1.1 – So You Want to Make Aliyah (What Were You Thinking?)

Shalom. I am Rabbi Moshe. Welcome to my series.

Let me tell you how this series came about. I made aliyah three years ago. I am a rabbi. I am an educated man. I have a postgraduate degree, I have read the Talmud in its original Aramaic, and I once navigated the New York City subway system during a snowstorm with a broken phone and no signal. I consider myself a capable person.

And yet. When I decided to make aliyah, I discovered that I knew almost nothing about what was actually involved. I had feelings about it — many feelings, very strong feelings, some of them involving swelling music and the words of Hatikva — but feelings, it turns out, do not help you apostille a document. Feelings do not tell you which bank to open an account with. Feelings do not explain why you need your grandmother's marriage certificate to prove that you are Jewish, even though you are, in fact, a rabbi.

So I made aliyah anyway, mostly on feelings, and I learned everything the hard way. And now I am going to share it with you, so that you can learn it the slightly less hard way, with occasional laughter at my expense.

This series covers everything. From the moment you first think "maybe I should move to Israel" to the moment you are standing in line at Misrad Hapnim — that is the Interior Ministry — arguing, in broken Hebrew, about a form that you filled out correctly but which the computer has decided to reject anyway. We will cover documents, finances, shipping your belongings, what to do with your pets, how to find an apartment, how to open a bank account, how to survive the ulpan, how to drive in Israel without having what I can only describe as a spiritual crisis, and much more. One hundred and thirteen episodes in total. Put the kettle on.

But first — and I ask this with genuine warmth and no judgment whatsoever — are you sure you want to do this?

I am not trying to talk you out of it. I am asking because aliyah is a word that sounds poetic and ancient and full of meaning, which it is, but it is also, practically speaking, immigration. To a real country. With a real government. And real bureaucracy. In Hebrew. And the Hebrew bureaucracy, I say this with love, is something that must be experienced to be understood. It has a particular quality. A certain creative relationship with logic. You will learn to appreciate it. Eventually. Probably around year three.

So what is aliyah, exactly? The word means "going up" in Hebrew — it is the same word used when someone is called up to the Torah during synagogue services. The immigration of Jewish people to Israel is called aliyah because it is considered an elevation, a going up not just geographically but spiritually. This is a beautiful concept. It also involves a great deal of paperwork, and I think both things can be true simultaneously.

Aliyah is made possible by the Law of Return, a piece of Israeli legislation passed in 1950 — just two years after the State of Israel was established — which guarantees every Jew the right to immigrate to Israel and receive citizenship. Not residency. Citizenship. From day one. You land at Ben Gurion Airport, you go through a special process, and you leave as an Israeli citizen. Most countries make you live there for five, seven, ten years before granting citizenship. Israel does it before you have collected your luggage. Admittedly, at Ben Gurion, collecting your luggage takes quite a long time, so you have plenty of opportunity to absorb the information.

Now, who qualifies? The short answer is: Jews, and certain family members of Jews. The longer answer is in Episode 1.2, because it is a topic that deserves its own episode and also because it is where things start to get interesting in ways that will either reassure you or complicate your life, depending on your family history. What I will say here is that the law extends not just to Jews but to children and grandchildren of Jews and to their spouses. So if your father's father was Jewish, there is a path for you. If you converted to Judaism through a recognised conversion, there is a path for you. If you are not sure, there is an interview process and a great deal of documentation that will help determine the answer.

What does the aliyah process look like from a distance — before we zoom into all the terrifying details? You make contact with the Jewish Agency for Israel, which is the organisation that has been helping Jews immigrate to Israel since before the state existed, or if you are coming from North America or the UK, you work with Nefesh B'Nefesh, which is a non-profit that partners with the Jewish Agency and provides extraordinary practical support to olim — that is what we call people who make aliyah, olim, the plural of oleh. You complete an application. You gather documents — and when I say gather documents, I want you to understand that this is not a casual activity. This is a project. It has a timeline. It requires a spreadsheet. We will spend eighteen full episodes on this alone. You attend an interview. You receive approval. You book a flight. You land. You cry, probably, because most people cry. And then your new life begins.

Between the decision and the landing, expect somewhere between eight months and a year of preparation if you are doing it properly. Some people do it faster. Some people do it slower. The important thing is that you do it with your eyes open, with good information, and with the knowledge that hundreds of thousands of people before you have done exactly this and have built extraordinary lives in Israel.

Including me. Despite everything.

Welcome to the series. Episode 1.2 starts right now.