As I exit the bus, I notice the prominent white Gesher Hameitarim, Jerusalem’s Chords Bridge looming ahead. The bridge’s structure was designed to resemble a harp, its inspiration taken from the pasuk in Tehilim, “Praise Him with harp and lyre.” A light rail train passes swiftly across the bridge and over Sderot Herzl toward the hustle-and-bustle of the central bus station at the City’s entrance. I am greeted at the station by Baltimoreans Rabbi Shimon and Miriam Apisdorf. They lead me along a narrow path, the back route to their cozy apartment on a quiet, tree-lined street of Kiryat Moshe.
One of a few garden neighborhoods established in the 1920s, Kiryat Moshe’s residents today are mainly Israeli with a small number of American and French families. It has a large dati leumi community, a small chareidi community, and a “secular” population as well – although the Apisdorfs will tell you that what is called secular in Israel has a totally different meaning than it does in the States.
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It was always the Apisdorfs’ “dream and plan to make aliyah.” After marrying and living in Israel for a year and a half, the Apisdorfs moved to Toronto, Columbus, and then Baltimore, all the while instilling their love of Eretz Yisrael in their children. “We raised our children with the understanding that aliyah is the ideal that all Jews long for,” the Apisdorfs explain. “Israel was always in the air in our home.” They celebrated the bar mitzva of their oldest son in Eretz Yisrael, and although the bar mitzva of their second son was held in Baltimore, they made a special trip to Israel to purchase his tefilin from a sofer who is a former resident of Gush Katif.
What influenced the family to finally make their dream come true and come home to Eretz Yisrael? Interestingly enough, it was Yeshivat Rambam! When Rambam closed down, the Apisdorfs’ son Baruch, who was then in seventh grade, was left without a suitable alternative in Baltimore. Instead of moving to Chicago or another city with an appropriate school, the Apisdorfs hit upon the realization that they could follow in the footsteps of three family friends of theirs who had moved to Israel and were sending their sons to a yeshiva called YTA (Yerushalayim Torah Academy).
This new yeshiva was started in Bayit Vegan by Rabbi David Samson, an out-of-the box mechanech, and is led by Betzalel Borstein, a master educator. The school started about seven years ago for boys from olim families. Today there is also a girls school. YTA is the English-speaking division of Netiv Meir, a large, prestigious dati leumi high school, with classes in English and rabbis and teachers who are almost all olim themselves.
Many of the issues Americans making aliyah have in transitioning to Israel involve teenagers. “There’s a general rule: don’t make aliyah with a teenager,” Rabbi Apisdorf asserts, “and we broke that rule. Being thrust into a totally new culture, with a totally new language, is often too high a hurdle for adolescents and teens who are already navigating a challenging period in their development.” YTA’s approach of teaching in English, to students who are mostly olim, has proven successful. The obvious question, though, is how the graduates integrate into Israeli life. While the boys can take certain classes in Hebrew if they are ready, Rabbi Samson believes that integration into Israeli society is a process that can’t be forced or rushed. “Rabbi Samson’s assessment was that even though we would lose the short-term integration into Israeli society, we would gain healthier kids,” says Rabbi Apisdorf. Indeed, today, their son Baruch is motivated to integrate more into Israeli society. The Apisdorfs describe the school’s faculty as being “fantastic,” with small classes, personal attention, trips, sports, and more. The Apisdorfs are confidant that without YTA, they could not have come to Israel.
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After arriving at their decision to make the move to Eretz Yisrael, the Apisdorfs embarked on an eight-week pilot trip that winter. They rented an apartment in Givat Shaul to get a feel for the neighborhood and be close to their daughter Ditzah. She and her husband Yoni were living in nearby Kiryat Moshe, and had just had their first baby. The Apisdorfs went apartment hunting but found nothing. Mrs. Apisdorf and Baruch went back to Baltimore, and Rabbi Apisdorf stayed in Israel another week for work but was given clear instructions to stop looking for an apartment.
However, their son-in-law Yoni was searching online one day and found the “dream” apartment, with everything Mrs. Apisdorf wanted! It had high ceilings, custom flooring, beautiful cabinets, and large windows for an open, light-filled feeling. After seeing videos and being assured by Ditzah that it was an excellent apartment, Mrs. Apisdorf enthusiastically agreed to take it. The owner had to stay for another six months, because she was in the process of getting divorced, so the Apisdorfs would have to pay only one month’s rent before making the move in the fall.
