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.