I have always had a love for Eretz Yisrael and wanted to make aliyah, but I was determined never to leave my mother behind. My mother, Emma Sarah Hubert Mogilensky, a”h, moved to Baltimore about six months after we did. Born in Germany, she was sent away from home alone on the Kindertransport and lost her parents in the Holocaust. Rebuilding her life with my father in America, she became a widow at age 56. When she passed away at age 92, it was time to reconsider our life choices.
At
the time, all three of our sons were living in Israel, two in Jerusalem and one
in Bnei Brak. Our daughter lives in Lakewood, NJ. I had switched jobs about a
year-and-a-half earlier, and I had mentioned at the interview that I would one
day want to move to Israel and take my job with me. Amazingly enough, they were
open to the idea. So, a month or so after my mother passed away, I told them
that we were moving. One year after my mother passed away, we moved to
Jerusalem. I had traveled to Israel seven months previously and bought an
apartment in the Maalot Dafna neighborhood of Jerusalem, near two of our sons.
We sold our home in Baltimore, and it became a down payment on our far smaller
Jerusalem apartment. (Location, location, location!)
Making
aliyah is incredibly exciting – the fulfillment of a dream. At the same
time, it is totally overwhelming. There is so much to adjust to. I was 59, and
my husband was 62 when we made aliyah. Learning to manage in Hebrew was
and still is quite challenging. Let’s look at possibly the three biggest adjustments
other than the language: grocery shopping, transportation, and health care. When
you, i”yH, make aliyah one day, you can thank me for the heads up.
Eating Is Not
Optional
Without
a car, food shopping is managed differently here. I tackle it in several ways.
For major shopping, I order online from a website, 5dakot, which is similar to
Instacart. They deliver right to the door of our apartment. For someone who
lives two flights up without an elevator, that is a major help. There are other
similar websites, but I like this one. Be aware: They cannot deliver everywhere
in the country. The first time you log on, they will validate your address to
ensure they can deliver to you.
For
day-to-day shopping, we have several small grocery stores near us. A small
local grocery store is known as a makolet. Every neighborhood has its makolet
as only 44% of Israelis own a car. Derived from the Hebrew root meaning “to
supply” or “to provide,” the makolet evolved during the pre-state
British Mandate era and the early decades of the State of Israel (the 1950s
through the 1980s) into a unique cultural institution. The selection at the makolet
is more limited, of course, and prices are often higher than at one of the
large supermarkets. However, being small and locally based creates an
opportunity not typically seen in a large grocery store. The owners know me, as
they know everyone in the neighborhood. I have an account at our makolet,
so I pay using an account number (mind you, we are talking a three-digit
account number) rather than paying by cash, check, or credit card. But it gets
better than that: I don’t even have to tell the cashier my account number. They
all know me and know my account number. They know my family and all the neighborhood
families. It’s quite common here for children as young as five or six to come
to the makolet to shop for their mother, sometimes borrowing the store’s
phone to call home to ask questions.
Apartments
here are small. Even if there were a Costco here – which there most certainly is
not – no one has the space to store groceries in bulk. So frequent grocery
shopping is typical. Our makolet even follows the quite old practice of
closing early on Tuesday. This is a practice with old European roots and is no
longer common but does still exist. As inconvenient as it often is for me, it
is a reminder that the makolet is more than a store. It’s a uniquely Israeli
institution.
Most
Americans buy all their groceries, meat, dairy, and produce in one store. Here
in Israel, there are many specialized food stores. I shop at a local fruit and
vegetable store weekly. They deliver, and by now they don’t even need to ask me
for my address. Well, it only took about five years for them to stop confusing
me with my upstairs neighbor – who is blond, while I am most certainly not.
Americans all look alike, I guess.
There
are meat stores and fish stores, too. But the most Israeli of all is the pitzuchim
store. Pitzuchim translates literally to “crackables” or “things you
crack open.” It refers to nuts and seeds. These stores typically sell a wide
variety of nuts, seeds, and spices. Often, they carry candy, wine, and liquor
as well. On Friday afternoons, these stores are packed with shoppers getting
their Shabbos treats. It is probably the most common of all stores here. For a
real Israeli experience, there is Machneh Yehudah – the shuk. It has
changed over the years and is no longer only about food – and it is not the
cheapest place for fruit and vegetables. But for the sheer fun of seeing the
enormous array of the bounty of Eretz Yisrsel, it cannot be beat.
Getting from Here to There
As
I mentioned above, most Israelis do not own a car, so public transportation is extremely
important – and very well run, with buses, light rail, and train service to all
parts of the city and country.