Back in Baltimore, the Apisdorfs packed, sold their furniture, and ordered new appliances. Their lift was on its way to Israel, to the apartment awaiting them in Givat Shaul, and soon they would be there too. The day after their lift shipped, with only one week until their flight, the landlady called saying she was sorry but they couldn’t have the apartment! What on earth would the Apisdorfs do?
At first, Mrs. Apisdorf was adamant that she would not give in; they had signed the contract, and this was their apartment. But then, “A little niggling voice in my mind said, ‘Miriam, let her have the apartment.’” What happened was that this landlady’s second marriage didn’t work out, and she wanted to stay in her apartment with her small children. With Mrs. Apisdorf’s decision to be mevater, to give in and forgo her dream apartment, she was left without a home! “It was really huge of Miriam to give up that apartment,” says Rabbi Apisdorf. “We didn’t think we could find something comparable.”
Once again, Yoni went online. Amazingly, he found an apartment in Kiryat Moshe that had appeared on the market that very day! Rabbi Apisdorf immediately called his friend Yigal Segal, who lives in Nachlaot, and requested that he and his wife, Rivki check out the apartment ASAP. The Segals “just happened” to be at a simcha nearby. Within an hour, Rivki called and said, “Take it! It’s like a little cottage!” The apartment has two floors and a private fenced-in garden. However, the owner was unsure if she should rent her “desirable apartment” to these Americans who called out of the blue, when she could easily find renters she was sure she could trust. Her response was that she would ask her father and the Apisdorfs should call her the next day.
Lo and behold, the woman’s father instructed her that the apartment should go to the new olim! It was only later that Apisdorfs found out that the father of that woman is Rabbi Eli Saddan, the founding Rosh Yeshiva of Bnai David Eli, the flagship school[E1] of the mechina system located in the Israeli city of Eli. And Eli, it “just happens,” has a sister program with none other than the Shomrei Emunah [E2] congregation in Baltimore! Rabbi Apisdorf exclaims, “It turns out that this man who was to decide whether we got the apartment is someone Miriam and I had heard speak at Shomrei. We have learned his sefarim, which were an inspiration vis-a-vis Eretz Yisrael. He was the one who told his daughter, ‘Rent them the apartment!’”
Mrs. Apisdorf is delighted with the apartment. She recalls standing in her Baltimore dining room and saying, “The one thing I’m going to miss is a backyard.” And now Mrs. Apisdorf davens on her small stone patio surrounded by a garden with a pomegranate tree, olive tree, and a shesek (loquat) tree, whose fruits can be picked right out of the open window in the light-filled dining room. The Apisdorfs say, “In a million years we never thought we would have a yard; we feel like we were blessed with a little corner of Gan Eden.”
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Today, all members of the Apisdorf family feel truly at home in Eretz Yisrael, but the ease of the process varied among its members. For Rabbi Apisdorf, the transition was smooth: “I had been preparing and planning for this for 25 years. My Hebrew was initially passable, and now I’m pretty fluent. I love every day.” For Mrs. Apisdorf, the adjustment was “not quite as smooth.” After arriving in the country without good Hebrew skills a month before Rosh Hashanah, Mrs. Apisdorf broke her knee cap two days before Yom Kippur, which required surgery and a long rehab. “This was a real challenge,” she says, “but the surgeon was excellent, the orthopedic department at Hadassah Hospital is state-of-the-art, and the care was very good.
“Getting used to things like no car, no dishwasher, and general adjustment is not easy and takes time,” explains Mrs. Apisdorf, “but there are benefits that far outweigh the challenges of adjustment. It’s hard to explain the amazing feeling of being part of the incredibly diverse tapestry of people who live together here in Israel, our home.
Last week, feeling pained about people who have been killed and wounded in recent attacks, Mrs. Apisdorf did what comes natural to her in her new home: “I got on the train and went to the Kotel. I davened and told Hashem that I’m very troubled by what’s happening to His beautiful, innocent children,” she says, “but despite what’s going on, everyday life here is good. There is a sense of vibrancy to Yerushalayim and Israel that is just so special.”
