My return flight to be an Israeli

I arrived the day before yesterday safely in Israel and am back again in my studio apartment that I refer to as my Bohemian bungalow in the Neve Tsedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv. I am now officially an Israeli with an ID card, free State health insurance, and a bank account. I am a 15 minute walk to Jaffa and a 10 minute walk to the beach where every day the sun sets over the Mediterranean Sea (except for periods of war and national holidays).

I had hoped to have been able to make a charter “Aliyah” flight with an organization called Nefesh B’Nefesh that is dedicated to encouraging and facilitating Jews that want to move to Israel. I didn’t have time to do all that I needed to accomplish while stateside in order to make the December 26th flight. Therefore, I flew on a regular El Al flight from JFK to Tel Aviv and arrived on January 22nd. You are allowed to carry three 50 pound bags on the flight so I had to condense my life down to 150 lbs.

It was an uneventful flight. The plane was full of mainly religious people. It was the Jewish holiday, Tu Bishvat, and there was an older bearded Hassidic man walking around handing out dried fruit as it is a tradition to try a new fruit on this holiday. There were often dozens of religious men wearing tallits and t’fillin* that would periodically stand and face east toward Jerusalem on the flight to pray at specific times, completely blocking the isles and oblivious to the flight attendants that were trying to transport the breakfast cart. Even the PA announcements commanding all passengers to return to their seats due to weather conditions did not budge those in communication with the one who creates the weather. There was an angry Palestinian man and his family sitting behind me. It could be that he was extra grouchy because of his wailing toddler that kept kicking my seat. He kept telling me to move my seat up at various times.

No one knew I was making Aliyah (becoming an Israeli) and I assumed that normally, people congratulate you and want to celebrate with you. It was a solemn flight. I threw out my back while moving furniture before I left so I didn’t sleep from Monday at 5:00 AM until I went to bed in Tel Aviv at midnight on Tuesday. That gave me a lot of time to think and feel my emotions coming and going from sadness, to fear, to apprehension, to manic excitement. Upon arrival, there was a volunteer with my name misspelled along with the names of a pair of grandparents arriving to live near their grandchildren. There were no other flights in the airport while I am used to controlled chaos there with walls of people 4-deep in front of the luggage turnstiles. There were no lines and it was so quiet. The volunteer ushered us to an office in the airport of the Minister of Absorption where they took our picture (after not sleeping for 43 hours) and issued our first Israeli ID cards. If I were under 30, this would mean that I would have to serve in the army at some point. We walked out of the silent airport, I being a few steps ahead of the older couple. The only people in the waiting area as we took our first steps into the lobby were a handful of little children with Israeli flags and a few adults. They screamed when their grandparents came through the door and rushed up to greet them with hugs from all sides. As I backed away and slowly proceeded through the empty lobby to the taxi stand, I felt my first pang of solitude as an Israeli. From here, I create my new life. All of the aforementioned emotions were showing up again.

I arrived to my charming Greek village-looking bungalow to see a cement truck and another truck parked up against my building and noisily pumping cement into the empty lot next door. It will be under construction for a year at least. I had to walk with my 150 pounds around the back through another entrance. While my apartment is in a great part of the city, the adjacent area resembles Baghdad in 2003. I tell people that the rotting rusty bus outside of my window with peeling paint and flat tires is really a Mossad urban assault vehicle in waiting for the next crisis. The strong housing market will hopefully clean up the area in time. An assemblage of the properties owned by different families is possible but, perhaps the apparent cynicism of the Israelis claiming corruption in the government has some merit. These run-down buildings should have been redone years ago. There are also many mid-rise buildings in prime locations throughout Tel Aviv that are uninhabitable yet enjoy Mediterranean views. I have not yet learned why these are in such a condition.

This is a much poorer country than the USA. That is quite apparent as you walk the streets. People subsist on much less. The culture is also different. Some retailers have the Middle Eastern attitude that it is your duty to negotiate on prices for everything. If you overpay, you had it coming and they have every right to overcharge. At the bank today, I learned that banking is decades behind the USA. They charge fees every time you do any transaction and they pay no interest in savings accounts. There is no interest checking, either. I signed no less than 40 times on Hebrew documents that I have no idea what they said. As an Israeli, I am now bound to them.

I did have a feeling of being home, though. I have three times run into old friends on the street (once at the bank) and made plans to spend time with each of them. I am hoping to land one of two jobs with companies that I will meet next week. If not, I will start my job search. There are many things that I wish to accomplish while here. More on that later….

Israel is now my home. I have chosen it with my heart and not my head. That is my choice. It’s going to be a beautiful life.

Randy


*A tallit is the prayer shawl that sports the tassels on the corners that Jews are commanded to wear. T’fillin is a prayer in a wooden box that is literally strapped onto the forehead and around the left arm with leather straps. This is a literal interpretation of “Thou shalt take these words which I command thee … and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.”