‘I’m not gonna lie: Aliyah is not easy. But it’s very worth it because once you find your place, you’ll feel Hashem [God] with you, you’ll feel the Jewish community with you, and it’s the most amazing thing,” says Shira Sedek Ben Zekhariah, a 23-year-old newlywed.
She knows what she’s talking about.
Learn how to buy your home in Israel with confidenceThe daughter of an Israeli father of Persian heritage, she grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, and attended local day schools. After graduating from Stern College for Women of Yeshiva University, she became a Bible teacher in that same day school system and spent her summers in Israel, where she had long hoped to move one day.
In the summer of 2024, two weeks before returning to New Jersey, she met her future husband, Shmuel Yitzchak Ben Zekhariah.
His name had come up early in the summer as she searched WhatsApp groups for matchmakers. She initially assumed he was a matchmaker rather than a match seeker. Still, when she approached him, he obliged by setting her up with several eligible acquaintances and later followed up with her. By summer’s end, they had exchanged many text messages, and Shmuel decided he wanted to meet her.
There was time for only two dates before she flew home. That proved enough to launch a long-distance relationship, conducted mainly in Hebrew, a language she speaks fluently thanks to her upbringing. Shmuel, who also speaks Arabic, Farsi, and passable English, proposed to Shira when she came to Israel for a Hanukkah visit.
Finding her footing
Because language wasn’t a barrier, Shira said she immediately felt at ease with Shmuel. She was struck by his kindness and sincerity, as well as his willingness to invest effort in nurturing a budding romance across 6,000 miles. Rather than feeling intimidated about marrying an Israeli, she was happy to have found her true love in the country where she had long hoped to build her life.
With the wedding set for June 26, 2025, Shira arranged an aliyah flight through Nefesh B’Nefesh scheduled to arrive eight days beforehand. However, she didn’t cancel another ticket she had already booked for that summer. When the sudden onset of the 12-Day War with Iran grounded the NBN flight, her other, previously purchased ticket enabled her to secure one of the scarce rescue flights leaving the US.
A special date nonetheless
Although the wedding had to be postponed until August, she arrived in Israel on her original wedding date, accompanied by her mother and two of her four younger brothers. Her father, grandparents, two other brothers, and other relatives all managed to rebook their flights in time for the rescheduled celebration, held in a Jerusalem wedding hall.
“It was very touching that they were able to come, baruch Hashem [“bless God”]. If we’d postponed it only a month, I don’t think everybody would have been able to make it.”
Shira expressed deep gratitude to Nefesh B’Nefesh for doing everything possible to ease her situation. “When they found out I managed to get on a flight, they were like, ‘Okay, then right when you land, you are going to make aliyah. Even though it’s not a group flight, we’re going to make sure that you have an easy aliyah process.’ It was absolutely amazing. I finished the beginning of the aliyah process in the airport within 10 minutes,” she recounted.
Building a life
Shira hit the ground running, preparing for her wedding and handling the myriad details of transferring every aspect of her life to a new place. Now she’s getting acquainted with her surroundings in southern Jerusalem, enjoys spending her mornings in Torah study, and plans to enter the workforce soon via private tutoring. Shmuel is an electrician and general contractor – skills that come in very handy in any household.
“I’m telling you, I can’t fix anything,” she said with a laugh. “I was the type of person to just be like, ‘Let’s call a handyman’ when something breaks. Now it’s fixed within five seconds, baruch Hashem.”
Shira misses her family, and although her parents visit often, her greatest unfulfilled wish is for her immediate family to move to Israel permanently. “I’m really waiting for them to tell me that they’re just coming,” she said. In the meantime, she’s grateful for the ability to FaceTime regularly with her loved ones in New Jersey.
What she appreciates most about Israel, she said, is the sense of being enveloped in a caring community – one that, despite sometimes coming off as loud or brusque, would not hesitate to help another Israeli in need.
“You can go anywhere and ask anybody a question – like I’ll be on the bus and have no clue where I’m going, and I feel comfortable and safe asking someone if I’m going the right way and if there’s a stop near where I’m going.”
During her college years in Manhattan, she said, turning to a complete stranger for help didn’t seem safe or even sane. “Here there’s this sense of safety, and I feel Hashem’s presence more, maybe because you’re surrounded by so many Jews. For someone like me, from the small Jewish community in Paramus, to be able to say ‘Shabbat shalom’ [“have a good, peaceful,Shabbat”] to everyone is incredible. My husband doesn’t really understand what’s so amazing about this. I told him, ‘Come to America for five seconds, and you’ll get it.’”
Asked what advice she would give to prospective immigrants, Shira framed her response through the biblical command to Avraham, “Lech le’cha,” often understood as a call to leave behind the familiar for one’s own growth and wellbeing.
“When you’re leaving wherever you lived to come to Israel, it has to be for you; you have to want it and understand what you’re going for,” the new immigrant and newlywed said. “If you want to work on your relationship with God and feel you’ll be stronger with God in Israel, then take the jump because it’s worth it – even if it’s not the easiest thing.” ■
Shira Sedek Ben Zekhariah, 23
From Paramus, New Jersey
to Jerusalem, 2025
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