Planning Aliyah? The Case for Rechovot over Ramat Beit Shemesh

Land of Opportunity

Dr. Gabriel Joel, Rechovot

We moved to Eretz Yisroel in 2014. It wasn’t because of the finances; we were b”H doing fine in Cleveland. It wasn’t because of the chinuch; our kids were learning in Mosdos Ohr HaTorah, a very Chareidi place with about 75% of the student body coming from kollel homes or whose parents were involved in chinuch. Socially as well as in ruchniyus, we felt that we and our children would be just fine if we stayed. There was no “real” reason for us to pick ourselves up and leave everything behind, aside for one: we felt that the future for us Yidden is only in Eretz Yisroel.

I believe that today Eretz Yisroel is the real “land of opportunity”; you just have to find it and put in your effort. I am happy to share some of the opportunities we have found.

We made a few pilot trips before our move, and looked into the different communities. To minimize the pressures involved in moving to and living in a different country, we looked for a community where we would be able to “copy & paste” our life in America as much as possible. I came to understand that the communities in Eretz Yisroel can be grossly categorized into “in-town” and “out-of-town,” just like back in America. Being originally from Atlanta, I’ve found that out-of-towners like us might specifically prefer the unique taste of Rechovot.

We were looking for an out-of-town kind of place that is solid “Anglo” Orthodox, “Black Hat” but more accepting, where it would be fine to wear colored shirts or walk around in a T-shirt. We were also looking for a central location, in Israel’s “Mercaz” (center), where the job market is stronger. Rechovot, and specifically the Chatam kehillah of English speakers, perfectly fit the bill. We found it to be a place where Yeshivish out-of-towners like us could really feel at home.

The kehillah was founded in the 1980s by a group of families for the Torah advancement of the growing English-speaking community in Rechovot. Our rav is Rav Dovid Stein shlita, one of the kehillah‘s founders. The recent increase in young people who have joined and become active in the kehillah led to the recruitment of assistant Rav Yosef Ashenberg shlita, a talmid of Ner Yisrael of Baltimore and of Yeshivas Mir. The kehillah is now ready to absorb a new generation of newcomers. The challenge is to have the trickle of frum American immigrants who have recently become part of our growing kehillah, turn into the beginning of a wave.

One advantage of out-of-town communities is that there is less polarization. Rechovot is home to many different kinds of people, and there is no critical mass of any specific group. Due to this fact, there is a wider range of people who comfortably self-identify as Chareidi, more than what one may find in the in-town communities. The relaxed, non-judgmental atmosphere is very relevant for the integration of frum immigrants from the U.S. I personally feel completely integrated and identify with the Israeli Chareidim here.

The local Chareidi school here in Rechovot is part of the relatively-new Mamlachti-Chareidi (Government Chareidi) school system, where, in addition to the high level of limudei kodesh, there is a good level of limudei chol as well as an emphasis on derech eretz – similar to what you would find in frum schools in the U.S. This is something that was important to us and other American families here. So far, for the coming school year, there are already eight kids from immigrant Anglo families enrolled for the first grade. The cheider has wonderful rabbeim, and includes all grades from first through eighth. There is a similar girls’ school with an incredible American-Israeli principal, that has classes up until third grade so far, adding a new grade each year.

We came when our oldest was in first grade. Integration for new immigrants beyond first grade may be difficult, and might limit schooling options to those available in Ramat Beit Shemesh. (It is possible to commute from Rechovot to Ramat Beit Shemesh, albeit not a particularly short commute.) Even that is not to be taken for granted; Ramat Beit Shemesh has come a long way in the past several years, becoming much more “user-friendly” for English speakers, and thus serving as a viable option for many.

Rechovot is not the countryside, but it is a bit less dense compared to Ramat Beit Shemesh and it is a central city as well. So although the pricing for homes is similar to Ramat Beit Shemesh, it is actually quite a bargain. Most members of the kehillah live in apartments—including garden apartments, though there are some who live in private houses.

All in all, Rechovot and the Chatam kehillah have delivered on my expectations. They may live up to yours, too!

Easing the Move

In my line of work – dentistry – as well as for other freelance trades and occupations, it may be difficult to find a 9-5 job, and I had to build my own practice from scratch. Building up my own private practice and reaching financial stability was no small task, but we persevered and didn’t give up, putting our heads down, barreling forward, and overcoming one obstacle after the next. Thankfully, today, my clinic is popular and successful. I firmly believe that Eretz Yisroel is the real land of opportunity if you have the gumption and will to succeed.

I have also seen time and again that newcomers who are employed immediately in an already established framework or company have a much easier aliyah. For anyone planning to move here, I would strongly suggest trying to set up a job that will be ready for you right when you come. In particular, those with professions such as accounting, law, programming or engineering who have done so, have great chances of success.

Amiram Ben Uliel: INNOCENT & IMPRISONED!

Ben Uliel’s conviction left standing

Posted on September 7, 2020

Monday, September, 7, 2020, 13:16 On Monday, September 7, the Central District Court in Lod rejected the new evidence in the Kfar Duma arson trial, ruling that the testimony of Ahmed Dawabshe is not reliable enough to exonerate Amiram Ben Uliel, and let the conviction stand. Later the same week the court will hand down a sentence in the case.

