Negev Aliya

  Merchav Am Merchav Am began about 25 years ago with just a few caravans (like trailers). A couple of residents today were actually part of those first caravans. Since the surrounding mo’atza is mostly chiloni (secular), establishing a religious yishuv here was considered a big deal. Nearby well-known communities include Sde Boker (David Ben-Gurion!), Ashalim, and Revivim (Golda Meir!). As more families arrived, the state built additional caravans, and eventually the first neighborhood was designated for housing. Families purchased migrashim (plots of land) and began building. While a few plots in that first neighborhood of roughly 30–40 migrashim are still empty, most are now developed, forming the core of the original neighborhood. With the caravans vacated, new families moved in, and although some continued building in the first neighborhood, a second neighborhood opened about 10–15 years ago . Construction there helped the yishuv expand even more. Today, when you drive in...

  (If you'd like this sent to you every weekish when it comes out, shoot me a Whatsapp) From the start, our plan was to leave on the earliest flight possible. Our reason was that we wanted to get to Israel earlier in the summer so we’d have as much time as possible to adjust before school began. We knew that if we had the summer to get practical things done and to get used to our new surroundings, both we and the kids would feel more comfortable when the school year started. The lead-up to leaving was a little wacky. Since we had already sold our house and had a date we had to be out, we left our house and stayed with my brother in West Rogers Park for a week. The soonest Aliya flight we could get was July 8th and our choices were either out of New York or Florida. Florida made the most sense. It gave us and the kids one more chance to see all of our family there Jessie’s parents, Auntie Rachie and Uncle Mark, and my dad AND it gave us a home base to get ready to come to Israel. Ou...