Welcoming Richard Trank Home: An Oscar Winner Makes Aliyah
There are moments in this work that remind us why we do what we do. Helping Richard Trank settle into his new life in Israel was one of them.
For those who don't know the name, you almost certainly know the work. Richard is an Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker — he won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 1998 for The Long Way Home, which told the story of Jewish refugees rebuilding their lives between 1945 and 1948 and helping bring the State of Israel into existence. Over the following decades at Moriah Films and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, he produced more than a dozen documentaries on Jewish and Israeli themes, interviewing nearly every modern Israeli prime minister along the way: Peres, Shamir, Rabin, Sharon, Barak, Netanyahu.
And now, after a lifetime of telling Israel's story from Los Angeles, Richard is telling it from here.
A Long Time Coming
Richard made aliyah in October, arriving in Tel Aviv with his partner and their two dogs. He has said publicly that he wishes he'd made the decision sooner — but, in his words, he wakes up every day in Israel feeling lucky and alive. That sentiment is one we hear constantly from our clients, and it never stops moving us.
He is also, by his own description, "a bit of an anomaly" in the typical aliyah picture: not religious, not retiring, not in tech or venture capital. He came because he felt there was more he could contribute here than in the country he was leaving — and because, as he put it, here he doesn't have to hide who he is.
That is reason enough. It is, in many ways, the reason.
What Easy Aliyah Did
Aliyah is bureaucracy, logistics, and emotion stacked on top of each other, and even the most seasoned traveller to Israel finds the transition from visitor to citizen a different animal entirely. Our role with Richard was to make sure the practical side simply got handled, so he could focus on what actually mattered — his family, his dogs, his work, and the larger meaning of the move itself.
For Richard, that meant finding the right apartment in Herzliya — a home, not just an address, in a community that suited the rhythm of his life and the demands of an active film career. It meant coordinating the delivery and setup of furniture so that the apartment was a home from day one, not an echoing space waiting to be assembled. It meant managing the appointments — Misrad HaPnim, Bituach Leumi, the bank, the health fund, the utilities — in the right order, with the right paperwork, in the right offices, without Richard ever needing to learn the unwritten rules of how each of those offices actually works.
In short, we handled the friction so the arrival could feel like an arrival.
Why This One Felt Special
We have the privilege of helping families make this move every week. Each one matters. But there is something particularly meaningful about welcoming home a filmmaker whose work has, for almost thirty years, helped the world understand what this country is and why it exists. Richard's first major film was about Jews finding their way home after the darkest chapter of the twentieth century. One of the projects he is now developing under his new company, Sea Point Films and Media, is about Israelis rebuilding their lives after October 7 — a kind of contemporary echo of that earlier film.
It is not lost on us that the man who chronicled the long way home has now, himself, come home.
To Richard
From all of us at Easy Aliyah — welcome. We are delighted to have played a small part in your arrival, and we are proud to count you among the olim we have had the privilege to assist. Wishing you, your partner, and your dogs every success and every blessing in this next chapter. Israel is better for having you here.
Bruchim habaim.
