SUPPORTING OUR MOVE AND THE FINAL GOODBYES

Fact - our Aliyah would never be happening without the support and guidance of friends, family and various organisations. Throughout our whole planning process to date, we have had offers of help in all shapes and sizes. From looking after the kids when packing up to actually helping with the packing – we are REALLY going to miss our support network!

In terms of quashing our worries of ‘what do we do when we actually arrive in Israel?’, the Jewish Agency provided us with all of that information including step by step instructions of where EXACTLY you go from when you step off the plane until you are at your first night’s accommodation. They even factor in contingency plans – for example, if someone is not waiting for you, walk a bit further until you see a phone just before passport control and pick up the handset and wait for someone to pick up. All a bit ‘secret agent-esque’ but this definitely eased our minds about the logistical process.

In the months before our Aliya plans were even a reality, a group of our friends who are equally keen to make the move met regularly in order to discuss different aspects of Aliya such as schools, property, communities etc. This was organised by Habayta and we took it in turns to host these meetings. This was a great way to focus on different aspects of Aliya and gathering useful information about all these incredibly important factors – plus there was always an amazing free dinner (shwarma or pizza – we took it in turns!)

After all the build-up, the planning, the clearing out, the moving, our last couple of weeks in London have finally arrived. Even if we wanted to just slip off quietly, there is no way our family and friends would have let us. The goodbyes are probably the thing that worries us the most as this is the wake-up call that this is happening. It is no longer just an idea in our minds but it is in fact our next step in life.

A combination of a small Kiddush, a British/Israeli themed party and a final drink in the pub made sure we were off on our journey in the appropriate way. Our final shabbatot were spent with our respective families where there were a lot of tears and a few not so hushed whispers of ‘Adina and Rafi can go but they should leave the children’.

A few l’chaims to wish us well on our travels, a few tears from everyone and a lot of everyone getting their diaries out to see when we would be seeing each other next and therefore officially starting the countdown, we are now packed up and ready to go. Bring it on!

TIME FOR SHOPPING

Making Aliyah is a great excuse to go shopping. There is a definite mentality that you have to buy everything in England because you aren’t sure whether they will have it in Israel. We followed that mentality to the letter and off we went to Costco. Costco is a place where you end up buying a ton of stuff that you don’t really need but generally buy it because it is cheaper than buying it in Tesco. However, due to the fact that we had a space limit in our container, we forced ourselves to be good. No giant tubs of peanut butter (ok only one tub but that was a present for someone in Israel), no toys for the kids (successfully dodged that section so Ella wouldn’t get any ideas), just sensible stuff. Tinfoil, ziplock bags, fairy liquid, shower gel, toothpaste, nappies and a few other essential items were purchased and taken home ready for the shippers. Thank goodness the apartment we are renting has a machsan (storage room) as we are ready to open our own mini supermarket in Israel with all this stuff. Definitely one of the fun parts of our Aliyah preparations.

THE HUNT FOR THE PERFECT APARTMENT

The first question that most people in London asked us when we told people about our Aliyah was “where are you going to live?” Most people in Israel just said “you will find something once you are here.” The Zionist in us told us to be pioneers, camp out on mattresses on friend’s floors for a bit. The English side of us said “don’t be so stupid – find a flat NOW.” So we started our flat hunt straight away.

Friends recommended a couple of websites such as homeless.co.il and yad2.co.il but as you can imagine, these websites were a minefield for us. After a lot of google translate, we decided to ask our friends in Israel to help us. By the next morning, they had already set up viewings of three apartments in Modi’in to be seen later that day. Through about 50 photos of the apartment with verbal commentary over the phone about each one and a skype viewing of the apartment a few days later, one of them fit our criteria. Contracts were drawn up and signed that week (all in Ivrit so we had to call upon our trusty translator (the same friend who found us the apartment) and so we are now proud tenants of a flat in Keiser, Modi’in. Anyone who is looking for a property in Israel whilst living abroad needs one thing and one thing only…a REALLY good friend who can negotiate in Ivrit!

The "To Do" List

THE ‘TO DO’ LIST

How do you start moving your life from London to Israel in a short space of time? The answer for us was simple…the ultimate ‘to do’ list. One night shortly after we announced our Aliyah, we sat down with a fresh excel spreadsheet and started. The NefeshB’nefesh website had a generic list which we used as a starting point and then we wrote down everything we needed to do, both in London and in Israel. In Rafi’s mind, the only way this was going to work was if it would be regularly updated with every phone call/person we contacted/item completed. This was to be done with a colour scheme. Green was the colour when something was done so the aim was a spreadsheet full of green. With a few prompts to keep to the rule of the ‘to do’ list, we are on our way to having a beautiful, green piece of spreadsheet art.