u/Zev1948

▲ 11 r/aliyah

East Asian. racism in TLV?

Hi r/AskIsrael,

This is my first ever Reddit post here. I'm from North America, East Asian (~20 male), converting through the Conservative stream and planning on making Aliyah. Finishing my Bachelor's degree in a technical major. I have visited TLV on a group tour once, so I didn't have much opportunity interacting with the Israelis because the trip agenda was so full.

I was wondering, if I were to make Aliyah, and move to TLV, what my life would be like as someone who's East Asian, ~20 M, gay, non-orthodox convert in TLV? In terms of dating, making friends, racism, etc.

This question was last asked about half a year ago, but it wasn't necessarily specific to East Asian gay dating. Because my plan is to stay long-term, as in 15~40 years+, I hope Aliyah is worth it.

I have learned foreign languages before and consider myself to be pretty good at it. I have begun learning some Hebrew and know it'll be 3-5 years before I reach a reasonable level.

I was also wondering just in general, because you physically can't convert through Orthodox if you're gay, then when some posts say "oh quite a lot of gays only want Jewish partners," then technically "jewish = born jews ≠ conversion" since the orthodox route isn't available. Do you have any anecdotes to share?

I know my situation is too unique. Would be very very grateful if you have anything to share. I also hope that this post is high-quality and has answers that are high-quality for a few years to come (so that they can reference this post). To do that, I hope you can format it in:

  1. Your background: city, upbringing (born in Israel?), industry, race if applicable, in school/army/etc/etc;
  2. What you observed;
  3. And how applicable do you think #2 observation is to the general public.

Thanks a ton!! And thank you for replying to a post that's quite a bit niche.

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u/Zev1948 — 2 days ago