As Israel marks its 77th Independence Day, the country is not only celebrating its survival but also the quiet, determined return of Jews from across the globe.
Despite the trauma of the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas and the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, 27,281 people have chosen this past year – of all years – to make Israel their home. They arrive from places like Sao Paulo, Moscow, Ohio, and New Jersey, carrying with them heartbreak, resilience, and a Zionist dream.
Who are these new olim (immigrants to Israel) arriving in a country at war with little more than some suitcases and conversational Hebrew? Four families who arrived last year opened up about what led them to restart in a nation under attack.
Fernanda Schuchmann Cukier and Lucas Sylos: A fresh start
For Fernanda and Lucas, making aliyah felt less like entering a war zone and more like escaping one. In Brazil, they faced crime, pollution, and economic instability. Israel, by contrast, offered a new beginning.
Together for a decade and married for three years, the couple has weathered many storms – including the loss of Fernanda’s father to cancer during the pandemic and her twin sister’s diagnosis shortly after she made aliyah. Fernanda came to Israel to care for her sister, an experience that brought her closer to the country and the idea of living here.
“Thinking about the good things, I got to know Israel because I’ve been here two times before, but it was like to travel,” she recalled. “And this time, I came to stay three months (after her sister’s diagnosis)… I got to know the reality here… and I went back thinking [of aliyah] because this had never crossed my mind before.”
Back in Brazil, the couple relocated from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro in search of something better. Disappointed with the colorful metropolis, Fernanda began to float the idea of aliyah. Lucas, who had never visited Israel, was hesitant but eventually came around.
They opened their aliyah file in February 2024, shortly after Fernanda underwent preventative surgery as a precaution against a hereditary cancer-causing gene. By September, they had landed in Israel – exhausted but hopeful.
Fernanda described the move as “an opportunity to change our lives, to let this hard [time] pass and leave this hard beginning of our marriage behind and have a fresh start.”
While housing prices in Tel Aviv were a shock, Lucas found a sense of professional validation he hadn’t experienced in Brazil.
“In Brazil, I was a tattoo artist and a visual artist, and I am trying to make it on this path here as well. It’s been difficult, but it’s been easier at the same time. I now have a booth at the Nahalat Binyamin fair and work part-time in a tattoo studio.”
He noted that Israel’s art scene feels less competitive and more collaborative. Fernanda agreed: “[In Israel] it seems like the world works with you. When we were in Brazil, it seemed like we were fighting against the world… and here we have support. This is what is very important [and] meaningful for us. And I’m not just talking about family support or the state support.”
Lucas has also adapted his art to resonate with local audiences while maintaining his unique voice.
“So I am starting to do things about Israel in my art, selling little, little canvases, drawings, and mixing with my style. I developed my own style around 20 years or so [ago]. It’s an abstract style with lines and shapes; if you see [it], you understand. But it’s really influencing my art living here,” he said.
Their first few months were marked by sirens and sleepless nights due to Houthi missile attacks. Despite this, the couple shared that they feel safe.
“[The war is] not as bad as I thought,” Lucas said. “And we don’t feel the war much. Well, when we first moved here, there were sirens, and we would get up from the bed at 3 a.m., and there was a lot of commotion, but I got used to it very quickly. And I believe very much in [the] defense forces of this country… I don’t feel threatened.”
Though Fernanda sometimes worries about raising children in a country with mandatory military service, she finds peace in her trust in the IDF.
“I really trust the army… even with our kids,” she concluded.
Anna Maslennikova and Dima Gendin: Bringing entrepreneurial spirit to the Start-Up Nation
When Anna and Dima made aliyah in September, they dove right in, opening a flower shop within months and enrolling at Ulpan Gordon in Tel Aviv. They arrived from Russia with their three sons and reunited with their daughter, who had immigrated earlier and was serving in the IDF.
Though Dima had the experience for Israel’s hi-tech sector, he lacked one essential skill: Hebrew. They began studying the language before even landing, giving them the competitive edge to succeed in Israel’s competitive economy.
“We understand that for our careers here, Hebrew is very important. So, we just put our main efforts in Hebrew first of all. So we go to ulpan, and we spend lots of time there,” Dima said.
