Frum Faces Of Aliyah

As much as they had a rich life in England, the Saverys didn’t give up on their dream of aliyah (even though eight years later, no one believed they would actually make it!).

Among Elie’s aliyah perks: I don’t have to wear a tie or suits anymore and I recently graduated and got permission from my wife to wear sandals (no socks!) and my feet are finally able to breathe. They’ve needed to breathe now for a long time!

The initial big holdback for her was leaving her family and Atara and Zach have been amazed that so many of their family members have moved to Israel since their arrival.

As olim, we envision moving to Israel for the reasons described in Masechet Sotah in the discussion of why Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to enter Eretz Yisrael. Either for mundane reasons like eating the fruits of Eretz Yisrael and swimming in the Kineret... and be a more fulsome Jew in Eretz Yisrael.

Sam laughs that she was on every WhatsApp group, watched every NBN video and asked questions to everyone she knew.

It’s been a heavy year but we are trying to build ourselves back up within our new reality... It’s a crazy reality to look around the world and feel that they’ve scrolled past while we have real family and friends still over there; it’s all still very real and raw for us.

We felt it was an obligation that we speak about in our tefillot every day. We ask to be here and if we can make it work, we should be here.

The challenges of making aliyah on a short timeline and in the midst of lockdown were many, but Tali says, Once we made the decision, Hashem carried us on His back to our new life...