My suspicions started on Aliyah flight. Where were all the frum people, I wondered. The flight from Newark contained mostly tourists. Supposedly the plane was 1/3 olim. Where were the kippas?
Nearly all of the olim were college kids headed for the IDF. It was like a singles event on the flight. There were a few retirees and just two frum families.
It was the same in the airport as we did the paperwork. There were more NBN people with kippas than olim!
In all of Beit Shemesh Aleph there are 20 or 30 olim kids in the city Ulpan, that's of all ages. Since the Charedim amazingly, incredibly don't participate in the program, I'll assume, given that the number of Charedi schools with olim in them, that there are about 50 olim kids in Ramat A. Darchei Naom has about 5. I'll assume that Magen Avot is a bit more.
So what I'm saying is that not all that many religious Anglos come to Israel. The Aliyah numbers consist mostly of non-religious people. And of the religious ones, a minority are charedi or yeshivish.
Why is this? Is it because coming here as a religious person is foolish. Arguably, with kids over the age of 5 it is.
You can make your own guesses. But what it means for sure is that there will be very little programming for you. There are so few people. What can you expect? That's even if Israelis and frum people had a decent concept of programming.
What they have is a country. It's a real country with medical care and schools. You can participate in them, but there's no help, no introduction, no mentoring, no easing you into it. You are dropped within it. Adults can survive it. Children not necessarily.
Nearly all of the olim were college kids headed for the IDF. It was like a singles event on the flight. There were a few retirees and just two frum families.
It was the same in the airport as we did the paperwork. There were more NBN people with kippas than olim!
In all of Beit Shemesh Aleph there are 20 or 30 olim kids in the city Ulpan, that's of all ages. Since the Charedim amazingly, incredibly don't participate in the program, I'll assume, given that the number of Charedi schools with olim in them, that there are about 50 olim kids in Ramat A. Darchei Naom has about 5. I'll assume that Magen Avot is a bit more.
So what I'm saying is that not all that many religious Anglos come to Israel. The Aliyah numbers consist mostly of non-religious people. And of the religious ones, a minority are charedi or yeshivish.
Why is this? Is it because coming here as a religious person is foolish. Arguably, with kids over the age of 5 it is.
You can make your own guesses. But what it means for sure is that there will be very little programming for you. There are so few people. What can you expect? That's even if Israelis and frum people had a decent concept of programming.
What they have is a country. It's a real country with medical care and schools. You can participate in them, but there's no help, no introduction, no mentoring, no easing you into it. You are dropped within it. Adults can survive it. Children not necessarily.
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