My Experience Making Aliyah

Sophia Goodman's Aliyah Experience

By Sophia Goodman with Eric Bressler

Sophia Goodman, daughter of Bet Shalom members Amanda and Jeff Goodman, made aliyah (moved to Israel) in 2018. While she was visiting her parents in Hopkins in February, I met with her to hear about her experience.

Thanks for getting together with me, Sophie! Tell us how you decided to make aliyah [move to Israel].

By the time I was 15 I had fully committed mentally to moving to Israel and joining the IDF [Israel's army]. The option was introduced to me by an Israeli counselor during my last summer as a camper at OSRUI (Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute), which I’d been attending annually since I was 8 years old. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for an adventure to separate high school and my future secondary education. Thankfully, both my family and our Bet Shalom community were enthusiastic and supportive from the beginning.

How did the process go?  

I made aliyah through Garin Tzabar, the Israeli Lone Soldier IDF Program, which partners with the Jewish Agency and the IDF to help young Jews all over the diaspora accomplish their dreams of drafting. I applied to the program near the start of my senior year of high school and was invited to the first of four seminars in Chicago. These screen applicants for commitment and motivation. They continued up to the summer of 2018 when the remaining participants signed contracts that said we agreed to move to Israel and join the army. I flew two weeks after my high school graduation.

You didn't have any friends or relatives in Israel before making aliyah. Was that difficult for you?  

At some points the loneliness definitely gets hard to deal with. I especially felt it in situations such as military ceremonies, where everyone else was with their families but me. This is where Garin Tzabar really helped me, because I had a group of people that I already knew from the previous year who I could talk to and would understand my unique struggle no matter what.

What was your path learning Hebrew and being in the army?

Since I didn’t grow up speaking Hebrew at home, it took a lot of effort for me to catch up to some of my peers and attain the high level of fluency I needed to be a functioning member of the military. Many Garin Tzabar participants end up needing extra help, so an educational army base called Michve Alon was created for new recruits. This was the first place I was sent when I officially drafted. The course is 10 weeks long and counts as part of your mandatory service, and at the end you draft to your “real” unit. I was drafted into the Combat Intelligence unit in March of 2019, and I started my eight month training period. Five months in I was selected to be one of my unit’s medics, so I was transferred to the medical education base for another three month course. After that I served on the Jordanian and Egyptian borders for the remaining two years of my service.

What has your experience been like compared with your expectations before making aliyah? 

Everyone tells you it’s going to be hard, and it is. It’s really, really hard. I thought the most difficult part would be the marches and the crawling, or missing my family, but that wasn’t it. It was having my individualality stripped away, and it didn't come back until I was released. Even when I was technically on leave, I couldn’t relax because I was still thinking about the army all of the time. My superiors would call us randomly just to keep that control. My stress levels were never higher than on Saturday nights at home, when I knew I had to go to base in the morning and be forced to comply with orders coming from people I didn’t always agree with. I ended up being one of the few girls from my 44 person draft who actually stayed in my unit until the very end. Combat especially is a very difficult place to be in the army, not actually from a physical aspect but from a mental one. Most people just can’t handle it.

How is Israeli culture different from that in the US? How are people different?

I think a huge mistake Americans make when they move to Israel or even visit Israel is expecting everyone to treat them nicely just because they’re Jewish and in the “Holy Land.” Israel is in the Middle East, and the culture is extremely different than what most people are used to. The idea that something must be given to you because it is your right is not really something that exists in Israel. Everything must be fought for, like medical treatment, a place to sit on the bus, and even respect.

Have your attitudes about the US changed since living in Israel for four years?

When I first moved to Israel I was pretty sure that after the army and my first degree, I would definitely move back to America. I still don’t know for sure what the future holds for me, but I'm fairly certain I will be staying in Israel for a lot longer than that. Being outside of the US made me look at it from a global perspective, which made me a lot more critical of the US government system. Seeing former President Trump's and the US’s response to COVID-19 compared with how other countries around the world were handling it made me embarrassed to be American at times.

What do your next 3-5 years look like?

Right now I’m in college and planning to major in biology at Tel Aviv University, and after that maybe I'll continue on to medical school. I’m not sure yet! But I know I’ll be staying in Israel for the foreseeable future.

What advice would you give to young people considering making aliyah?

Know in your heart that you want it 100%, and that you’ll do whatever it takes to make it a reality. It’s hard being by yourself in a place that is completely different from what you know, it’s hard learning a new language, and it’s really hard learning how to stand up for yourself. I’ve seen many people come with all the motivation in the world, but in the end they can’t handle the hardships and the culture shock so they end up going back to where they came from because it’s easier. It’s not going to be easy. But if you know that going in, you’ll be fine.