Ahmed Dawabshe, who was seriously injured in the arson attack and is the only eyewitness who was inside the house that was destroyed, recently revealed that he remembers the incident in detail and that he saw the arsonists. He described an incident which is factually different from that of which Amiram Ben Uliel was convicted. He was not interrogated after the incident and the investigating authorities have never examined his testimony which contradicts the version of events written in the bill of indictment.

In interviews in the Arabic-speaking media, which have been submitted to the court by agreement between the sides, Ahmed recounted that several arsonists, more than three, were involved with the incident and they entered the family’s house and clashed with family members. This version of events completely contradicts the evidence on the basis of which Ben Uliel was convicted of murder, according to which there was only one arsonist at the scene and he did not enter the house.

Honenu: “Today the court imprisoned an innocent man for life. The court did not have the courage to admit to its past mistakes, because if the court had spoken the truth, a battery of officials would have paid the price – the ones who tortured Amiram, the ones who authorized the torture. The court preferred to remain in its comfort zone and convict the ‘settler’, the ‘outsider’.

“The court chose to ignore testimony from the most objective person, the injured party himself – the testimony which should have led to an exoneration. The court chose to accept the testimony of torture. Such evilness will not be forgiven.”

Orian Ben Uliel: “The court decided to convict my husband at any price. Again the court closed its eyes to more evidence, to that of a child who experienced trauma, remembers that night, told about it out of his own volition, and everything he remembers contradicts the false confessions extracted from my husband. My husband has been convicted again of something he did not do. Our hearts are broken. Our faith in the system has been reduced to nothing. My daughter cries at night. My husband has sat in prison for years already, and I know that he did not do it.

testified on the subject and they are ignoring my testimonies. They are ignoring his testimonies about what happened. They are ignoring all of the testimonies and all of the contradictions – that [the graffiti] is not in my husband’s handwriting, that [the footprints at the site of the crime] are not his footprints, that there were several people there, that there was a car there. They are ignoring everything. My husband is paying the price for a crime because they are not willing to admit [to their mistakes]. So that those guilty of the injustice done to my husband will not have to pay, my husband is sitting in prison through no fault of his own.” Prior to the ruling, Ben Uliel sent a letter to the judges in the case requesting that they exonerate her husband in light of new evidence.

Continue reading…

From Honenu, here.

מדוע ממשלת הקורונה מתנכלת כ”כ לחרדים? – הנאה מתקרובת ע”ז בפאה נכרית

מטרת הקורונה – להעביר גלולים מן הארץ

אחד מהסיבות למגפה ● אופן הסרת מחלות ● הגזירה בציבור החרדי ● פסק גדולי ישראל בענין ● עדות כומרים במטרת הגילוח

המשך לקרוא…

מאתר בריתי יצחק – הרב ברנד שליט”א, כאן.

קול החינוך גליון 134#

יו”ל ע”י ‘ועד הורים’ – בהכוונת גדולי התורה שליט”א

[קול החינוך עוסק במלחמת מדינת ישראל בחינוך יהודי עצמאי.]

* למסירת מידע ומשלוח מסמכים בס”ד 03-691-5752, טלפקס: 6915752@okmail.co.il

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Reprinted with permission.

American Riot Denialism

Riots? What Riots?

Steve Sailer

September 09, 2020

In my three decades as a media critic, this summer’s huge effort by the press to cover up the endless rioting by George Floyd’s mourners has been its most shameless and shameful episode yet.

Until very recently, a remarkable number of naive Americans had fallen for the mainstream media’s repetitions that the Peaceful Protesters were not—repeat, not—looting and burning. The MSM has been in such flat-out denial mode that it hasn’t even bothered to concoct exculpatory euphemisms for the riots, such as Retail Mourning, Do-It-Yourself Reparations, or Arson for Equity.

Even last week a new report from a leftist think tank, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, admitting to the immense number of violent demonstrations during this Summer of George was spun by the media as proving that all those boarded-up shops near you don’t exist. CNN, for example, declaimed:

About 93% of racial justice protests in the US have been peaceful, a new report finds

About 93% of racial justice protests in the US since the death of George Floyd have been peaceful and nondestructive, according to a new report. The findings, released Thursday, contradict assumptions and claims by some that protests associated with the Black Lives Matter movement are spawning violence and destruction of property.

About 7,750 of those protests were linked to the Black Lives Matter movement, the report states. Peaceful racial justice protests took place in more than 2,440 locations across all 50 states and Washington, DC—violent demonstrations occurred in fewer than 220 locations, according to the report.

In other words, there have been riots in almost 220 different cities. Now, to you and me, riots in approximately 218 places might sound like a lot, especially since there were multiple riots in many of these locations. For example, ACLED records 69 separate riots in Portland.

If you look at the data behind this report, you will see this leftist group has characterized 617 incidents in the U.S. since the death of George Floyd as “riots,” with 598 falling in the subcategory of “violent demonstrations” and 19 of “mob violence.”

A few were unassociated with Black Lives Matter or Antifa, such as a July 21 brawl in Los Angeles between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. But the vast majority of the 617 riots were related to the media-proclaimed Racial Reckoning.

Continue reading…

From Taki Mag, here.