well, the simple answer is “I don’t know”.

Now don’t get me wrong – most of this makes sense to me on some level or another. I can see why NBN would want to generate traffic to their websites or have people provide their email addresses. It also makes sense to me that they would want the contestants to write blogs where they can express their feelings about aliyah more in depth and provide useful information to other potential olim. NBN might even want to see that the contestant has the support of his friends and family as demonstrated through votes and that he himself is taking this seriously for instance by voting himself. And of course, the potential employers can get a better picture of the candidate through his writing and how much hishtadlus (effort) he puts into this.

But our upbringing makes us see things in familiar ways and we tend to wonder why a company would care how many votes someone has, as opposed to only considering his qualifications for the position.

I don’t know how I will arrive at getting a job in Israel, but this contest has provided yet another example of hashgacha pratis. Although I believe that I am well qualified for the position that I put in for and in all likelihood, I am probably the only contestant interested in that position, I still feel that I must do all that is possible to secure my place in this contest. That is because positions in IT Security and Compliance are not too common in Israel. What are the odds of one of the 10 positions in this contest being a job that suits me so well. As some people say, “The Lord works in mysterious ways”.

Of course, I am pursuing other avenues to employment at the same time. I won’t bore you with the gruesome details of how I use LinkedIn etc., but I will mention that I have a wonderful advisor who almost makes me nervous with her relentlessly pushing me even though there is SO much for me to take care of with the move itself, but she is so right-on with her advice so I appreciate it greatly (thank you, Emi).

And the help, support and brachot that we get from all of our friends and relatives is overwhelming. Just to put a few numbers to this –

·        We get about 125-150 votes each week.

·        There have been almost 1100 pageviews for my blog and one person is following my blog (thank you, Ruti!)

·        So far, nobody is following me in Twitter (not that I have had much to say there) or “pinning” any of my photos in Pinterest, but perhaps if I fully understood the value of that and leveraged it properly then it would see more action.

Since I send out my blog email to 130 people every week, then on the average, everyone is voting for me once each week. Of course, that is not the reality (I vote for me 7 times each week, for instance) so if there are some of you who want to “unsubscribe” from my email, then please let me know. On the other hand, some of you have asked me to send you daily reminders. Perhaps it would be more 21^st Century of me to use Twitter for that. Just let me know what works for you.

And as always, thank you all so much for your ongoing support.

5 weeks to aliyah – D’var Torah

I could not pass up the opportunity of sharing a few thoughts on the parsha this week since it has such profound ramifications with respect to aliyah. The sin perpetrated by the spies who went out to explore Eretz Yisroel has reverberations that we continue to feel to this day.

As we all know, the spies who were sent out were leaders of the nation, but they were overwhelmed by how difficult they thought it would be to enter Eretz Yisroel. And we see that when Calev answered them, he did not disagree and tell them that it would not be hard. Whether or not he agreed that it is hard, he answered them by saying “But we can surely do it”.

All my life, I have heard from many people about how hard it would be for them to move to Israel. Well, at this point I can tell you that, at least for me, it is truly very hard. It is not an easy thing to move away from family and change so many things about the way you live your life. But at the same time, I keep reminding myself that whatever challenges I meet, I will have to find a way to overcome them. “We can surely do it”.

The desire and need to live in Israel is such an essential part of our neshama. I have found that the feeling that I have when I have to leave Israel after a trip there is much like the feeling that I have after Shabbat when I lose that neshama yeseira. It is where we belong. We are out of place anywhere else.

It may be hard to move to Israel, but you have to still want to do it from the very depths of your soul. You can never give up the hope that you will someday move there nor can you stop making efforts to fulfill this essential mitzva.

Rabbi Moshe Lichtman, in his book “Eretz Yisroel in the Parsha” points out that galut – our exile from Israel – is a punishment. Nowadays when there is nobody stopping us from moving there, Hashem is no longer punishing us so why should we continue to punish ourselves?

Throughout history, the nations that defeated us and expelled us from our land made it so hard for us to all come back to where we belong. We should never resign ourselves to living in galut, thereby allowing them to win.

6 weeks to aliyah – Personal Finances

In the past few months, we have had to make purchases and pay contractors in Israel, pay bills there, transfer money and convert dollars to shekalim. All of this would hardly make us experts in how to best go about doing all of this, but we have learned a bit along the way so that we know some procedures that have worked well for us and a few that have not. There are books and postings and the like that have mentioned a few of these tidbits but they are often hidden amongst a lot of other information so some of the best practices that I have learned do not really stand out. I thought that I might share some of these hints today.

