Wondering when to make aliyah?
I don’t mean what time of day, week, month or year. I mean what stage in your life. The answer is far from obvious.
But, as writer Judy Resnick (not the astronaut) says in her poignant comments to this blog post, sometimes, if you wait, the right time never comes along.
As soon as I read this, I realized I had to share it with you. It is so true. Read what Judy has to say and let me know what you think:
The funny thing, every time I considered making Aliyah, some expert told me it was the wrong time in my life.
When I was a single young woman, somebody pointed out to me that the highest rate of Aliyah failure (e.g., giving up and leaving Israel) was among single young women.
When my husband and I were first married, somebody told us it was best to wait until we had more years of experience in our respective professions to make ourselves more valuable in the Israeli job market.
When my husband and I started having children, somebody told us that it was best to wait until we had five children, then my husband would not have to serve in the Israeli Army, only in the reserves.
When we bought a house, somebody told us it would be best to wait until the house increased in value, then we could sell the house and make enough money to buy an apartment in Israel.
When our children were babies and toddlers, somebody told me that the costs of full-time daycare and Gan in Israel swallow up most of an Israeli working mom’s take home salary.
When our kids started getting older, somebody told us it would be a major disruption for them to uproot them and force them to start learning Ivrit and getting used to a whole different school system. Better to wait until the kids were grown and out of the house.
When our kids were grown, somebody told us to wait until retirement, then we would have American pensions and American Social Security checks and income in American dollars, rather than trying to earn an Israeli income.
Now that we’re older, it’s still the wrong time to make Aliyah. Our grandchildren and married children staying in the U.S.A. will miss us too much, and our combined savings and pensions will not be enough to make ends meet over there. Plus the sale price of our house will not cover the cost of an apartment.
So when is it the “right” time to make Aliyah?
[republished with permission from BeyondBT]
In case you were wondering – I picked up a newspaper this morning and saw that, even while Israel was under fire, 64 Nefesh b’Nefesh olim got on board to make aliyah from the U.S. The youngest olah was 8 months… and the oldest was 91.
When is the right time? Generally, about 12 hours after you step on the plane. Unless you’re stopping over somewhere… but I think you get what I mean.
If you’re already here, how did you decide to come when you did?
Tzivia / צִיבְיָה
[photo credit: JAFI Israel via flickr]
