The Tauber family. (Photo by Yonit Schiller)
When Dovid Tauber and his family moved to Israel, it was originally just so he could attend medical school, with the long-term goal being to eventually return to the Jewish homeland. The family planned on being in the Philadelphia area for Tauber’s residency, but at a certain point when they were in the process of moving, Tauber and his wife realized something: they were meant to be in Israel.
“We were getting ready to leave and go back to America and we just looked at each other like, what are we doing? Why are we leaving? So we knew that we wanted to come back sooner than later,” he said.
The seed of return was already planted in the family’s mind, but it was the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — the Oct. 7 massacre — that really spurred action.
“Then Oct. 7 happened. And I think the initial reaction after Oct. 7 was like, ‘We need to get there now. We need to be with our brothers and sisters, and be a part of the effort to help in any way we can,’” Tauber said.
Today, the family is proud to say they are Israelis. They finally live full-time in the world’s only Jewish state. This move was a long time coming, even though it took the horrific events of Oct. 7, 2023, to galvanize the family, Tauber said.
“It wasn’t like we were jumping on a plane and joining the volunteer efforts to help, but I just started working and making money and definitely gave a lot of charity to different organizations,” he said. “Oct. 7, I would say, lit a fire under us to make sure that we didn’t delay coming. So after my [residency] contract was up, we made our move, and here we are.”
According to Easy Aliyah, a company that helps Jews move to Israel, in the month following the Oct. 7 massacre, aliyah increased 64.3% compared to pre-attack months. As of this past spring, the amount of people making aliyah had decreased compared to those first months but still stands above the totals from pre-Oct. 7.
Tauber and his family live in Ramot, Jerusalem, and he said that the community is as tight-knit as can be. He said that this is partly due to the connection of Judaism that they share, but also because of their collective willingness to stand in the face of danger bravely. There have been terror attacks just minutes from their neighborhood.
“There’s a real strong sense of unity and a feeling that you’re a part of something much bigger than yourself,” he said. “That’s something that we knew coming in we would experience, but to experience it this quickly and so close … we really [understand] what it’s been like to live here over the last hundred years.”
The move wasn’t all easy, as there are of course things that the family misses about Philadelphia and the United States as a whole.
“We found and made great friends. So I definitely miss them. There’s great museums in Philadelphia. My kids love the Philadelphia Zoo, but those aren’t things that we can’t find here in Israel,” Tauber said.
Living in Israel also means that there are tough conversations that need to be had with children about safety and the war. Tauber said that it’s something he doesn’t take lightly.
“[There] are ways to help our children understand that we’re a nation, we’re a strong nation, and we’re here at the heart of it, where God’s eyes are always watching,” he said.
For Tauber, this move was the culmination of a lifetime worth of Judaism.
“I’ve been to Israel many times, and [during] my general upbringing, a lot of things that we pray for were about Israel,” he said. “It all talks about building in Jerusalem and returning to Zion. My wife and I were very aligned on living in Israel at some point.”