“Because we understand that for our career in hi-tech, we need to speak Hebrew, even though Israeli companies mostly work… in English. We have English, but you also understand that you have to chit-chat with your neighbors and colleagues to make your work more efficient and so on.”
Within months, Dima completed a professional data analysis course in Hebrew. Meanwhile, the couple tapped into their business experience from Russia to launch a flower shop after connecting with fellow olim and a local florist after class.
Anna also built a vibrant social life. She even organized a volleyball tournament at the ulpan, something the couple described as a freeing experience. “She likes volleyball, and we see that we can organize here whatever we want,” Dima said. “The people around are happy, and we get what we want, so we are happy too. We were very comfortable here.”
In Russia, they had run IT companies and a successful crafts store but chose to start over in Israel.
“We didn’t come here to take our passports and come home. Nothing like that. But there are lots of people from Russia who do stuff like this. We decided, why not let it be like our new adventure or something like that? So, we just began a new chapter of our lives. Why not?” Dima shared.
Anna said Dima’s father also played a key role in their decision. Just days after October 7, he made aliyah, guided by a deep sense of purpose.
“We thought that he was crazy,” Anna said. “But he said that this is my destiny. I need to help.”
He moved to northern Israel – under constant fire from Hezbollah – to volunteer.
Though Israel is also at war, Dima said they feel safer than in Russia. “There [in Russia] are lots of people with guns, but they are not healthy at all, and they are angry to all the world and so on. So it may be, it sounds strange, but we feel much safer here.”
They were careful to choose an apartment in Tel Aviv with a bomb shelter, not out of fear – because they said they trusted Israel’s defenses – but to protect their kids from “psychological damage.”
They also noticed a stark contrast in patriotism. “In Russia, during the war, they try to establish it. They somehow put it top-down from the state… And here we see something like vice versa. Everybody is patriotic. We see flags everywhere and so on, and you do not need to push it.”
While Dima and Anna threw themselves into Israel, their sons gave a more stoic response to the move.
Dima reassured their sons that the move was for their future. “They didn’t protest,” Dima said.
Today, one son attends an international school in Jerusalem, another studies at a boarding school specializing in the arts, and their youngest is enrolled nearby. While Anna and Dima have found a strong community among fellow olim, their children are still adjusting socially.
Jaron and Alison Bernstein: From Ohio to Haifa, pulled by purpose and pushed by antisemitism
Jaron knew by 18 that he wanted to live in Israel after a summer on a work-study program in 1992. But expectations back home and the promise of a government pension kept the dream on hold until life gave him a push.
“We started seriously talking about the possibility of moving back in 2008 when the financial crisis happened,” Alison said. “I mean, we were touched by it.” They were forced to sell their home, and Alison lost her professorship. But it wasn’t enough to spur aliyah – until the aftermath of Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023.
Alison, less sold on Israel at first, began facing antisemitic and anti-Zionist harassment in Ohio’s left-wing music scene, where she had been a prominent organizer. After she disinvited a musician who participated in pro-Hamas protests, the backlash was swift and targeted. The woman launched a harassment campaign that led half the performers in Alison’s event to drop out. Then, a board member – and former best friend – turned on her.
“She told me my ‘moral compass warped.’ I haven’t spoken to her since, and she hasn’t spoken to me since, and I don’t care. I mean, I’m very glad I’m here,” Alison said. “October 7 changed everything. My anxiety would just be absolutely through the roof [if we were still there]. Left-wing antisemitism is a huge problem in the music and arts world. And my story is not a unique one at all.”
Jaron, who had long believed antisemitism was inevitable, said: “If you look at the grand scheme of human history, they always come for us. Eventually…
“The difference is that now we have the capacity to actually defend ourselves. I’m so tremendously glad to be some very small part of [that] history.
“My grandfather came from Tsarist Russia and] would have been thrilled to have the prospect of a place like this [Israel] existing.”
Both had worked in US academia and were alarmed by the rising radicalization among students. “The view that all Israelis should die is now a part of left-wing and Islamist conceptions of social justice,” Jaron said, warning that “those same fanatics” in keffiyehs would one day become “congressmen, educators, lawyers, or even the president.”
