Yael Haar grew up in Woodmere (and Camp Mesorah in the summers!) and Noam Horowitz grew up in Cedarhurst. The couple was actually set up by Yael’s father who was Noam’s teacher at Rambam Mesivta!
After getting married, Noam worked in chinuch and Yael worked as a nurse. They both wanted to experience life outside of New York, so they moved to Denver where they lived for six years, and then Toronto for three years. It was then that Noam suggested perhaps now was the time to move to Israel to settle in their long-term home; aliyah had always been something they discussed as a possibility someday, but had no specific timeline.
Yael’s family had spent a sabbatical year in Israel when she was in 8th grade and at the time she dreamed of going back, but this became more of a challenge to do, especially now with four kids. Yael was hesitant about moving to Israel after not being able to see family for so long during Covid, and the thought of moving even further away seemed too difficult. But when Noam suggested going to try it for a year without making aliyah officially, Yael was able to get on board. Especially knowing that with their oldest going into 7th grade, if they didn’t take the opportunity to go then, realistically it might not happen. They came for their “pilot year” in the summer of 2022.
While it was officially temporary, they viewed it as a full-on move, making the effort to settle and live their daily lives as if this was a long-term move. Applying for A-1 visas involved almost all of the same paperwork that was required for aliyah. They researched communities and chose Bet Shemesh, as it seemed like it would be a soft landing, but also because it seemed to be a good potential long-term option. Noam had some part-time work lined up outside of chinuch and a few months after arriving, Yael got a remote nursing job, working out of the U.S.
They rented an apartment in the Sheinfeld community, which was near public transportation and made the decision not to get a car for that first year for financial reasons, but also for ideological ones.
As Noam says, “Not having a car was a chavaya (experience) itself. We found that day to day routine was perfectly fine without a car, even if it was inconvenient on occasion, and our kids learned a lot of independence. We needed to learn to be on time because we were sticking to a bus schedule and we also learned patience for when buses didn’t come on time. A major benefit was that in a car, you stick within your family bubble, but on the bus, we learned the frequent faces and personalities on the bus. We heard Hebrew, English, Yiddish, Amhari, French, Spanish, etc., on the bus which is incredible to experience. We made sure to thank the bus drivers and also to learn when to stand up for ourselves when the bus driver was about to drive away from the bus stop and to call out “Nahag” for him to stop. We learnt a lot about Israeli society from the experience of public transportation. When we went on family trips, we were sitting with the kids on the bus, rather than Yael and I sitting in the front and them sitting in the back and we talked with them, learned with them, and fell asleep on each other’s shoulders, which offered great bonding.
“Going on a tiyul to a place more obscure was difficult and we would need to rent a car – or were sometimes dissuaded due to a three hour bus ride – so at the end of our second year, after we had our baby, we did get a car. But not having a car for two years was a big part of our family journey and now if the car is being used, everyone is fine taking the bus.”
While the adjustment to Israel wasn’t easy, it didn’t take long for Yael to feel that she couldn’t see settling anywhere else. “The community was so warm and welcoming, even with people knowing that we were just ‘trying it out.’ There wasn’t much of a decision to be made when deciding whether we would be staying, and we eventually reached out to NBN to get the process started on making aliyah.”
Yael remembers a moment from a meeting with Misrad Aliyah v’Klita. They were warned that bureaucratic meetings can be difficult so they were surprised that when they were asked for their email address at the meeting, they all found themselves laughing that “strudel” is how Israelis say the “at” sign for emails but has a very different meaning in America. Then the woman said that talking about strudel was making her hungry and she asked a Bat Sherut girl to get her a strudel to eat from the bakery.
In their second year, and first as official olim, Noam started teaching in a gap year yeshiva in Bet Shemesh called Ashreinu in the mornings and works mostly from home in the matzeiva dept for Eretz HaChaim cemetery. The kids adjusted fairly well, with each kid adjusting at their own pace in their own way. Yael points out that often people attribute challenges that kids experience to aliyah, which often can be the case. However, kids have their own paths and personalities and whatever they experienced in their previous life will likely follow them to Israel, which is par for the course for raising children.
Though Yael and Noam had lived away from family for nine years and were accustomed to not having them in their day-to-day life, it was still very challenging to live so far away and to see family less often, especially when it meant missing family smachot or not being able to be there for family members when they wanted to be. “What made it a little easier though, was that our families were totally supportive of our decision. Even with the difficulty of us moving further away, both of our parents took tremendous pride in that we were fulfilling the Jewish destiny of living in Israel.” While neither Yael nor Noam have immediate family in Israel, they do have aunts/uncles/cousins and it’s nice to see the kids develop close relationships with cousins they hadn’t known very well before aliyah.
There were also the small bumps: Yael remembers when the ganenet (kindergarten teacher) asked the parents to send in a madanit for their child. Not recognizing the word, Yael google translated it which came out as “sweet treat” (note: Google translate doesn’t always translate correctly which can make for embarrassing moments or great stories). When the ganenet saw that Yael had sent in candy, she was confused because she wanted the kids to bring in sweet yogurt but luckily another parent had sent in two, which covered for their son Amiel! Yael’s story isn’t uncommon. New olim stories in gan always make for good park conversations and laughter.
As Yael says, “While Israel is diverse in so many ways, there is also nothing like coming to a community where you feel surrounded by so many people with similar values to you. While figuring things out here can be quite a challenge, being surrounded by so many others who have gone through this same process/transition is extremely helpful.”
Having just given birth to their daughter, Nili less than a month ago, Yael reflects that giving birth in Israel is such a different experience. “Every doctor or nurse who walks into the room is giving you brachot and saying mazal tov. It’s so special to know that even in a hospital, it’s a Jewish environment and you’re seeing that most of the mothers on the floors are Jewish and from a wide range of communities religiously, and side note – the kosher food at the buffet was really good!”
As Noam says, they chose to stay because, “We feel we belong here. This is home and we can’t envision ourselves anywhere else.”