I am surprised that so few people seem to know about the “World Mastercard”. Several banks offer this or versions of it (including most notably Capital One and HSBC) but it is certainly a product that you should inquire about. The World MC comes in handy for both the oleh as well as for anyone travelling anywhere outside of the US, even as a tourist. The two most notable features of this card is that it charges no foreign transaction fee and that it covers some insurance when you rent a car in Israel.

Most credit cards will charge some foreign transaction fee for any purchases made outside of the US. This fee is often around 3% which might not add up to too much when buying small items or paying for meals in restaurants. But when you make larger purchases or when you make enough purchases, perhaps in a trip to Israel, the 3% can really add up. The World MC usually charges no such fee. They will of course have to calculate a rate for money conversion from NIS to dollars, but I have generally been happy with the rates that they use.

The other feature comes in handy when renting a car. If you call your credit card companies and ask if they will cover you on your accident insurance )for example, collision damage waiver) when you rent abroad, they will usually happily tell you that they do. But if you ask them to confirm that you are covered in Israel too, they will inform you that Israel is not covered, along with Beirut, Belfast and Jamaica - strange bedfellows. But the World MC will generally cover Israel as well. It still is important to tell the rental company that you are covered since most people don’t have this card so they usually tack on the charge without a second thought.

Transferring money to Israel can get to be rather expensive. Most US banks will charge anywhere from about $25 and up for an international wire transfer and the Israeli banks will also charge a fee when they receive the money. I try to use my World MC to pay anything that I can to avoid all of this when possible. When using the card is not possible then a few other options should be considered:

There are a number of foreign exchange companies that will offer a reduced charge for converting your money. In general, you must wire your money to them and they will hold it until you tell them to convert it and how much to convert. They will then place your money into the Israeli bank of your choice, thereby allowing you to possibly save a few points on the conversion rate. Although this sounds good, I have not found that the difference in rate was beneficial enough to warrant the added complexity of passing your money through yet another set of hands and since they don’t allow you to write a check to them, you are still not avoiding those wire fees.

When you establish a relationship with a bank in Israel, you can often negotiate a preferred conversion rate that might even be capped and could prove to be quite competitive with the forex companies.

Finally, there are some banks that have a presence in Israel that maintain a connection with their US counterparts. For the most part, the Israeli banks (e.g. Bank Leumi, HaPoalim, Israel Discount Bank, etc.) will tell you that they have nothing in common with the branches in the States other than the name. But I know for example, that HSBC in the US considers the HSBC in Israel to be part of the parent company if not quite a branch of it. Therefore if you are an HSBC customer in the US then you can open an account at the HSBC in Israel and connect your online presence of those accounts. Once that is done, they will allow you to transfer money between those branches for free.

Well, this is a bit long for a blog but still short for a novel, and I hope it offers just a few pointers that you will find useful.

8 weeks to aliyah – When are you moving to Israel?

I am convinced that Pearl did not REALLY send me here this week to get a job and get the house repairs started. Don’t get me wrong – I have made pretty good strides in both those areas. I have arranged 4 job “meetings”- I would not necessarily call them all “interviews” but they were all very job oriented and productive. And I have overseen the start of the shiputzim (repairs) which have taken off somewhat haltingly, but are still moving along.

Despite all that, I think that she really sent me these thousands of miles at a cost that we can hardly afford in order to clean the oven.

Allow me to digress a moment. I have a good friend (let’s call him “Yitzchak”) who moved here several years ago, who loves living here, but whenever he hears of anyone traveling here from the States, he asks that they bring something back here for him if possible. It is usually not a problem and they tend to not be too big items, but you have to wonder why, after all of these years, he still needs Listerine and cannot adapt to the local mouthwash (Ok, you know who you are now). I cannot imagine that he could find a single dentist here who would say “Yitzchak, there is only one thing that will save your gums now – good ole USA Listerine”. The last time that he asked me to bring back something I asked him when he plans to actually move to Israel.

So when I went to the Rami Levi to buy a few household items, although they had Pledge and Easy Off, I was determined to put my money where my mouth is and get the Israeli brands. Well, as anyone can tell you, things do not work here in Israel quite the way that they do in the States, (if they work at all).  The furniture polish smelled like Lemony Fresh WD-40 and I am convinced that the oven cleaner is a placebo. The only thing that it managed to dissolve is the skin on my fingers.

