If a new immigrant already has Israeli citizenship, the level of bureaucratic confusion can be frustratingly comical.
Here’s what happened to Effi Frohwein, who arrived in August from Toronto with his wife, Hilary Edelstein, and three children, aged 12, 10, and five.
Hilary and the kids had clear “new immigrant” status, but because Effi’s mother was born in Israel, he’s technically Israeli. That made him an “immigrating citizen,” a status that can cause complications.
When Effi and Hilary went to apply for their driver’s licenses, the clerk declared that Hilary could get a temporary license, but Effi would have to come back another time because he was “not in the system.”
Effi urged the clerk to look further, and eventually she did find his name. However, he was listed as unmarried. “My wife was in the system as married; she [the clerk] couldn’t tell me to whom,” Effi recalls dryly.
It gets worse – or funnier, depending on how you look at it.
“We went to the Interior Ministry, and the lady there said, ‘You are not married.’ We were laughing our heads off!
We’ve been married for 15 years. I said, ‘Is there a rabbi here? Maybe we can get married right now.’ She shrugged and said, ‘There’s not much we can do for you.’
“A day later, my phone rang. I answered and said, ‘Do you speak English?’ The person hung up. Then my wife’s phone rang. It was the rabbanut [rabbinate]. They said, ‘Mazal tov, you’re married!’”
Here’s the kicker: After two and a half months in Israel, the Frohweins finally received their teudot zehut (identity cards), and five days later Effi was surprised to receive his driver’s license in the mail. Hilary is still waiting for hers.
“You have to laugh it off,” he said.
Post Oct.7 Canada
There certainly wasn’t much to laugh about in Canada post-Oct. 7. There were weekly anti-Israel protests in the heart of the Jewish community.
One synagogue has been vandalized 10 times in the past 18 months. Jewish schools were shot at, universities had become dangerous hotbeds of antisemitism, and Canada Post even stopped allowing mail to be sent to Israel.
“It was very impactful for me. I didn’t see Canada as my endgame anymore,” Effi said. “We had both grown up there and thought we would bring up our kids there. We’d bought a house in a good community. Then Oct. 7 happens, and the world turns on us. We realize this is not where we are going to end up.”
Educated from childhood as Religious Zionists, the couple used to hope their children would one day make Israel their home.
“But after all this happened, we decided that we should be their example and make the move. And if we didn’t do it now, it wouldn’t be for 20 years because our oldest, Mikayla, is in grade 7. It was really the last year we would have decided to move.”
A life-changing trip
For Mikayla’s bat mitzvah last December, the Frohweins took a family trip to Israel. For 10 days, they toured biblical and modern Israeli history sites that the kids knew about from school.
They also visited Carmei Gat, the rapidly growing young neighborhood of Kiryat Gat. They knew several people from Toronto who had settled there.
“It made a lot of sense to us that if we’re going to move, then let’s move to a place like Carmei Gat. And it’s absolutely lovely here. We are part of the Anglo community and have made friends and been welcomed.”
The trip sold them on the idea of aliyah, and the two of them made a pilot trip three months later to hammer out details. “We really did our homework,” Effi commented.
Understandably, their kids had mixed reactions. “They liked the idea of moving where the weather is warmer. There was anxiety about leaving friends and family and dealing with a different language.
“They knew some Hebrew from school, but not enough. We told them that it will be difficult for all of us, and our first-year goal will be to learn the language and make friends. That’s it.”
Though the language gap is still a big issue, the kids have Anglos in their classes, have made friends, and “are doing relatively okay.” Mikayla does a lot of babysitting. “We joke that she’s making more money than her parents,” Effi said.
Effi was able to keep his existing job, though that means working fewer convenient Canadian hours. Hilary left her government job and is not yet working outside the home.
Challenges
Aside from language, the family’s challenges are mostly financial.
“We are still renting a car; we can’t get a bank loan to buy one because we don’t have Israeli pay stubs. And while certain things are cheaper here than in Canada – meat, for example – other things are more expensive,” Effi explained.
“But I’m very happy here. If I could work Israeli hours and both of us could make a good salary, that would be excellent.”
It wasn’t easy leaving the grandparents behind, especially since Effi’s parents had moved two years ago to be closer to them, and now both their married sons and all their grandchildren are in Israel.
But family is not only those related by blood. “After Oct. 7, I had in mind that I want to be with my family, meaning Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael,” Effi said.
“I saw that our family across the pond was going through huge struggles, and I wanted to be over there and helping somehow. We feel happy with our decision, even though the move comes with a lot of changes.”
Effi’s advice to other Canadians contemplating aliyah is to accept that “Israel is not the same as Canada. You have to come with an open mind and an attitude of going with the flow.
“If you’re going to get upset with the bureaucracy and all the little things that can go wrong, you’ll end up back in Canada within the year. If you come with the right mindset, you’ll be fine.” ■