‘Our first in Israel’: The immigrants celebrating their first Rosh Hashanah as Israelis

About 500 of these new immigrants arrived very recently, between the last week of August and the first week of September, according to statistics from the Aliyah and Integration Ministry.

Shmaya Dovid and Yocheved Honickman immigrated in August from Teaneck, New Jersey, to Tekoa with their sons Dov Ber, three; and Boaz, two. He is seeking employment; she is an electrologist.

Why they decided to make aliyah now: “When we were here for my brother’s wedding in October 2022, we looked around and said, ‘This is where we want to raise our children.’ We’d been looking at the landscape in America and didn’t see anything long term for our children there,” says Shmaya Dovid, who has a brother and other relatives in Tekoa.

Their oldest was four months old, and they’d just found out another baby was on the way, so they decided to start the paperwork 18 months later, when life was a little more stable.

“Post-Oct. 7, there was a big desire to give back to Am Yisrael,” Shmaya Dovid continues. “And as the war went on longer, we saw that a lot of people in Israel were burned out and exhausted. We came here refreshed and energized and feel we can be useful – we can babysit for kids whose father is doing reserve duty, for example. We feel ready to do our part.”

Reflections on Rosh Hashanah there and here: For the last 11 years, as program coordinator at New York-based nonprofit organization The Living Room, Shmaya Dovid created the recovery programming offered at Madraigos, a retreat in America for people in recovery from substance abuse and other life challenges.

“This is the first Rosh Hashanah when I’m walking into a new year thinking about what it means for me as an individual and how to make it something special for me and my wife and kids – and not trying to create an experience for other people,” he says. “We will probably be in Efrat at Rav Shlomo Katz’s shul, or in the Tekoa Carlebach shul, a beautiful minyan and community. I’m excited about it, no matter which way it goes.”

Why she decided to make aliyah now: “I grew up in a very Zionist family and always felt this is the Jewish home and the place I want to live my life. I had just finished my undergraduate degree, so it was good timing,” she says. “This place is volatile, unfortunately, so you never know when you make aliyah what is going to happen in the future. But that didn’t really affect my decision.”

Antisemitism in Australia after Oct. 7, she adds, “made me feel stronger in my decision to make aliyah. I work in the world of arts and hope to go into academia, and those spaces are not super-friendly to Jews, especially Zionist Jews.”

Reflections on Rosh Hashanah there and here: “In Melbourne, Rosh Hashanah was pretty classic – going to shul, sharing meals with family, spending time with friends. This year, I may stay in Jerusalem or visit relatives in Modi’in. I’m very excited to be here for the High Holy Days; it’s very special to be in Israel; but at the same time, I feel sad that I’m not with my family, and I will miss my shul. But it’s good to be here.”

Eliana and Zvi Rantz made aliyah from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Zichron Ya’acov in August 2025 – on their 18th wedding anniversary – with their children Izzy, 13; Uriah, 11; and Liat, nine. He is employed as an industrial engineer and reliability  manager; she is an English and theater educator hoping to establish an inclusive community theater.

Why they decided to make aliyah now: “In May 2023, we came to Israel for a family trip. Watching the country through our kids’ eyes made us see this is where we want to be with them. We liked Cincinnati, but there were no Modern Orthodox high school options, so we were looking to leave anyway,” says Eliana.

“We decided we didn’t want to just move to another American community; we may as well make the big move we always talked about, but it was never the right time for. With Izzy entering eighth grade, we felt like it was the right time for him and for all of us.”

The events of Oct. 7, she adds, “made it so much more clear that this is where we have to be and raise our family. Oddly, it feels like a safe place to do that. It is hard learning a new language and acclimating to a new society, but our kids are already learning independence, taking buses, and walking to Bnei Akiva on their own.”

Reflections on Rosh Hashanah there and here: “Rosh Hashanah in the States was about going to shul, spending time with family and friends, and hosting meals. We have a pair of fun glass plates that we got as a wedding gift – one with apples and one with pomegranates – and we get excited about pulling those out for Rosh Hashanah. Right now, they are on the lift that has not arrived yet, so we won’t have them for this year’s celebration.”

The Rantzes are in the process of finding their fit in terms of a community and a synagogue in their new hometown. “We’ve been invited for two meals on Rosh Hashanah. One of our hosts is a person my husband learned with at the Technion during a high school summer program; on one of our first days here, we met [ran into] his wife in the grocery store!” Eliana says.