When we move to Israel, we are changing so much in our lives. We are disposing of a lifetime of items that we have grown comfortable with, leaving our 110 lives behind and replacing them with a 220 existence that we are unfamiliar with. As scary as that sounds, and it is scary, it is good too. Just the choice to move here itself is part of the process of deciding that you want to make a major change in your life, to make a major stride forward in one very important mitzvah.

So, if you need to retain a few of those comfy items that you could not possibly think of living without, then so be it. Stick with the Listerine or get that $100 transformer for that $50 toaster oven because it browns the toast so nicely on both sides at once. But you should also try to learn to eat vegetables with your breakfast.

9 weeks to aliyah - “This Land Is My Land”

I just arrived this morning in Israel for a brief stay to take care of a few items, including some job interviews and to start some of the shiputzim (home repairs) that need to be made. This was a last minute decision as far as these things go (that is, we decided one week ago, which is about as “last minute” you would want a trip to be, considering all of the arrangements that need to be made) so I don’t have all of my schedule worked out yet, but it is certainly starting to take shape.

We have taken many trips here in the past and this started out feeling no different from any of those. The flight was uneventful, the choice of movies was not too bad, unlike the taste of the food, and I slept very little on the plane, which seems to work for me anyway, so I am not complaining.

I picked up my car rental and left the airport heading East on Route 1 as I have done so many times in the past. On previous trips, I always felt a bit anxious knowing that, although I was certainly there for a vacation, I was usually going for a purpose with goals to accomplish and knowing that my “regular life” was awaiting me back home in just a few days. As I started out on Route 1 and saw the familiar landmarks, that twinge of anxiety started seeping in this time too.

But then, something strange happened. Those familiar landmarks looked a bit different this time. A very peaceful feeling seemed to descend on me. The fields on the side of the road looked familiar but in a different way. On my previous visits, I always knew that although this is my country as a Jew, I was just a tourist here. I would be heading home all too soon. But this time contrary to the stamp in my passport, I was not here as a tourist. This is the country that I will soon be moving to. The fields are my fields now and I will soon be a citizen of this great land, just like the people around me on the road.

Although I know that this time too, I will return “home” in a few days, I feel different this time. There is a certain primal emotion that you feel when you put that key into the door of the home that you own. You know that you really, really, REALLY are finally home.

10 weeks to aliyah – “This day will fade away, the sun will set and be gone – let us come to Your gates.” (Yom Kippur Ne’ila service, cf: Psalms 100:4)

There are so many things in our lives that have “soft” deadlines. That is, we know that we want to take care of it “someday”. Sometimes we get around to it and sometimes we don’t.

In the last few weeks and months there have been a lot of deadlines for us to deal with. Some are deadlines that we set for ourselves, for instance getting our visas, organizing the lift, putting our finances in order, etc. and some are deadlines that are being thrust upon those around us. For example, we have lots of friends and relative who have wanted to get together with us over the years or wanted us to look at or address something for them, but nothing has ever pushed us in the past to set the dates. Well, now we have a hard deadline to work with.

Even aliyah in general works this way. Pearl and I have talked for decades about making aliyah, but it was so easy for us to say that we would like to do it “someday”. It only actually happens when you set a real date to that “someday”.

Aliya is something that takes a lot of planning and organization. There are a 1000 decisions that need to be made and lots of research to do. You find yourself working on 100 projects at once, many of which cannot be completed until a later date, but you have to keep on top of every one of them, following through with people who do not return phone calls or emails as responsibly as you would like. (By the way, employers, these are skills that are very applicable to the job that I am trying to get – hint, hint…). And you have to do it all in the right time-frame or it just doesn't get done.

Don’t get me wrong – this is not a complaint. Aliyah could be a real simple and easy thing for some people. But we happened to have made our lives rather complex at this stage of the game, so there are just a lot of factors that we have to address. I wish that people could look at our experience and say “look how easy it was for the Friedmans to make aliyah”. Although it is not always easy, aliyah is very doable if you make it your priority.

11 weeks to aliyah – This post should “lift” your spirits

First of all, I want to wish a Happy 65^th Birthday to Israel. May we celebrate many, many more of them, but TOGETHER from now on.

Choosing a company for your lift is not as simple as it might seem at first, partly because there are so many good companies out there and the rates tend to be pretty close, one to the next so you might be inclined to just randomly choose one and be done with it. But there are certainly differences between the various firms and your personal preferences in prioritizing those differences could help you make the decision that works for you.

