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.