“We’re excited to connect with new people and start new traditions. The chagim are a great time to figure out where you belong in the community and where you connect inside and outside of shul. On Rosh Hashanah, it feels like you can create a deeper connection with Israel, too, since there’s so much time for prayer and reflection.”

Noam and Ilana Safier moved from Teaneck, New Jersey, to Carmei Gat in August 2025 with their daughter Romy, three, and son Adir, 10 months. He plans to continue his career in corporate communication and financial public relations; she worked at NBC’s Peacock streaming service and is actively job-seeking.

Why they decided to make aliyah now: “It’s something we always wanted to do. I was a Bnei Akiva kid, and now I sit on the board of Bnei Akiva North America,” says Noam. “Ilana grew up in Boston and moved to Teaneck as a teen. We both grew up in fiercely Zionist households. But life moved on, and we got comfortable. We had good jobs and a good support system.”

And then, “Oct. 7 turned our world upside down. We looked at each other and saw we had good professional experience under our belts, and now we had to decide: Would we put a down payment on a house and give our kids the same kind of upbringing we had, which we loved, or take a shot at making aliyah?”

They gave themselves a year to research and plan the move. In Carmei Gat, they found an active, welcoming olim community that has given them numerous resources, such as a FAQ document for English speakers and a buddy family who has accompanied them from the start, even lending them mattresses for their first night in Israel.

“Whether here or in America, this is a beautiful but difficult stage of life, with two young children who keep us up at night,” says Noam. “Being with others at the same stage of life, and in the same situation of being new immigrants, has been invaluable.”

Reflections on Rosh Hashanah there and here: “Rosh Hashanah was about family. In Teaneck, our parents lived within a five-minute drive. Here, we are building relationships with people in the community. That will be the biggest adjustment,” says Noam, “but it was a challenge we expected.”

Ilana adds that Romy is loving her first experience in a Jewish preschool. “She’s soaking it all up; she’s hearing the shofar, tasting the apples and honey – all this is coming to life and she’s living and understanding it on a new level.

“This year will be one of huge growth for her.”

While the Oct. 7 attack and subsequent war understandably discouraged many tourists, exchange students, and potential immigrants from coming to Israel, for others these events ignited or accelerated aliyah plans – either because of increasing antisemitism abroad or due to a heightened sense of Zionism, solidarity, and the desire to strengthen the Jewish homeland.

Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer notes that more than 50,000 immigrants have moved to Israel since that catastrophic day two years ago.

Sofer says that he’s been working to ease immigration, and especially integration, for new citizens from Western countries.

“Traditionally, this ministry focused its efforts on the East, so at the beginning of my term I built new infrastructure to encourage aliyah, especially from the West,” he says.

“The most important thing we’ve done is in the transfer of professional licensing – a real reform that’s very significant because people who want to make aliyah understand they will experience big challenges, and their job is one of the most challenging,” he explains.

“We have to improve and expand this reform, but we’ve worked with eight ministries to ease licensing procedures for professionals such as accountants, financial advisers, engineers, teachers, architects, and social workers. We took from the Education Ministry the authority to license olim because there were a few thousand teachers waiting a long time for licensing. Unfortunately, not all medical professions have been included in this reform, but we are not giving up and will continue to work with the Health Ministry to make this happen.”

Meanwhile, the ministry started a new program with Nefesh B’Nefesh and the Health Ministry to encourage immigrant health professionals and their families to live in in the Galilee and the Negev.

“In 2024, we brought 519 physicians – 400 from the East and 119 from the West. In 2025, we’ve increased the number from France,” he says.

Sofer’s ministry also established 87 higher-education programs to improve integration of English-, French-, and Russian-speaking olim into Israeli universities and research institutions.

“This year we will open 47 new programs, 25 of them taught in English for the first two years,” he says. “We give all new immigrants free tuition, but in these programs we also offer rent for two years, ulpan for two years, and other ways to help them integrate. I thought of all these programs before Oct. 7, but afterwards they became more relevant.”

The ministry has opened a hotline (1299) for olim and is working with municipal authorities to expand local cultural support services for olim who speak English, Russian, or French.

“There are people who decided to make aliyah in the middle of the war; even while Hezbollah was launching missiles on the North, people were immigrating to Nahariya,” he notes.

“But you can’t bring people here and throw them in the deep end of the pool. We will support them every step of the way because if our services are better, it will encourage people to make aliyah,” Sofer concludes.