54 | APRIL 7 • 2022 

T

alya Drissman Woolf, 44, made 
aliyah in 2015, from Farmington 
Hills with her husband, Ariel, 
and their baby, Elchanan, who is now 8 
and the older brother of Yehonatan, 6, 
Lilach, 4, and Liora, 21 months.

JN: Where did you make aliyah to?
Talya: We made aliyah to Giv’at 
Shmuel. We heard it would be a soft 
landing because there’s a big English-
speaking community. We lived there for 
about two years and then moved to a 
small, mixed neighborhood in Netanya. 
JN: What do you think about your 
community?
Talya: It’s a great community and the 
schools are amazing. Our kids’ school 
keeps winning national awards. 
JN: What’s your Zionist background? 
Talya: The Drissman family is very 
Zionist, very pro-Israel. We never really 
talked about living in Israel, but there 
was a lot of pro-Israel talk in our home. 
We went to Israel for the first time as 

a family in 1991, and then my sister 
started studying here every summer. 
One summer, I came along with her 
and studied at Neve Yerushalayim, 
but back then I never thought about 
making aliyah. 
JN: When did you decide to make 
aliyah?
Talya: I started thinking about it 
when I had been a lawyer for a few 
years. I wondered about how to convert 
my license so that I could practice in 
Israel. I started looking into it and 
found out that if you practice in the 
U.S. for five years, you don’t have to 
take the bar exam in Israel. When I met 
my Israeli husband, he made it clear 
that he wanted to live in Israel, which 
was fine with me.
We decided not to move to Israel 
immediately when we got married 
because I wanted him to get to know 
my family. We lived in Detroit for three 
years.
JN: What do you miss about living in 

Michigan?
Talya: My dad, my brothers and sister 
(who lives in Toronto). I also miss snow. 
JN: Do you have a message for 
anyone who’s thinking about making 
aliyah? 
Talya: If you have younger children, 
absolutely move here because there is 
nothing like the Israeli community. In 
America, I felt like the whole world was 
not Jewish, and we had this little bubble 
where we would celebrate our holidays. 
We’d get dressed up for Purim and go to 
our public high school in our costumes, 
and we’d always have to explain it. We 
also had to explain why we missed so 
much school in September. My kids are 
growing up where they don’t have to 
constantly explain their identity. 
When I was working in America, I 
had to go through the calendar and ask 
for several days off every year for all the 
holidays. I also had to explain Fridays 
in the winter when I had to leave early. 
Now, my identity is just myself, not 
the observant Jew who needs time off. 
JN: What positive things have you 
found here?
Talya: People say Israel is so 
expensive, but here we have great health 
coverage, which is ridiculously cheap. 
Schooling and college are also very 
inexpensive.
If non-observant people are thinking 
about making aliyah, there are good 
secular schools here, and there’s a 
feeling of family even if you’re not 
religious. On Yom Kippur, everybody 
rides their bikes because everybody’s 
off work and no one’s driving. It has 
become a family day.
Everybody gives you advice on the 
street even if you didn’t ask for it, and 
you can get conflicting advice from one 
block to the next. But it’s only because 
they love you and they worry about 
you, even though they don’t know you. 
Because you’re family. 
There will never be the perfect time to 
make aliyah. Just do it. 

ERETZ

THE WOOLF FAMILY

Talya Woolf: In Israel, 
“You’re Family”

AVIVA ZACKS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

MEET THE OLIM

The Woolf 
family.

