34 | OCTOBER 28 • 2021 

S

haina, 42, and 
Nathaniel, 58, Warshay 
made aliyah in 2019 
from Oak Park. They came 
with four small children in 
tow, and one who was already 
here. While it was difficult 
for them to leave their many 
family members and careers 
behind, they both can’t imag-
ine living anywhere else.

Q: Tell me about your first 
trip to Israel.
Shaina: My first trip was 
on Bnei Akiva Machach after 
10th grade. There was a run-
ning joke that they promoted 
aliyah the entire time.
Nathaniel: I had just gradu-
ated from college, and I went 
to Europe for an internship 
in Paris at the International 
Herald Tribune. I went to the 
Israel Aliyah office in Paris 
so I could sign up to volun-
teer on a kibbutz. I ended up 
in Ma’aleh HaHamisha. It was 
April, and we were getting it 
ready for planting. As I was 
digging in the ground, I felt 
the connection, like the roots 
coming out of my fingers 
connecting. I felt that this 
was where I belonged.

My grandfather came 
to Israel when he was in 
high school before WWI. 
He fought in the Ottoman 
Empire’s army, then he went 
to America in the 1920s, got 
a bachelor’s degree in agricul-
ture at Ohio State. During the 
Depression, my grandparents 
came to Israel with my father. 
My grandmother moved her 
sons to Brooklyn three years 
later, after my grandfather 
died.

Q: Were you always interested 
in making aliyah?
Shaina: I really had no 
desire to make aliyah when I 
was younger. Once Nathaniel 
and I got married, he said 
he wanted to move to Israel 
when Anna graduated. And 
we came in 2019 when that 
happened.

Q: Who made aliyah with you?
Shaina: Maayan, 7, Assaf, 
6, Avigail is almost 5, and 
Gavriel is almost 3.
Nathaniel: Madeleine went 
to Midreshet Harova after 
high school and never came 
back. She did Sherut Leumi 
and got married here.

Q: What are you doing here 
professionally?
Shaina: In Michigan, I was 
a 911 dispatcher and para-
medic. I decided not to trans-
fer my paramedic license, and 
I’ve been trying to figure out 
what to do next.
Nathaniel: When we left, 
I was the executive direc-
tor of Community & Home 
Supports, a nonprofit pri-
marily providing perma-
nent supportive housing to 
homeless people. Here, I do 
fundraising consulting. I 
work for Degel-Ami, which 
raises money primarily for 
promoting the Jewish state, 
the Jewish people, the Jewish 
homeland.

Q: Is there anything that you 
miss about living in Michigan?
Shaina: Target, our family 
and our friends.
Nathaniel: Snow, our family 
and our friends.

Q: What do you love about liv-
ing in Israel?
Shaina: I love that every-
thing is historical and it’s our 
history. For example, we vis-
ited friends in Mitzpe Yericho 

and were able to tell our kids 
that this is where Moshe 
Rabbeinu spoke to the peo-
ple. I also love that our lives 
run on the Jewish calendar.
Nathaniel: Growing up, 
even though we weren’t a 
religious family, we were 
always a Zionist family. My 
grandfather is buried here. 
I can see the house that he 
built in the 1930s and where 
my father lived. This is our 
homeland, and these are our 
people.
I had to go to Bnei Brak 
recently for a meeting. I had 
a little problem with the 
car when we left. The little 
security keypad was not 
working. After our meeting, 
I finally got it to work, but I 
knew I was going to have to 
spend half the next day at the 
garage. While driving home, 
a mechanic’s station wagon 
with a phone number was 
right in front of me. I called 
him, and we pulled over. He 
fixed it in 20 minutes. Then 
he said, “Baruch Hashem, 
you found me so I could help 
you.”
Shaina: One of those “only 
in Israel” moments. 

Kibbutz volunteer and summer 
tour camper make aliyah.

Nathaniel 
and Shaina 
Warshay 

AVIVA ZACKS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ERETZ
MEET THE OLIM
Shaina and 
Nathaniel 
Warshay and 
family.

