First family trip to Israel
Passover 2016. Our first family trip to Israel. Both Valerie and I had been to Israel many times before, both together and when we were single before we met. But this was the first time as a family with our own children.
We travelled to Israel from Phoenix to celebrate Passover. My parents, Karen and Ivan joined us from Minneapolis and my brother Matthew joined us from Washington, DC.
We rented an AirBnB apartment in Jerusalem for 10 days. We bought and cooked our own food. We rented a minivan and drove all over Israel. It was during this trip that the idea first occurred to Valerie and me that we could really try living here.
Admittedly, the thought seemed a little crazy. I still remember the conversation I had in my own mind on that trip, as we walked down a Jerusalem street. I mean, we had our lives all set in Phoenix. I was (and still am) a successful cardiologist, our kids are in a Jewish day school, we have a nice Shul, good friends, etc. This is exactly what our lives were supposed to look like. What our lives were meant to look like. Why would we even think about doing something completely crazy, that hardly anyone actually does? And then I thought, well, why couldn’t I do it? I mean, I’m a grown-up – I can do whatever I want. This is something that our people, the Jewish people, have been longing for and praying for for thousands of years, and now we actually have the opportunity to really make it happen – why not take advantage of that opportunity? Valerie and I talked about it, and we said to ourselves, OK we’ll give it a try. Not right now; we’re not ready mentally for such a big change, and we’re probably not ready financially either. So we said to ourselves, lets put ourselves on a five year plan. Within the next five years, we will move to Israel!