Some of the costs that are involved in moving are pretty static and tend not to be all that different from one firm to another. For example, the cost of materials for packing (boxes, tape, padding, wrapping,

Zim Container ship in Haifa port

etc.) probably costs each firm pretty much the same so if one company expects that cost to be especially low, you might wonder if they are skimping on some materials. Also, they probably are all charged pretty much the same for a 20 or 40 foot container, so that price just gets passed along to you.

On the other hand, you will find differences in the size of the company, the number of years that they have been around, their reputation and local references, where they are based and insurance.

There are a few sites that allow people to post their experiences with the moving firms, for example this one: http://goo.gl/Qri8T (that is where the responses are posted). When reading the reviews, you have to be careful to give some of the companies the benefit of the doubt and take some of the comments with a grain of salt. Some complaints seemed rather petty to me and others seemed to be out of the shipper’s control. I noticed that 3 of the largest shippers had only positive comments so I started my search with them. I also include two firms that were recommended to me by people who had used them.

One factor that made a difference to me was where the company is based. Several of the firms used the same mover here in the NY area since they were based elsewhere in the US or in Israel so I figured that this aspect was all the same for those shippers and that local mover was probably pretty good. I wanted to focus my attention on a shipper that is based in Israel because I figured that might make the processing on that side a bit smoother.

Another factor that I considered was that one of the firms was self insured. That allowed them to reduce the cost of the insurance for me while also lowering the deductible. I interpreted this (for better or for worse) as a sign of confidence that they have in their ability to safely and reliably move my goods (although it could also be a sign of their reluctance to make payments on claims, but I tend to doubt that).

Some firms were unable to give me local references even though I know other Staten Islanders who had used them. The fact that they couldn't or wouldn't bother to try did not increase my confidence in them.

Whichever firm you choose, I hope that you have a smooth and worry free experience.

12 weeks to aliyah – “And now, a word from our sponsor”

Whenever I mention that we are going on aliyah, inevitably one of the first questions that people ask is “are you going with Nefesh B’Nefesh?”. I am not sure if people understand the role of Nefesh B’Nefesh in the aliyah process so I thought that I could at least talk about our personal experience to help shed light on what they have done for us at least.

NBN is here to help and encourage people to move to Israel, mostly by providing information, streamlining the aliyah process and providing contacts and other resources in so many areas associated with aliyah. In some cases, they also provide some financial assistance.

When we first started planning our aliyah, we turned first to the NBN website to start our research. They have an aliyahpedia that provides information on practically anything that you might have a question about. They also have a yahoo group that allows you to ask questions and get answers from many others who have made aliyah, from NBN representatives and from professionals offering services and advice.

You practically cannot make aliyah without going through NBN. If you try to go directly to the Jewish Agency I would assume that they would send you back to NBN to help you organize all of the papers that you need prior to going to the Jewish Agency and to tell you exactly what to bring. When you are ready to make aliyah, you schedule an appointment with NBN to go over the entire process and register with them. They then set up a webpage for you so that you can track the progress and see which documents to provide.

NBN provides webinars and consultations for specific areas relating to where to live and how to find a job and so much more. Their representatives are knowledgeable and pleasant to work with. They also conduct their “Mega Event” each year where they have numerous information sessions and provide you with an opportunity to meet with vendors such as shippers, insurance companies and the various medical programs. And of course, they sponsor events like this wonderful contest that will hopefully directly result in one or more people landing jobs.

Finally, when all of the paperwork is done and you are ready to select a date, you arrange your aliyah flight with NBN as well. They are then with you on the flight (depending on the flight that you choose) and when you arrive to help you through the red tape in Israel.

NBN has been very helpful for us in our aliyah. It seems hard to imagine making this move without the abundance of resources that they have provided us. They have undoubtedly provided the resources that has resulted in many thousands of people making aliyah who would not have done so without them.

13 weeks to aliyah – Friends and family

Around a year ago we started cleaning up in earnest. I went up to the attic and brought down a room full of boxes and other items to throw out or give away. Pearl worked on clearing out cabinets and bookcases filled with toys, games, books, papers and other paraphernalia. We filled the cars with items to give away to friends and family members.

When I brought some of these to one of our friends they were shocked and said something like “so I guess you really are moving to Israel”.

When we first decided for sure to go, we agreed that we would not keep our plans secret for a number of reasons. Not wanting to surprise anyone was high on the list, but also we thought that it would help galvanize us to ensure that we would not chicken out and it would also perhaps give others a certain degree of “chizuk” to encourage them to go as well. There were practical reasons too – we had to sell our house and to do so, we needed to get the word out.

