u/dagelim

Hello everyone,

I know I’m eligible for aliyah on paper. I have Jewish family history but not fitting the halakhic standards required for the grandparents rule. I converted 5 years ago when I was in high school because I wanted to become observant (which I did and still am), and have since been very active in the communities I’ve lived in (mostly being at my college which has a very substantial Jewish community). The conversion was with a rabbi affiliated with the Rabbinical Assembly (the organization for conservative Judaism at least in the US). In college I was involved with my campus Hillel, JLIC, and Chabad and was in positions of leadership in Hillel. I’ve continued my Jewish education with various classes over the years, can read Hebrew, have been to Israel twice (once on Birthright in 2023, the other time was for a wedding this past spring). I’m fully shomer kashrut and shomer Shabbat and am now a regular attendant of the local conservative shul now that I’ve finished college. I asked the rabbi at this current synagogue I attend if he would write me a letter confirming my involvement and he said he would, but also said

“Let me tell you in advance though, that the chances of them accepting your application right now are slim to none, especially if you have not been continuously involved in a Jewish community since your conversion. I can explain more in person - the State requirements are constantly changing, and applications are being scrutinized more and more.”

This was before I clarified that I have been generally very involved and am just new to this shul specifically. However, I worry that this might be an issue I’ll run into over the aliyah process. My Aliyah advisor hasn’t said it could be an issue, and I’m planning on getting letters from this rabbi as well as my converting rabbi (who has since moved to Israel to teach at a yeshiva there but were still in touch, I’ve taken a few classes with him over zoom over the years). I have documentation of the trips to Israel, of some of the courses I’ve completed, of my involvement on campus, and of course my conversion documents.

So I guess I’m just wondering if it’s true that the Jewish Agency isn’t really accepting applications of people in my situation currently? Does anyone have any experiences with this?

Thanks and Shabbat shalom/chodesh tov

Hi,

I live in a city in the US with a pretty small Jewish population, and even smaller visibly observant Jewish population. Probably two minyans worth. I’m visibly Jewish, I wear a kippah and have a beard and also just have a very stereotypically Ashkenazi look about me. I work in immigration services on the side of my city where there is a large proportion of people who’ve come from countries like Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the DRC. My organization’s clients are largely a good mix of those nationalities aside from Syrian and Somali, of which we tend to serve a lot more. I work with youth so sometimes I get an odd comment here and there from them about my kippah or about Jews, but it’s almost always in earnest and they’re just kids who don’t know better. But I’m a little worried that both my coworkers, who are also probably 60% Syrian/Iraqi/Somali, as well as the families in our community are not very fond of me. I get weird stares that I thought were just a me issue but keep happening to the point that I really think it’s not in my head. I have a lot of clients who will refuse to work with me and no one else, and while I can’t know exactly why that is, the only difference between me and a lot of my coworkers is that I’m Jewish. A few of my coworkers have tried to start weird conversations with me about Israel and there’s one (who otherwise seems like a good person, I think she’s just under a bad internet influence) who seems to be really intent on cornering me about Israel. I don’t talk about politics at work as a rule, but she waited until the first time she and I were alone in a car together to drop on me “So what do you think about the State of Israel?” and has continued to drop bangers like that since. She also seems to think I’m a good target for her uncomfortable open-ended statements phrased as questions about Israel (ex: “I just don’t understand why some Jews are using Judaism as an excuse to kill people and oppress people, you know?” Like what am I supposed to say to that. But I digress, I sort of anticipated something like this happening if I were to get a job in this field, whatever. It’s not going to be my long term job anyways so I can thug it out.

But what is making me feel like I’m going insane and/or being targeted by more people in the community I don’t even work with now is that over the span of the last week, I have had two separate cars go out of their way to swerve at me while I was walking in a way that it felt very clear that it was directed to scare me. Like I’m walking to my car, they’re driving down the other side of the road and come straight at me only to swerve away at the last second and they give me the middle finger as they drive away. The other one was basically the same thing except instead of the middle finger they were laughing. I hate that I have to mention it for context, but it is worth noting that both drivers happened to be Arab. No one else I know of at work has had anything like this happen and I’m just confused and a little scared now. I can’t tell if I’m just in my own head and I just happen to be really unlucky about some jerks on the road in the area or if people are upset I’m in the area and are trying to intimidate me/toy with me. Or if some of my coworkers or clients are complaining about me and word’s getting out? (it’s a small-ish community overall, word travels) I’m just at a loss and I guess I’m curious if anyone else has had something similar happen to them? Do I sound crazy? I feel a little crazy. Surely my coworkers, clients, AND the community around my building can’t all be that bothered that I just happen to be Jewish, right?

(Also to their credit, it’s not all of my coworkers or clients. Some of them are really lovely, but some are less so. Also I don’t think it has anything to do with my personality or anything, I never am rude to anyone at work because the Midwest Nice runs through my blood and I don’t think I could bring myself to be rude on purpose to people I’m not close with even if I tried)

UPDATE: thank you everyone for your support. I’m going to be parking somewhere else and wearing a hat when I’m walking from my car to my building. I’m going to be investing in some bear spray and will be having my phone recording in my pocket each time I go to my car just in case, and my head will be on a swivel. I don’t have plate numbers or anything remarkable really about the cars except the colors (grey and champagne, so pretty unremarkable) so I don’t think I’ll be able to make a police report. But, God forbid, if there’s a next time I’ll make sure to get the license plate and file a report. I will hopefully make aliyah in spring 2027 so I just have to ride it out for a little bit. Thanks again