32 | JULY 15 • 2021 

C

atching up with my friend and 
former rebbetzin Rena Spolter, 46, I 
got the chance to ask her all about 
her aliyah, 13 years later. Anyone who knows 
her is aware of how inspirational she is, and 
her aliyah story and message are wonderful 
examples.

Q: What motivated you to make Aliyah?
Rena Spolter: The first time I visited 
Israel I was 13 and in eighth grade when 
my grandmother took both her daughters 
and all her grandchildren to Israel for two 
weeks. When we left at the end of the trip, 
I remember this sinking feeling in my chest 
area when the plane took off. It felt like how 
you feel when you are leaving home. After 
that, every time I visited Israel, when I left 
to go back to America, I felt the same vis-
ceral connection to the land.
When I was dating my husband, Reuven, 
he said he wanted to be a shul rabbi, which 
is not a full-time job in Israel. I wanted to 
only date people who wanted to make ali-
yah, but there were other great things about 
him, so, in the end, we got married, and I 
kept the aliyah dream in my mind.
When Young Israel of Oak Park member 

Joe Weiss died in a car accident, my hus-
band and a few other men started learning 
from a book that was very dear to Joe. It 
was all about the yearning for and the con-
nection to the Land of Israel. After studying 
the book together as a group, they came 
to Israel to celebrate finishing studying the 
book together. He came back and he said, 
“You can’t learn a book like that and not 
want to go.
” So, we started planning.

Q: How was your aliyah announcement 
received in Detroit?
RS: We lived a very public life in Detroit 
as the rabbi and rebbetzin of the Young 
Israel of Oak Park, and we knew that when 
we made aliyah there would be questions, 
like what we were going to do profession-
ally; how we were going to make money; 
and what kind of job we were going to get. 
For our aliyah flight, we even made T-shirts 
with the four most-asked questions on the 
back and our answers.

Q: How old were your kids then, and what are 
they up to now?
RS: Simcha was going into sixth grade 
— it was the year before his bar mitzvah 

— and he is now 24, married and a father. 
Bezalel was going into fourth grade and 
is now 21 and volunteering in the Israeli 
Air Force. Leah was going into first grade 
and is now 18 and finishing her first year 
of two years of national service. Petachya 
was 3 and is now finishing 10th grade. 
Moriyah, 11, is our Sabra who was born 
here. Moriyah is one of the names of 
Jerusalem, and she was born right around 
Yom Yerushalayim at Hadassah Hospital in 
Jerusalem.

Q: What have you and the rabbi been doing 
professionally since you came to Israel?
RS: My husband works at Herzog College 
as the coordinator for a teacher training 
program for Judaic teachers in the diaspora. 
In addition, he has started an online Jewish 
learning platform, called Kitah (kitah.org), 
for junior high school kids, teaching Jewish 
subjects to children around the world.
For the first two years, I taught at a semi-
nary. I was a Judaic Studies teacher at Akiva 
(now Farber), so it was a natural progres-
sion. Eventually, I retrained to be a high 
school English teacher, which I have been 
doing for the past 11 years.
For the past two years, I also have been 
in an intensive program training to be a 
yoetzet halachah where I am learning to 
answer halachic questions pertaining to 
women.

Q: What do you miss about Detroit?
RS: I miss the people. We had very warm 
connections with different generations. 
Here, it is not as natural to have relation-
ships with people in different generations. 
I also miss Jerusalem Pizza, especially the 
barbecue chicken pizza. My husband misses 
the kishka pizza.

Q: Do you have a message that you would like 
to share?
RS: People who make aliyah miss the 
people from home. We, including your fam-
ily and friends who live here, appreciate and 
need your support and love. On a national 
level, Israel needs every voice of support it 
can get. I encourage each and every read-
er to be actively involved in Israel-related 
activities. It really does make a difference. 

Former Young Israel of Oak Park rebbetzin 
reflects on her decision to make aliyah.
Rena Spolter

AVIVA ZACKS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ERETZ

MEET THE OLIM

COURTESY OF THE SPOLTERS

Rena and Rabbi 
Reuven Spolter

