JULY 8 • 2021 | 25

P

olina Fradkin, 26, grew up in 
Farmington Hills and moved to 
Israel four years ago. She wanted to 
be the one to make the decision to make ali-
yah so her future offspring wouldn’t have to 
deal with saying goodbye to her.

Q: Tell me about your life in Michigan.
PF: I moved to Michigan from Russia 
with my family when I was almost 2. My 
parents sent me to Hillel Day School and 
then I went to Frankel Jewish Academy. 
After that, I did a gap year in Israel.

Q: What were your early Israel experiences?
PF: My first trip to Israel was my eighth-
grade trip, and when I came back, I was 
sobbing every day about how much I want-
ed to be in Israel. I was just so upset to be 
back in Michigan! This sentiment clearly 
stuck with me.
For my gap year, I did an academic coed 
program called Kivunim. It was based in 
Jerusalem and focused on learning about 
global Jewry, bridging studies in Jerusalem 
and travels to all the places we learned 
about. We visited a total of 10 or 11 coun-
tries and spent a good amount of time in 
Israel as well.
I went back to Michigan after my gap 
year, but I continuously tried to find ways 
to come back to Israel. This included staff-

ing Birthright trips, finding programs that 
would take people on, for example, trips for 
creatives in Israel, or any way to get back 
here. Any possible excuse to come back 
to Israel — winter break, summer break, 
spring break — I was here.

Q: What motivated you to move to Israel? 
PF: It felt natural that when I graduated 
that I would spend more time here. So, I 
started applying for programs and fellow-
ships based in Israel. I ended up getting 
a Fulbright Fellowship here, researching 
music. In retrospect, I guess I was softening 
the “I want to stay here for good” blow I 
later dealt my family.
During that year, I had an amazing 
friend group and apartment in Tel Aviv. 
Somehow, my apartment got the nickname 
“the Quad” and, thanks to one professional 
chef roommate of ours, we were hosting 
massive Shabbat dinners every single week. 
Eventually, we got sponsorships from 
Nefesh B’Nefesh and even raised money on 
Kickstarter to support these dinners.
Then, when the year was ending, I start-
ed thinking about what to do next. All the 
options were in front of me — moving to 
New York, maybe going to Europe. But I 
was just so happy here. I meditated on the 
beach about it, and it became clear to me. I 
had an amazing life. Why would I want to 

go looking anywhere else? I decided to stay.
I made aliyah a year after I had already 
been living in Israel. It didn’t feel like a dif-
ficult decision at all. Very natural. I thought 
of it in this framework: Being here means 
I’m deciding for future generations of my 
family. I’m pivoting the future Fradkin 
lineage, leading our thread which started 
in Eastern Europe and recently Russia and 
the U.S., back to our home and heritage. I 
envisioned staying in the states and my kids 
eventually leaving me to come here as I’m 
leaving my parents. I decided to make that 
decision for myself.
That year, my parents came for Pesach, 
and I told them at the seder that I wanted 
to stay. My mom said something amazing: 
“Your father and I are the generation that 
left Egypt. But you’re the generation that 
gets to enter Israel. We can’t conceive of the 
kind of freedom it takes to be able to come 
back to the homeland. Stay!”

Q: What do you miss about living in Detroit?
PF: Seasons were nice. We don’t get 
much of that here. Tomatoes Apizza in 
Farmington Hills — ah, I miss that place. 
And of course, my family.

Q: What do you love about living in Israel?
Polina: On the day of the most recent 
election, everyone was out. I saw people 
dancing, live jazz bands in the street, kids 
handing out lemonades to people who’d 
voted. Everybody was so alive and so happy! 
And all I could think looking around at the 
shops and the streets and at these gorgeous 
colorful people around me was that I could 
not believe this country exists. 
I cannot believe that there is a place 
like this, that is so new, where all Jews can 
come, build their businesses, make a living, 
raise their children, vote democratically 
(we’re still working out the kinks on that 
one …) and speak our own language.
I couldn’t believe how privileged I am 
to live here, to live in this moment, in this 
modern and ancient, beautiful and slightly 
dysfunctional state. There’s no place I’
d 
rather be. 

AVIVA ZACKS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ERETZ

MEET THE OLIM

Polina 
Fradkin

She felt 
She felt 
 connected to 
 connected to 
 Israel since 
 Israel since 
 eighth grade.
 eighth grade.

Polina 
Fradkin

