44 | JANUARY 26 • 2023
A
aron Poris is an “acci-
dental” journalist. So is
Owen Alterman.
Both are Detroiters who had
different professions before mak-
ing aliyah to Israel and whose
first jobs in Israel were not in
journalism.
Prior to making
aliyah in 2015,
Poris, ILTV’s
anchor, reporter
and editor-in-chief
was a full-time
art teacher at Our
Lady of Mercy
High School in
Farmington Hills.
“I studied art education … every
medium you can think of, from
jewelry and printmaking to
drawing, painting and graphic
design, and educational psychol-
ogy.
”
Poris, a Wayne State
University and North
Farmington High School alum-
nus, is K-12-certified in art.
For Alterman, i24 News
senior diplomatic correspondent,
traveling with prime ministers,
meeting kings and reporting
from war zones is a far cry from
what seems to be a normal,
pretty unexciting childhood
in suburban Detroit in the late
1980s and 1990s. Growing up
in Bloomfield Township, the
Bloomfield Hills Andover High
School graduate left for an Ivy
League education and has not
looked back.
Living in Israel never was a
foreign concept to Poris. “My
mother is Israeli, and my par-
ents met in Israel. My father is
American, but he made aliyah
when 18 and did the army.
”
He said his father brought
his bride back to Detroit before
beginning a family and spoke
Hebrew at home. “When I actu-
ally started going to kindergar-
ten, I didn’t speak any English.
I had attended the JCC for
preschool, and they didn’t know
what to do with me.
”
So, it was no surprise to his
mother when he told her he was
making aliyah.
“I always just felt very attached
to the country and to the culture
and to the people. I remember
when I told my mother finally,
”
he related. “I said, ‘You know,
I’m going; I think I’m going to
move.
’”
Poris continued, “She said, ‘I
figured that if any of the kids
would have done that, it was you’
who would make aliyah.
”
Explaining his passion for
Israel, he said, “I’m also quite
Zionist in terms of politics. I
obviously don’t agree with every-
thing that the country does, but
I do believe in the core funda-
mental ideology behind Zionism
that this country should exist
and would like to see it continue
to exist.
”
Alterman took a more circu-
itous route to Israel.
After graduating with a B.A.
in Near Eastern studies from
Princeton University, the now
45-year-old headed to Eastern
Europe with the United States
Peace Corps for two years, where
he “taught English, among other
things.
” Economically, “Romania
was a basket case,
” he said.
The 1990s were unkind to
Romania after the fall of the Iron
Curtain and the 1989 Romanian
revolution. The nation expe-
rienced a decade of economic
decline and instability. The
government’s goal consistently
was to join the European Union,
taking the first formal steps only
five years after the fall of the
Soviet Union, and culminating
in joining along with neighbor-
ing Bulgaria in 2007.
Alterman was there in the
midst of the structural economic
reform. According to the official
government Romanian Statistics
Office, the country’s GDP rose a
healthy 7% as he was leaving two
years later. It has since grown
more. “Being in the E.U. has
helped a lot. It’s a different place
than it was 25 years ago,
” he said.
Graduating from Harvard Law
School in 2004, he went to Israel,
“… for a year at the Supreme
Court [as a foreign law clerk]
and then [at the Reut Institute],
a think tank. I went to New York
after that in 2005 to a big firm.
”
After five years doing high-
priced litigation at Allen and
Overy LLP
, Alterman made the
decision. “I moved here; I made
aliyah.
”
Pressed about his “moment,
”
his decisor, he responded sim-
ply. “I love it and I believe in it.
There is a one-hour speech, but
at the end of the day, that’s what
it comes down to” after actually
considering the move for 16
years, he said.
Poris’ story is a bit different.
Coincidence, Hashgacha Pratit/
Divine providence/fate stepped
in, directing him about when to
make aliyah. “It’s like the chips
just kind of fell in the right place
at the right time as well. I was
working at Mercy High School,
and I had been heavily thinking
about it. A couple of months
later, my department head came
to me and said, ‘Hey, we just got
the budget for next year and we
ERETZ
Metro Detroit natives end up with careers in Israeli media.
‘Accidental’ Journalists
Nathaniel
Warshay
Contributing
Writer
Owen
Alterman
on the air.