The start of the Jewish New Year 5787 sees Nefesh B’Nefesh celebrating two major milestones: its 25th anniversary and the 100,000th person the Jerusalem-based nonprofit has welcomed to their new home in Israel.
Designed to ease the process every step of the way for North American olim (new immigrants) as well as medical professionals from around the globe, Nefesh is there from the moment someone reaches out online for information to completing the required forms and documents and through booking the flight over, extending to the search for finding the right community in Israel for applicants, as well as jobs, and potentially schools and childcare.
August was a record month for North Americans, with 1,100 stepping into new lives in Israel—and the 2026 total is expected to tally more than 4,000. Worldwide, reports the Jewish Agency for Israel, some 10,107 made aliyah from January through July of this year, with Russia, France and the United States in the lead.
“They’re opting to transform their lives into something even more meaningful,” says Marc Rosenberg, vice president for Diaspora Partnerships for Nefesh, which works closely with the Jewish Agency for Israel, the country’s Aliyah and Immigration Ministry, the Jewish National Fund-USA and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael.
This year the average age of olim dropped from 32 to 29. “But we’re still getting lots of families wanting their kids to be Israelis, to be part of this people and this country,” Rosenberg told JNS, as he tended the chicken on the grill outside his own family’s Jerusalem home.
In addition, many retirees are choosing Israel over more common retirement locales like Florida, often settling in such communities as Netanya and Ashkelon, with Jerusalem still the perennial favorite.
Is the current uptick in antisemitism pushing people onto the plane? Not significantly, according to Rosenberg, reporting that a mere 9% even mention the issue in their application essays. “The people making aliyah today are typically driven by their values, including those who have been yearning to be here for decades and are finally living their dream.”
And today’s new Israeli citizens are coming better prepared than previous generations, he reports. “The resources and advice they get from us and each other on Facebook or WhatsApp groups help change great expectations into more realistic expectations.”
Still, no matter how well prepared they are, many olim are in for completely unexpected changes. “In Israel, the highs are higher, and the lows are lower,” says Rosenberg. “And, once they’re here, people often undergo a surprising PAG: Post-Aliyah Growth.”
Yet despite the success of programs like Birthright, studies show more than half of American Jews have yet to set foot in Israel. But for those who do participate in a program, or visit family or friends, “many are inspired to return to make Israel their home and become part of the story of building the Jewish state,” adds Rosenberg. “If we’ve already helped 100,000 do that in our first 25 years, why not 300,000 in the next 25?”
But besides the geographical shift, what are the aspects of actually living in Israel that distinguish life there from wherever else they’ve called home?
Here are 25 examples from the last 25 years of shakers and (literally) movers who answered that question in a wide variety of ways.
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1. “I moved here at 13 with no Hebrew, and now I’ve been given the possibility to play football on the national team. But I decided I’d rather defend my country than just play football. Here, serving is the norm, and the army has a real culture of brotherhood.”
— Martin Cohen made aliyah to Ra’anana from Brooklyn, N.Y., with his parents and two sisters in 2022. Having just graduated from high school, he’s enrolled in a pre-army program this fall.
2. “I feel more freedom and confidence that I can achieve anything I want here. I can make progress, and everything is in my hands for a good future, and the people and systems, even the bureaucracy, are helping. My Hebrew is getting better all the time. Now I can talk with patients and even give lectures for interns.”
— Dr. Vladimir Belkin, 35, made aliyah from Yekaterinburg, Russia, to Beersheva in 2023 with his wife, Anastasia. Both of them are doing their residency in physical rehabilitation at Beersheva’s Soroka Hospital. They just welcomed their second daughter, their first sabra.
3. “Here in Tel Aviv, people we’ve met have put us up in their apartment, helped us move and look for jobs. It’s the kind of support that I can’t imagine finding back in Toronto or anywhere else. Everywhere we turn, there are old friends and new ones. And you don’t have to make plans in advance; things just fall into place here.”