They were also unwilling to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on colleges where their kids might be harassed for being Jewish.
After completing a pilot aliyah program, they moved to Haifa in August 2024 with their 15-year-old twins. The city – its bakeries, nature, and warm community – quickly grew on them.
While all were welcoming, the couple shared that their landlord was surprised they hadn’t fled at the first siren.
They toured nine schools before settling on one just outside the city, doing everything to ensure their children had a smooth landing. While their teens miss Ohio and one daughter – currently undergoing autism evaluations – has struggled with the transition, they’re hopeful things will continue to get better. As their Hebrew improves, so will integration.
Although they may face some difficulties, Haifa, Alison said, has already won them over. “We love the food, and it’s a great place for foodies.”
Their neighbors have offered help at every turn, and the local olim network – and a Dungeons & Dragons group – have eased the transition.
The Bernsteins are embracing their new life and, as Jaron put it, not missing “the brutal Ohio winters.”
Rachel and Kevin Montag: Immigrants looking forward
Many immigrants start anew not for their own benefit but for the benefit of their children and future grandchildren; Rachel and Kevin certainly fall into this category.
When the couple uprooted themselves from New Jersey and moved to Modi’in in July, Rachel explained that there was only one reason behind the major life change: her children.
While her twins are only in first grade and her youngest is just three years old, Rachel didn’t need any gift or premonition to know that one day they will be 18 and looking at colleges. The prospect of her kids being limited in their choice or harassed and abused over their religious identity was unacceptable to her. The current state of US campuses had shown her what she needed to see, she explained.
“Israel seemed like the future for the Jews in general,” Rachel shared, speaking on the outbreak of antisemitism. “So we just felt like eventually our kids would end up being in Israel because that’s the future for them when they’re older. So, we might as well do it as a family now. We were able to get jobs that allowed us to make the move. So it just seems – if not now, when? So that’s what we did.”
With her children still so young, Rachel knew that now would be the easiest time for them to learn Hebrew and adjust to the major change. “We were like: ‘Let’s get them here for first grade.’ It’ll be an easier adjustment for them rather than waiting to do it when they’re older. It just seemed like the better move now.”
“All the antisemitism in America got to us,” Kevin added. “And we said: ‘What’s going to be best for our kids going forward?’ Do we want to send our daughters to a college where they are afraid to be Jewish? And we said: ‘Let’s just go now, now is the time,’ and we couldn’t be happier with our decision.”
Friends and family, while supportive of the move and understanding of the need for it, were shocked, since Rachel had never spoken about wanting to move to Israel.
“Everyone was shocked. We shocked our family, we shocked our friends, we shocked everybody who knew us in any way,” Rachel laughed.
“There are people who talk about making aliyah since they’re young or when they first get married. So it’s like, okay, when they do it five years later, it’s not really that shocking because they said they wanted to do it for a while. We never really had too much of an interest. We were pretty comfortable, but based on how things are, it made us reassess the situation.”
Asked how she felt about relocating to a country at war, Rachel explained they chose Modi’in because it is in the center of the country, away from all the borders, which left them feeling more secure.
While they had initially hesitated at the prospect of moving to Israel, now of all times, “We figured it would, you know, pass,” unlike antisemitism in the West.
Their first graders have since integrated fantastically and have many Hebrew-speaking friends from whom they are picking up the language. For Rachel and Kevin, though, things have started out as a bit of a “challenge,” but they continue to learn more every day. Helping them on their journey is a supportive community.
“Israel has been amazing so far,” Kevin said. “The people have been so friendly and welcoming. We always have Shabbos meals; we’re being invited out. There are so many great things about Modi’in.”
Kevin listed the many great assets of the city, not limited to the restaurants, synagogues, parks, sports sites, and nearby hiking spots. “We love it here,” he said. “It is the best move we ever made.”
Noted Rachel: “It’s easier in terms of language to just live in New Jersey or anywhere in America, but living in Israel is different. You have a deeper meaning. You feel more closeness to the Jewish people and God.” ■