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