Yet even though our plans were quite public and most of our family knew that we talked for a long time about moving to Israel, the reality of it seemed to come as a surprise to some. I guess they were a bit more in denial about our move than we had been over the years. Closure is very important for most people - our kids wanted to see the house that they grew up in "one last time" and I am sure that our friends and family will want to throw a big bash for us before we move ;-)

The world is a lot smaller today than even just a generation ago. When my family went for the first time to Israel in 1970, it was a major expense that took a long time to plan and to save up for. A domestic long distance call was expensive and an international call was a major event. Now, we can call for pennies using a calling card or free from Israel with most of the cellphone plans. Skype, MagicJack and VOIP are ubiquitous and even annual trips to Israel are common for many of us. All of this lessens the pain just a bit of moving so far away from the ones that you love, but nothing can remove that pain. We just hope that they will all follow us there some day very soon.

14 weeks to aliyah – Finding a place to live was our next objective.

Although Pearl and I always planned on “eventually” making aliya, we never took actions toward that goal. A few years ago I switched jobs and although the actual work that I did was quite enjoyable in many ways and I got along very well with practically everyone at the office, I felt that something was missing and I would frequently come home from the office and say “when are we moving to Israel”. About 3 years ago Pearl finally said that we should make a pilot trip and see if it is possible and either do it or stop talking about it.

Neve Daniel

We made our first serious pilot trip in the summer of 2011, visiting numerous communities and narrowing down our list to about 5 possibilities. Over the course of the following year, we researched further, through the NBN website, other online sources, the NBN contact for housing (he was particularly helpful), real estate agents and friends. That helped us to refine our list of finalists so we returned last summer to explore those towns in earnest, eventually making our choice. We were particularly fortunate to find a house that we loved in that town and started the process of purchasing it.

Where to live was a most important factor to us. We wanted to be sure that we would fit in well and be comfortable because we hoped that this would be the last time that we would move. Although one could never be certain, we believe that we found the right place for us. This is one part of our aliya that we knew would have to be resolved before we could consider dealing with all of the other details. That might not be the case for others – some people are perfectly comfortable deciding that they can live anywhere and so they leave this factor to the end stages of their aliya planning. You must decide for yourself what works best for you.

Firstly, I would like to point out that I changed my photo to one of me and Pearl because I feel that getting a job in Israel is really for the two of us, and I do feel that I have her support and encouragement and this is the way that I wanted to express that. 

15 weeks to aliyah – As we count down the days and weeks to aliyah I thought that it would be meaningful to talk about our personal experience. Of course, “your mileage may vary” and everyone has a different aliyah experience so although this could be viewed more or less as the roadmap that we followed, this might not work for everyone. 

The first decision we made was whether to make aliyah or not. That might seem obvious but it is really complex on a few levels. It means that you have to have a soul searching to think of the reasons that you are taking this step. There are many good reasons to move to Israel and there are a few bad ones so you might want to talk it over with someone if you are not sure that you have the right motivations. If you are moving in order to get a free flight to Israel, for instance, then your aliyah might turn out to be disastrous. 

We talked with our Rabbi about our decision. It made us think about how many people actually ask their Rabbis for advice when they decide *not* to move but ask him about a million other far less important matters. Yet the decision was a personal one and we ultimately made the choice on our own. The other reason that this is an important decision to make first is because it sets the stage for everything else. If you decide for sure to go, then where you live, how you will make a living and all of the other important and not so important other decisions become secondary. In our case, baruch HaShem, they all fell into place nicely. But we committed ourselves to going before we knew anything else. We picked a date (that is, a specific year – not a variable “X years from now” target date that tends to move with time) and let our friends know. There was no turning back.

One of the things that I have noticed since we started this journey that that we have been a lot more attuned to the aspect of hashkacha pratis and its role in our move. Some might call it coincidence, but there have been too many "coincidences" to just ignore them. Pearl and I came across this contest when we attended the Nefesh B'Nefesh mega event this past Sunday. Some of my friends were a bit bewildered as to why we would need to attend it at this point, thinking that we are pretty much up to speed by now on most of the details about moving to Israel. But there are always more details to be learned and a bit of review never hurt anyone. When I looked into the specific jobs being offered, I was surprised to find that one of them is actually a really good match to my skills and background. Again, you have to wonder what the odds are for 1 of these 8 jobs to be so appropriate when there are so many types of jobs out there. Just another "coincidence" I guess.