— Danielle Adessky, 30, made aliyah from Toronto to Tel Aviv this summer. She came with her boyfriend, Max Berger, who made aliyah a decade earlier as a lone soldier.
4. “There was this moment on the kibbutz I was staying on at 19 when I felt a peace I’d never felt before, and I just knew I was going to live here someday. Even with my secular background, there was a sense of complete belonging—that everyone here are my brothers and sisters, regardless of our backgrounds, our politics, our religious observance. Now we’re raising our five children here. But I tell my clients, Israel is like a marriage. You have to be all in, or you’re more likely to head back when you hit a hard patch. So come with a real commitment.”
— Kim Bash, 52, a real estate adviser and native of South Africa, made aliyah in 2004 to Jerusalem from New York, where she’d lived for several years.
5. “The entire infrastructure here is geared to living a Jewish life. I’m very grateful our kids have bus drivers who wish them Shabbat shalom and chag samayach! Another factor was when our daughter was turning 5, we knew we couldn’t afford the Jewish day schools in America. Even with scholarships, they were totally cost-prohibitive. But in Israel, we knew we’d have a whole choice of affordable religious schools for our kids.”
— Ayelet HaShachar Penrod, age 40-plus, made aliyah with her husband and their two youngsters from Dallas in 2015. A cybersecurity awareness professional, she lives with her family in Harish.
6. “To me, the sweetest experience I have is on my way to the grocery store, and there are maybe 100 children laughing and playing in the courtyard—little boys in kippot and tzitzit, and little girls dressed modestly. Here, the words of the prophet Zecharia about Jerusalem coming back to life after the korban (“destruction”), that “the streets of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets” (8:5) are coming true here and now.”
— Rabbi Yitzhak Breitowitz, 72, made aliyah in 2010 with his wife to Jerusalem from Silver Spring, Md., where he was a congregational rabbi and a professor of law. He currently teaches at Ohr Somayach and elsewhere around the Jerusalem area.
7. “Yes, we had two friends murdered at Bondi, and in my role at the Australian Jewish Association, I had numerous death threats, increasingly after Oct. 7. But the antisemitism isn’t the main reason we came; we want to be part of the miracle of Israel. In these last few weeks here, we’re seeing Israeli flags all over, and there’s such an atmosphere of happiness. We wanted to come at retirement age, but not so old that we can’t enjoy ourselves. And we heard Hillel saying, ‘If not now, when?’”
— David Adler, longtime president of the Australian Jewish Association, made aliyah this July from Sydney to a town in the north with his wife, Aeli, and their two toy poodles.
8. “I watched as my Japanese-raised children were transformed by making aliyah in their teens. And, since art lets me express things beyond words, I also began to notice the gradual adjustment I made here from painting in rainbow colors to opening up my palette to sandier Israeli hues like the scenes in Jerusalem’s Yemin Moshe neighborhood.”
— Liane Wakabayashi, 67, made aliyah with her son and daughter in 2017. Born and raised in New York, she spent 30 years in Japan and now lives in Haifa. An artist and writer, she is the author of The Wagamama Bride: A Jewish Family Saga Made in Japan.
9. “When I lived in the U.S., many people were friendly, but it felt more on the surface. Here, it’s the opposite. Israelis often seem gruff on the surface but will come through for you when it really matters. The Israeli who will cut you off in traffic is the same Israeli who will rush to save your life on Oct. 7.
— Hal Berman made aliyah with his wife and two children from Springfield, Mass., to Efrat in 2008. He is a musician, composer and social-media influencer.
10. and 11. “For me, the best part of Israel is the weather, and having grandchildren and great-grandchildren around. It’s much better living here than I expected. Millions more Jews should come from all around the world,” says Sandy Goldstein. “When we arrived, so many people we didn’t know came out to greet us with singing and dancing and balloons and flags. I was speechless and delighted,” says Rosalie.
— Sandy and Rosalie Goldstein (105 and 100, respectively) made aliyah from Englewood, N.J., to Netanya in 2023. They may well be the oldest living immigrant couple in Israel.