Life in Kiryat Moshe is convenient for the family. “It has a very green, almost countrified feeling,” says Mrs. Apisdorf, “and being right next to the light rail stop puts the whole city easily into our reach.” Mrs. Apisdorf appreciates the relaxed atmosphere in her neighborhood. “Honestly, I wouldn’t be comfortable in an Israeli chareidi community,” she says. She doesn’t mind living in a predominately Hebrew-speaking Israeli neighborhood, because she has her married son and daughter-in-law living here as well. She attends shiurim in the OU Center, has a neighbor who speaks English well, and other friends living not far away. For grocery items, she goes to the well-stocked makolet, and Rabbi Apisdorf enjoys picking up fresh food at the shuk on his way home from the Kotel. SuperPharm, a ten-minute walk away, provides all their pharmaceutical needs, and Mrs. Apisdorf asserts she likes it more than CVS and Rite-Aid! She also enjoys the many health food stores around the city, each of which employs its own staff naturopath.
The Apisdorfs describe Kiryat Moshe as “ideal” for their son Baruch, too, and Mrs. Apisdorf is sure that if they had moved into the neighborhood they were originally planning to live in, he would not have felt comfortable and would have been on the plane back to America.
Baruch describes his first year as “brutal.” Over the next few years, however, he formed a wonderful group of friends and came to appreciate his school and teachers. He plays on the Jerusalem American football team and enjoys life here. Like most of his friends, Baruch would like to do “mechina,” the post-high school, pre-army program that combines learning with army preparation for one to two years and then do three years of army service. And after that? “One step at a time,” the Apisdorfs say. “There are a wide variety of options and opportunities here; Baruch is a fine, mature young man, and we are confident that he will make good choices.”
Mrs. Apisdorf anticipates making official aliyah with Baruch in the near future. Initially, the Apisdorfs did what is called “split aliyah,” which means only Rabbi Apisdorf actually went through the aliyah process. Mrs. Apisdorf did not, which meant that Baruch could be connected to her and therefore not have to make aliyah right away. If both parents make aliyah, children under age 18 automatically do as well. “We chose this path because we didn’t want to force aliyah on Baruch,” the Apisdorfs explain. “We wanted him to have the ‘space’ to decide on his own.”
* * *
In Baltimore, the Apisdorfs belonged to Rabbi Goldberger’s shul, and Rabbi Apisdorf was part of a chevra that learned together every morning for many years. Five out of about 10 of that chevrah have “replanted” themselves in Eretz Yisrael, where they continue their learning together in the Holy Land. The large dati leumi community in Kiryat Moshe offers two major institutions, Yeshivat Merkaz Harav and Machon Meir, which Rabbi Apisdorf frequents for davening. In addition, it has numerous shuls, some kollelim, a Carlbach minyan on Shabbos, and a Stropkover chasidishe presence in nearby Givat Shaul that Rabbi Apisdorf feels connected to as well. However, most mornings, Rabbi Apisdorf davens at the Kotel. On weekdays, it takes only 22 minutes to get there, 11 minutes on the light rail, and an 11-minute walk.
Although the Apisdorfs find inspiration from across the spectrum of the Torah world, they feel a particular affinity within the dati leumi community. Rabbi Apisdorf says that, “this is a strong Torah community that blends devotion to learning and mitzvot with engaging the often thorny undertaking of building a Jewish society and country.”
Rabbi Apisdorf identifies with the perspective that understands the State of Israel and the return, by now, of almost the majority of world Jewry to our Land as being part of the process of Geulah as described by the Navi. “Over the last few years, I have been very fortunate to attend shiurim in Tel Aviv with Harav Hachalban (the “milkman”) and to learn his sefarim on a daily basis.” He explains: “There is an old issue that goes back to the early days of Zionism that questions how an ideology and movement that was started by non-religious Jews, and has even been deeply antagonistic to Torah observance, could possibly be part of the prophesized return of the Jewish Nation to Eretz Yisrael. Many prominent Torah personalities held and continue to hold this view.
“Personally, thanks to the Chalban and others, I have had the opportunity to delve into teachings of Chazal, the Vilna Gaon, and Yechezkel HaNavi, which describe the Geulah as a gradual process that unfolds over time and whose initial momentum is davka non-Torah based. In short, this idea is based on the physical-spiritual, guf and neshama, paradigm expressed in the nevu’ah of the atazmos hayevaishos, the dry bones of the Jewish People. This vast open graveyard of bones begins to reassemble…, these reconstituted bodies are standing up…, and then Hashem tells the Navi that the ru’ach will be restored to the bodies. This is how Hashem works in the world; first there was the creation of the physical world, then Man and Shabbos – the neshama of creation. First the tree, then the fruits; first a little child, then an adolescent, then maturity.
