Our Family Aliyah: First Year

Aryeh has had a good year. I have a lot fewer pictures of him than everyone else, since he is living in a dorm this year and he usually only comes home for Shabbat.

He has grown up a lot this year. His school has been good for him. He has roommates and no one to clean up after him (at school...). He roomed with Moshe from Denver and Sholem from Switzerland.

Aryeh was independent before we came to Israel, but since being here, he is really becoming an adult. He can get all around the country by himself, he gets himself to and from school in Modi'in, he goes to the beach in Tel Aviv, and he loves to hang out at the kotel.

Aryeh has really embraced certain parts of Israeli culture. Within about a month, he started wearing

Naot sandals (Birkenstocks), much to my dismay. He hasn't put on a tie since we moved here, even getting him to put on a button shirt is a bit of a challenge.

Aryeh has been great about inviting friends over for Shabbat. We have met classmates of his from Italy, New York, South Carolina, and around Israel. We feel really lucky that his class is full of nice boys from around the world.

I think one of the things Aryeh has really been enjoying is the restaurants. Coming from a place with only two choices, it is amazing to be able to get sushi, or pad thai, or falafel, or hamburgers, in addition to the regular pizza.

Being at yeshiva means a lot of time away, but also he is able to come home for all the holidays. Unlike in America, where it was a 2 hour flight to come home, here it is a 45 minute car ride, or an hour bus ride. He came home for almost every Shabbat and holiday. They are expected to stay for a few Shabbats each year and they stay in school for Yom Kippur and Shavuot.

He came with us to Jeruslaem on Shushan Purim... So fun! He took us to the kotel and showed us some of the old city we hadn't seen before.

During Pesach, we all went to Herodian, then we had a picnic lunch near Takoa.

This summer, Aryeh went to visit his friend who lives in Milan and then they took the train to Zurich to visit another friend. They spent time on a lake in Zurich, they went to Davos and saw all the Chasidim at their kosher hotels, and they spent time shopping in Milan. I was so proud of him for getting around Europe on the train and not missing his plane and basically being super responsible!