34 | JANUARY 6 • 2022

mother who lives down the street
from us, my cousins who live
two blocks away, my parents, of
course. I talk to them every day,
but it’s not the same.
I also miss snow. People from
Michigan think I’m crazy, but
snow is my favorite season. My
dad called me recently to see the
snow.

JN: What do you love about living
in Israel?
GK: Waking up every day, there’s
a purpose to my life because I
live where my national history
is unfolding. Also, there is an
inherent caring about other peo-
ple that doesn’t exist everywhere
else. It’s like a family where you
get annoyed with each other, and
you yell at each other all the time,
but at the end of the day, if the
bus starts moving before I’m on
it, someone on the bus is going to
scream, “Stop!!”
When all the rockets were hit-
ting us this past summer, one fell
in Givat Shmuel, where I live. I
was home by myself that Shabbat,
and it was really scary because it
was the first time I had ever expe-
rienced that.
After I heard a loud boom
that shook our building and the
siren stopped, I stepped out of
my shelter and went outside. My
neighbors asked me if I was by
myself. I told them I was, and
they immediately said to come
to their house. I sat there for the
rest of Shabbat, and it was so nice
because I had barely talked to
them before.

JN: Do you have a message for
any young person thinking
about making aliyah while sin-
gle?
GK: It’s good to make aliyah
before you go to college because
you integrate better. College is a
transition period, which makes
aliyah a lot easier.
I can’t see myself anywhere else.
I’m here to raise my kids in Israel.
I’m here because the people are
amazing, yelling and all.

ERETZ
MEET THE OLIM

JN: Where did your Zionist
education come from?
GK: I went to Akiva (now
Farber Hebrew Day School) and
Camp Stone, and I davened at
the Young Israel of Oak Park,
which are all Zionistic.
My parents also instilled
Zionism in the home. My
mom’s two sisters live in Israel,
and my grandmother lives
here most of the time. I’ve had
Zionism infused in me my
entire life.
After high school, I went to
Midreshet HaRova for a year
and a half, which is all that
Zionism times seven. Before I
went to HaRova, I was planning
to go to college in America and
then come on aliyah.

JN: How did you make your

final decision?
GK: When I decided to make
aliyah, I texted my parents, “I’m
making aliyah,
” but I decided to
go home for six months and live
life out of the aliyah bubble. The
whole time I was home, I just
wanted to come back here.

JN: What was your aliyah
experience like?
GK: I made aliyah on July 4.
The date of my aliyah was 70
years from the day when my
grandfather came to America
after the Shoah. Seventy years
was the time of Galut, and I
had the choice to come back to
Israel after such a horrible thing
happened to our people.
I was so happy to be on a
charter flight where everyone
was making aliyah at the same

time. When I got off the plane,
I felt like a celebrity because
there were a lot of people and
there was a band playing wel-
come music. Then I heard my
name, and it was my two aunts
holding a sign. My friends and
teachers from HaRova also
showed up.

JN: What are you doing now?
GK: I am the content coordina-
tor for a television production
company in Herzilya. I love it.

JN: What do you miss about liv-
ing in Detroit?
GK: I miss so many things:
Brian’s Calzones, Slurpees,
seven-layer, Dunkin’ Donuts,
Target — all the materialistic
stuff that you don’t get here. I
miss my family a lot — my dad’s

G

abriella Katz, 24, made aliyah in 2017 from Southfield six months after she got home
from seminary. She initially lived in the Old City of Jerusalem and then moved to Givat
Shmuel to start studying visual communications at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC)
of Herzliya. She graduated in 2020, lives in Givat Shmuel and works in Herzliya.

‘I can’t see
myself
anywhere else,’
she says.

AVIVA ZACKS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Meet
Gabriella
Katz