“That’s the vision of Geulah… first the body – the building, the Jews of all kinds coming back together, the development – and then the spiritual maturation. All you have to do is walk around with your eyes open, and you’ll see that the neshama is coming to life. There is a spiritual awakening taking place in many realms of Israeli society; it’s palpable. We are now in the stage where we have the infrastructure of a first-world country, and are transitioning into the next stage. Like growing up, it’s not smooth, straight, or easy, but it’s happening.”
* * *
Professionally, Rabbi Apisdorf is a writer, publisher, and freelance educator, and works with various Jewish educational organizations in the States and Israel. His work made it easy to move to Israel, because, as Rabbi Apisdorf puts it, “I can do what I do anywhere; in that regard I am very fortunate.”
Mrs Apisdorf was a full-time mom and doula in Baltimore with a background in art. Now, as her personal life has been developing and her kids are grown up, she is considering pursuing a certification in energy healing, something she has a natural inclination and ability for since she was in her twenties. Mrs. Apisdorf feels an obligation to speak about the process of her own healing, which has brought her to the point where she is now ready to help others along their own path. For years, Mrs. Apisdorf shares, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety, resulting from certain experiences in her life. On the outside, she was able to function and bring up the kids: “Everything was good, but there was always an inner turmoil,” she says.
After moving to Israel, Mrs. Apisdorf found out about the newly-developed Israeli technology, Brainsway (www.brainsway.com). This FDA-approved treatment for medication-resistant patients uses trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to alleviate depression and PTSD. Though slightly painful, the 20 treatments deliver pulses to parts of the brain that regulate mood and neuro-transmitters. This deep TMS treatment also helps people with autism, Parkinson’s, bipolar, and stroke recovery. “Two weeks after the treatments, I felt 60 percent better,” says Mrs. Apisdorf. “For example, beforehand it was hard to go to the makolet, and now it’s no big deal to go in the pouring rain with an umbrella!” Rabbi Apisdorf is enthusiastic that this treatment has certainly been one of the huge “fringe benefits” of moving to Eretz Yisrael. “Everyone knows about Israeli start-ups and technologies that have given so much to so many people around the world. Well, with Brainsway, we have personally benefited from a cutting-edge technology that is now widely available in the States and is usually covered by insurance.”
The Apisdorfs would also like to communicate the positivity of being in Eretz Yisrael. “It’s a very fun place to live,” they enthuse. The Apisdorfs enjoy walking the never-empty streets of Jerusalem at night, the great variety of restaurants, and, as fans of the blues and music in general, they thoroughly enjoy the Jerusalem music scene.
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I ask the Apisdorfs if they have any advice about the aliyah process. Rabbi Apisdorf clearly states: “Being separated from our oldest daughter, Esther Rivka, her family, and our parents, was the most excruciating part of our decision, and still is. No matter what the obstacles may be to one’s personal aliyah – children and/or parents in the States, career, education for children, etc. etc. – do not let any of those stop aliyah from being a real goal. Make it part of your serious life plan to make aliyah, speak about it with your children, seek out the thoughts and perspectives of people who faced similar obstacles, and make a ‘nonetheless’ plan. Even if one is unable to execute the plan in the short term, there is great siyata d’shmaya that comes from setting the goal and sincerely working towards it.”
Yoni, their son-in law, has a saying: “If you want to talk to G-d go to the Kotel, if you want to see G-d, go to the shuk.” Rabbi Apisdorf explains, “The produce in the shuk is overwhelming. Rashi says there’s one sure sign the Geulah is coming, and that is when the Land is again giving its peiros (produce). That’s the shuk, right in front of our eyes.”
“But just look out your window,” I interject. “We can see the fruit growing here, too!” Truly, in the Apisdorfs’ peaceful, cozy home, you can feel the precious sense of the Land flowing with milk and honey.
The Apisdorfs are happy to speak to anyone with specific questions. You may contact them at miriamapisdorf@gmail.com or sjdorf@gmail.com.
