Third family trip to Israel – Pilot trip – 1
We just returned from our trip to Israel. On the way to the airport we told the kids about our plans to move to Israel next year. They already knew we were thinking about it, but now they know it’s for real. They’re a bit nervous about it but decided that they would try it for a year and see how it goes. They have several Israeli friends here in Phoenix and are very excited to have their Hebrew language skills improve to where they can speak “better than their Israeli friends!”
We arrived at our first AirBnB in Netanya, in a high-rise a block from the beach. We enjoyed staying there and the beach was fun, but we pretty much ruled out Netanya as a place to live – just too big and not enough community feeling for us. We drove up north to Zichron Yaakov and met with the Nefesh liaison for the city there and with a realtor. And while the city and the views are beautiful, (the city sits up on a ridge in the foothills of Mt. Carmel, 20min south of Haifa), we thought it was perhaps a bit too small for our tastes, and to ensure that we’d have enough choice of schools, shuls, and people to meet. So we ruled that out as well.
We looked at Ra’anana as well, which has a nice neighborhood feel to it, but when we met with a realtor and met with a family that Nefesh had put us in touch with, we thought that it would just be way too expensive for us to live there.
Then we arrived at Jerusalem. We drove through Modi’in but didn’t look at it seriously because A) we ran out of time, and B) we didn’t want to lock ourselves into the long rush hour commute from there to Jerusalem or to Tel Aviv, especially with me having to take cardiology call. In Jerusalem we stayed in the Baka neighborhood, and looked at some other neighborhoods nearby, (the german colony, katamon, talpiyot, etc). We met some friends we have there who made Aliya several years ago. And while we probably could make it work there, we felt it to be a bit too large and spread-out for us to really feel like we could keep a handle on things. The “religious-ness” if the city didn’t bother us, but rather, it just seemed a bit intimidating because it is such a big and diverse city.
OK, awesome. We’ve just ruled out every city we looked at.
So when we looked back through things a second time, it seemed to us that Ra’anana would be the easiest place to settle. It was a somewhat smaller town, almost a remote suburb of Tel Aviv, which means that it would be a bit more manageable than a big city like Jerusalem. But it was larger than Zichron, so would have more options for us socially and religiously. And regarding the high cost of living, we figured we’ll just have to give it more of an in-depth look. And after talking with some other people who live there, we felt we could probably find a house or apartment that would work for us in our price range.
So, after all that, we have decided to settle on Ra’anana. Exactly where, what schools, what shul, etc, all remains to be seen…..
Oh, and the kids – how did they like the trip? I believe the phrase was “WORST ISRAEL TRIP EVER!” “All we did was go to a bunch of meetings…..” But they have settled into the general idea, and they seem to be cool with moving to Ra’anana.