12. “As a religious female, I didn’t have to serve when I made aliyah, but I realized I wouldn’t be fully Israeli unless I did. And why should I get all the rights and privileges of living in this amazing country if I don’t contribute? Now that I’m a tour guide, I can lead groups among archeological wonders, walking the same steps our ancestors did. I’ve been here 12 years, and I never get over the miracle of being in this land; that’s why I’ve made it my goal to show this miracle to as many people as I can.”
— Ariana Berlin Ohayon, 34, made aliyah after college in 2014 from Cherry Hill, N.J., to a kibbutz in central Israel. A lone soldier, she served as an officer of education in the Air Force. Today, she is a tour guide living with her husband and young son in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion.
13. “For years after we got here, I’d go home and say to my wife: “Pam, there’s a mezuzah on the pizza shop, or ‘Wow, there’s a mezuzah on the newsstand,’ or ‘Amazing, there’s a mezuzah on every patient’s room in the hospital, and the ones at the cardiac unit at Shaare Tzedek in Jerusalem have little red hearts on them!’ Every mezuzah here reminds us that God’s providence is guiding and protecting Israel.”
— Ira Machefsky, 79, made aliyah with his wife from Englewood, N.J., to Mitzpe Ramon in 2009. Known as the “Star Man of Mitzpe Ramon,” the amateur astronomer gives star shows, taking groups down into the crater for an unobstructed view of the heavens.
14. “Since I’ve been in Israel, I’ve felt a deeper intimacy with God. I used to say prayers, but now, before I even speak them, as I blow the shofar, I can feel my prayers going up with the sound.”
— Robert Weinger, 75, made aliyah in 2018 from San Francisco’s East Bay. He runs Shofar So Great from Beit Hogla in the Judean Desert, where he lives and sells shofars. He also teaches the spiritual and historical significance of the shofar and the art of shofar-blowing.
15. “The most meaningful thing in Israel is that your community literally becomes your family, the friends you have holidays and Shabbat with. There’s a sort of wordless understanding between people, which I don’t think could be found anywhere else. In Tzfat, you see a lot of Ahavat Yisrael, a “love of all Israel.” I can’t imagine a better place to raise Jewish children.”
— Ariella Leibner, 36, made aliyah with her husband from New York to Tzfat in 2015. Besides raising their six children, she also works as a transformational coach.
16. “One of the best things about living here is not being excluded from my love of musical theater. Everywhere else, rehearsals and performances are on Shabbat. But here in Jerusalem, our community theater Encore doesn’t do that, so all of us can get involved, and in between acts, you’ll see men gathering on stage, many of them in tights and makeup, to say the Maariv prayer. You would never see that anywhere else.”
— Shira Potter, 30, made aliyah from Vancouver, Canada, in 2010 with her parents, sister and brother. When not on stage, she works with international donations at the National Library of Israel.
17. “For me, life in Israel is the field of higher consciousness we are in. It’s progressive and starts with the nations, grows stronger in Israel and even stronger in Jerusalem, with the highest consciousness found in the Old City. It feels to me like being back in my mother’s womb.”
— Raphael Kiebitz made aliyah from Zurich to Jerusalem in 2002. Raised in Germany, he joined the Israel Defense Forces as a lone soldier. He works as a Jerusalem-based holistic therapist treating physical and emotional pain.
18. “Every morning when I’m walking my sons to gan (‘nursery school’), I know they’re surrounded by other Jewish kids and getting a Torah education in the Jewish homeland, rather than feeling like outsiders in a host culture. There’s no place like home.”
— Eitan Ben Avraham made aliyah in 2009 from New Jersey to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu. He currently lives with his wife and two children in Katzrin, also in the north, where he runs an AI Implementation business, and under the label Aleph Male sells beard balm made from Israeli oils.
19. “Here in Israel, it is not like Argentina. There, we had to be small about being Jewish, and the people didn’t respect Yom Kippur as a holy day to introspect and connect with your neshama (“soul”). Here, you never have to be embarrassed to be a Jew, to wear your Jewish star. Jews who don’t live here need to stand up for us and help us, even if they can’t come themselves yet. How will they know when the time is right to come? Their heart will tell them.”
