{"id":198116,"date":"2026-07-09T11:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/198116\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:41:12","slug":"a-summer-of-new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/198116\/","title":{"rendered":"A summer of new beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, the unmistakable signs of an Israeli summer \u2013 the scent of jasmine in the evening air, the refreshing taste of iced coffee to beat the mid-afternoon heat, and, of course, the throngs of North American olim (immigrants to Israel<\/a>) arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport. This summer, Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh<\/a> in partnership with Israel\u2019s Aliyah and Integration Ministry, the Jewish Agency for Israel<\/a>, Keren Kayemeth Le-Israel, Jewish National Fund-USA, is welcoming over 2,300 North Americans, who are looking forward to starting their new lives in Israel in communities throughout the country \u2013 Jerusalem, Tel Aviv \u2013 Yafo, Modi\u2019in-Maccabim-Reut, Ra\u2019anana, and Beit Shemesh, just to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes aliyah<\/a> so remarkable,\u201d says Marc Rosenberg, Vice President of Diaspora Partnerships at Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh, \u201cis that every journey is deeply personal. Every individual, every family, comes to us with different questions, concerns, and dreams for the future. Our role is to meet them where they are and empower them to take the next step with confidence. During the summer, when thousands of North American olim make this journey, we\u2019re reminded that while every path is unique, they\u2019re all driven by the same desire to build a meaningful life in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ANDIANDI PIPER is making aliyah from Reno, Nevada. (credit: Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Ninety-two designated aliyah group flights will be touching down at Ben-Gurion this summer, bringing 480 families, 1,100 singles, and 250 retirees from the length and breadth of North America. The number of North American olim arriving in Israel this summer is a dramatic increase over just three years ago, when approximately 1,500 olim arrived during the summer season, demonstrating that elevated interest in aliyah continues to be sustained.<\/p>\n

What are their dreams for aliyah, and what journeys have brought them to this moment? We spoke with three olim about the hopes, aspirations, and experiences shaping their new lives in Israel.<\/p>\n

For Andi Piper, a physician assistant from Reno, Nevada, his vision of aliyah was made a reality through the International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP), an initiative led by Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh, in partnership with Israel\u2019s Ministries of Aliyah and Integration; Health; Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience; and the Jewish Agency for Israel, which enables North American medical professionals to streamline their medical license conversion and secure Israeli employment.<\/p>\n

Physician\u2019s assistants are medical professionals who examine, diagnose, and treat patients under the supervision of a physician. They practice in nearly every medical specialty and setting, handling core medical duties like taking histories, ordering tests, prescribing medications, and performing procedures. \u00a0In February 2025, Israel\u2019s Health Ministry finally opened the licensing procedure for qualified physician assistants trained abroad.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018I\u2018I REALLY want to give my kids this magnificent gift \u2013 to grow up Jewish in Israel\u2019: Dr. Eric & Monica Heinberg, with children Emile, 11, Lona, 9, and Leonel, 7, from Seattle, Washington. (credit: Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Piper\u2019s first visit to Israel took place in January of 2024, and he spent much of his time volunteering with Sar-El, the National Project for Volunteers for Israel at Tel HaShomer Hospital. He has been taking Hebrew lessons for two years \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s still pretty terrible, but it\u2019s getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many other prospective olim, Piper\u2019s interest in making aliyah accelerated after Oct. 7. He attended MedEx events, which are a part of IMAP, over the past three years as the State of Israel gradually integrated physician assistants into the medical field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not too many PAs working in surgery in Israel yet,\u201d says Piper, who works primarily in surgical settings, \u201cbut I spoke with a few places at MedEx, and they are definitely interested in starting to incorporate PAs into their surgical programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piper, a Nevada native originally from Gardnerville, Nevada, who has been working as a PA for the past five years, arrived in Tel Aviv on July 9 and hopes to find employment at one of the area hospitals or urgent care centers.<\/p>\n

Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh, he says, \u201chas been awesome,\u201d adding that they helped him at every turn along the way. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to getting adjusted and starting to build that life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking aliyah was a lifelong dream,\u201d says Arielle Sabol, late of Brooklyn, who will be making aliyah on July 29 together with husband Alex, daughters Romi, 3, and 11-month-old Libi, to Tel Aviv. The Sabols will be coming to Israel with Arielle\u2019s Israeli mother, who is returning after 46 years in the US. \u00a0Sabol herself has both Israeli and American citizenship and spent many happy summers in Israel, attending summer camp. She spent a year abroad studying at Tel Aviv University when she was twenty and wanted to make aliyah then, but, in her words, \u201cwasn\u2019t very prepared\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

Sabol returned to New York and began her career as a documentary filmmaker, eventually becoming director of creative services at Vox Media, while putting her aliyah plans on the back burner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Oct. 7,\u201d she says, \u201cwe found ourselves thinking even more deeply about the future we wanted for our family. It made us realize how important it was for our daughters to grow up somewhere they could feel completely at home in their Jewish identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabol is emphatic that they are not running away from life in America, but towards a better future in Israel. \u201cI feel very confident and happy with our decision. I know that transitions can be tough, especially with families. However, I think the pros very much outweigh the cons, and I think that what might be difficult in the short term will be incredible in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs my daughters get older, I want them to have the most incredible life and opportunities. For me, that\u2019s always been coming home to Israel. I\u2019ll never forget that my grandfather, while he was still alive, always said, \u201cYour home is here,\u201d and I think that was just always inside of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their eldest daughter about to start school, Arielle and Alex realized it was now or never. Taking a leap of faith, they began their aliyah process and took a pilot trip to Israel in January. Arielle and Alex have chosen to live in Tel Aviv because of her husband\u2019s high-tech startup.<\/p>\n

Arielle is grateful for the assistance that she has received from Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh. \u201cThey have been instrumental in guiding us through all the logistical steps. They laid out everything that needed to be done, step by step. Our process of making aliyah was quick and simple because they were there to get us through it, so we just followed the steps. They helped the dream and the idea become a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dr. Eric & Monica Heinberg, the events of Oct. 7 made a tremendous impact on their lives, 10,000 kilometers away in Seattle, Washington. \u201cOct. 7 deeply affected me. As a general surgeon and someone who served in the US military, I have an instinct to want to run towards the fire. My wife is a nurse, and I said after Oct. 7 that we were needed. Our people need us, and we should be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing wasn\u2019t right. With three children to care for, including one with Down syndrome, the Heinbergs already had their hands full. \u201cIt seemed like a bit of an irrational fever dream for me at the time,\u201d he acknowledges.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, the idea of becoming part of the Jewish people in Israel and living an openly Jewish life in the State of Israel began to dominate his thoughts. \u201cIt crystallized for me how important it is for me to be able to transmit that to my children,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

These reflections led to concrete plans for aliyah, which the Heinbergs have been working on for the better part of a year. They will be coming to Israel on July 19 and moving to Zichron Ya\u2019akov. Eric is going to take a six-month sabbatical from work to study Hebrew before beginning his job search. He is a general surgeon and served in the US Army Medical Corps with forward surgical teams in Afghanistan, and is potentially interested in volunteering for reserve duty in Israel as an army doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing my kids grow up with much more independence and to watching them become Israeli. I can\u2019t wait to see the first time they correct my Hebrew or, you know, just seeing them on the soccer field, chattering away in Hebrew.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people ask me why I\u2019m going,\u201d he adds, \u201cI say we\u2019re going for our kids. I really want to give my kids this magnificent gift: to grow up Jewish in Israel, to know their story, and to be part of that story that\u2019s still unwritten after almost 4,000 years. I can\u2019t think of a more magnificent gift for parents to give their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was written in cooperation with Nefesh B\u2019Nefesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ah, the unmistakable signs of an Israeli summer \u2013 the scent of jasmine in the evening air, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[5859,51411,3398,37,26789,26590],"class_list":["post-198116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-aliyah","tag-immigrants-in-israel","tag-in-focus","tag-israel","tag-nefesh-bnefesh","tag-olim"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116889838350694570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}