Jerusalem
boasts the first light rail system in the country. When it opened in 2011, it
ran through downtown Yerushalayim along Rechov Jaffo. In 2025, the original
line was extended both north to Neve Yaakov and south to Hadassah Hospital in
Ein Karem. Two other lines are actively being built, one of which partially
opened in August 2026. Light rail is the best way to travel in Jerusalem, with
trains coming frequently and not being affected by traffic. However, at this
point, it serves only a limited part of the city.
For
the rest, there is an extensive bus network. Buses are, of course, very much
affected by traffic. While Jerusalem’s traffic is not as bad as Tel Aviv, it
still can be quite congested. In addition, bus schedules can be, let’s say,
erratic. At most bus stops, there is an electronic board showing when the next
buses are due to arrive. A most Israeli experience is for the board to show your
bus coming in, say, five minutes. Then four minutes, then three minutes. Then,
it suddenly shows 20 min. What happened? It’s one of the great mysteries of
Israeli life. No one has idea how/why this occurs. It doesn’t happen all the
time but often enough to make waiting for a bus an excellent time for some
serious davening.
The
Israeli intercity railway system (similar to Amtrak) is a delight. Trains run
on time (do not be late!) and go to quite a few cities. My personal bucket list
is to go to all the cities it serves. I have gone to quite a few so far. No
reservation is needed, you just show up. Payment is determined by the distance
you travel. You swipe your Rav Kav upon entering the station and again upon
exiting at your destination. This is now the typical way to travel from Ben
Gurion airport (if you don’t take a cab) to Jerusalem as there is a station
right in the airport. In 20 minutes, you can travel from the airport to the
Yitzchak Navon train station in Jerusalem.
I
mentioned the Rav Kav. This is a reloadable plastic smart card used to pay for
buses, trains, and light rail systems across Israel. It is also possible to pay
with an app on a smartphone. Prices vary depending on the distance traveled and
your age or stage of life. Fortunately for me, residents over 67 have a Rav Kav
Zahav, a Gold Rav Kav. For us, all public transportation is free. Buses, light
rail, and the Israeli railway system are all totally free for us.
What’s Up Doc?
Health
care is very scary for many olim. The system here is very different from
the one in the U.S. I won’t say it’s worse as my experience has been quite
good. But it is extremely different. Israeli medicine is socialized. This means
that when you make aliyah you choose a kupah – a health care
organization. There are four of them: Clalit, Maccabi, M’uchedet, and Leumit.
Every Israeli citizen is required by law to join one of them. It is possible to
change if you decide you prefer a different one. Basic Coverage (sal briut)
is funded nationally via payroll/income deductions (typically 3.1% to 5% of
income up to certain caps, or a minimal fixed fee for non-working
residents/students). New immigrants (olim) often receive the first year
of basic coverage free. Optional upgraded tiers cover specialized care, reduced
co-pays, dental, and alternative medicine. The most expensive of these is about
500 NIS per month – or about $170 at today’s exchange rate.
So
basically, health care is very inexpensive relative to costs in the U.S. You
choose a primary care physician at a branch of your kupah near you. You
can schedule visits to your primary care doctor (and other specialists) either
online or on the phone. Within your kupah, most visits are totally free.
To visit a specialist or for tests, you need a referral, called a hafniya.
Most tests – such as X-rays, lab work, etc. – are totally free. Prescription
drugs are discounted if they are part of the sal, the basket of covered
prescriptions.
The
possible downside of this system is a long wait for specialist visits or for
certain tests. In our experience, the more critical the visit/test, the quicker
it can be scheduled. Once you need to go outside of the service provided by
your own kupah – for surgeries or specialized tests or visits to
specialists outside the kupah – you require a hitchivut. This is
a financial guarantee from your kupah that covers the cost of medical
care at a hospital or outside clinic. The hitchivut covers the cost
totally. There is no out-of-pocket cost at all. My husband has had two
surgeries requiring a week of hospitalizations. Cost to us: zero.
Not a Third-World Country Anymore
Many
people my age remember their early years of traveling to Israel and bringing
cans of tuna, ketchup, and toilet paper. Today, I joke that – now that you can
buy Ziploc bags here (in many sizes!) and Amazon ships many items for free (as
long as we are not in the midst of a war) – there is no reason for anyone not to
make aliyah. A huge oversimplification to be sure. But there is truth in
it. Aliyah is not nearly as complicated as it once was, and many things
are now available that were not previously. I am blessed to be here and have quite
a few friends here, many of them from Baltimore.
After living in Baltimore for 30
years, Marsha and Avraham Grant made aliyah
in 2016.