— Florencia Plischuk, 45, made aliyah from Argentina to what is now Nof HaGalil in the north in 2007 with her husband and baby daughter, who’s now serving in the army. The family now lives on Kibbutz Ketura in the south on the way to Eilat, where Plischuk is business manager.
20. “It doesn’t take long for you to realize that instead of being a freak living among strangers, you’re suddenly surrounded by Jews, many of whom you have almost nothing in common with—not language or culture or race—but they’re still your family. On some level, you get them, and they get you. And, since Oct. 7, we’ve felt it even more. There was a sense of total unity that day. We were like one person; that’s how it felt.”
— Tanya Gusovsky, 81, made aliyah with her husband, Vlad, from Sharon, Mass., to Ma’ale Adumim in 2012, four decades after leaving the Former Soviet Union for the United States in 1973.
21. “In South Africa, I never felt safe, but here, I always do. In Israel, parents think nothing of putting their kids on city buses because everyone watches out for them. We’re also safe here thanks to our soldiers—our son just finished his military service, and our daughter is going in—and because God watches out for this place.”
— Elizabeth LaGrange Ziv made aliyah from Cape Town, South Africa, in 2020. An artist and jewelry designer, she lives in Hadera with her husband and their two children.
22. “The sages say that just breathing the air in Eretz Yisrael makes a person wise. And there’s something to that. I was a spoiled L.A. kid when I got here at 17, but I began to experience this feeling you have on Shabbat, when all the businesses are shut down. There’s a sacred silence that hangs in the air; you can even feel it in Tel Aviv and on a non-religious kibbutz. In the U.S., Jews are on the fringe; here, being Jewish is a collective experience with different expressions.”
— Ariel Shalem, 48, made aliyah from Los Angeles to Ramat Gan in 2001. A marriage counselor, therapist, rabbi, tutor and life coach, he’s also the reserve officer in charge of security for the small yishuv, or “village,” near Hadera, where he lives with his wife and five children.
23. “When you get here, you see that Israelis work hard and play hard—and yes, you hustle here. But you also understand your life is so much more, especially during Shabbat, and hanging with your friends and family. Here, you know that life is precious, and you need to make something great out of it.”
— Yocheved Ruttenberg, 25, a native of Baltimore, came to Israel in 2023, officially making aliyah to Tel Aviv in 2025. In 2023, she founded the Sword of Iron Israel Volunteer Corp. (israelvolunteeropportunities.com), which continues to match tens of thousands of people with volunteer opportunities in Israel.
24. “For me, some of the sweetest moments of life here are when I’m able to daven (‘pray’) every day in clear view of where so many things in the Tanach actually happened. Where Jews over the centuries cried out to their God. And from my home I can see the Valley of Elah, where David killed Goliath 3,000 years ago. There’s great importance in praying in a place where holy things have happened.”
— Nissim Black, 39, made aliyah in 2016 from Seattle to Jerusalem with his wife and four children. A rapper, recording artist and host of “The Nissim Black Show” podcast, he is now the father of seven and lives with his family in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
25. “In one of my top ‘Only-in-Israel’ moments: Six years ago, I was on a bus somewhere between Ra’anana and Hadera. The young Ethiopian driver, having dropped off a passenger, had pulled away from the bus stop when I pointed out (in basic Heb-lish) that the man had left his wallet on the seat. Within the blink of an eye, the driver threw the bus into reverse and barreled at heart-stopping speed back to the bus stop, where he slammed on the brakes, catching the forgetful passenger, who was just ready to cross the street. Though momentarily terrified to see the bus hurtling straight at him, the guy was thrilled to get his wallet back and also by the driver’s ear-to-ear grin when he handed it over.”
— Deborah Fineblum, 74, made aliyah in 2013 from Sharon, Mass., to Ra’anana. She now lives in Pardes Hanna, where she continues to write books, columns and articles like this one.
