what was the hardest thing to adjust to after moving to israel?

the cooking for my mom, feirenheit and lbs now everything in kilos and centigrate, language for the kids but after about 6 months they picked it up. actually the entire move is challenging if you were never there for yeshiva or sem and have kids in school

I wanted to say missing Sunday. But I thought I would miss it more than I actually do. Now I actually have a job that gives off on Sunday and I actually do work on Sunday (silly me) it seems normal. (That's how fast I was deprogrammed here!) I rather get off on Friday like everyone else.

I'm going to think about this some more and get back to you.

sunday and friday are normal work days for me here in NY (that's what happens when you work in a yeshiva I geuss)

The meat, the heat and the small apartments/rooms. That and the water.....

The bureacracy

Some aspects of the "Israeli mentality"

The "different" level of service (i.e., inferior customer service)

The intrusiveness of some people there (this has its good and bad side; on the other hand, many people are quite caring.

The lack of "tact" in the culture (i.e., people asking many direct and personal questions and not picking up when you imply subtly that you prefer not to answer)

Everything Shoshi said. Plus- lack of american products.

It depends where you live though, some places are more like "little america" than others.

funny I found everything I could ever need or want in Israel except goo underwear and white shirts, luckly I knew al lot of yeshiva guys who would bring the stuff for me, as for customer service and bureacracy, hey you have those issuses every where

oh it takes a while to get used to socialized medicince, just make sure you get into a good kupah like meuchedet

Lack of orange juice.

Shopping, def shopping.

plenty of that you just got to know where to get it, freshly squeezed from juice oranges is waaaay better than the sweet sugary stuff from tropicana

I forgot to add:

Living on an Israeli salary.
Everyone I knew there (including me) seemed to live on about $1000 after taxes, per month (if they were lucky). I am talking about single people. A family might live on $2000 per month.
I just didn't really find it possible to "finish the month" on that.

How expensive lots of basic things are, for example a cup of coffee might be $2, a magazine might be $10, a salad at a restaurant would be $10, etc.
Add that to the fact that your salary is 1/2 to 1/3 of what your salary might be in the U.S., and it's like you are paying 4 times as much for a lot of things.

Some jobs are really unstable, and I worked at a place where all the workers didn't get paid for 2 WHOLE MONTHS once! I found this totally insane (not to mention illegal), but most of the other workers (many of whom were supporting large families) just shrugged and went further into debt.
When I brought the company to the Histadrut (and got my money), the bosses thought I was crazy! (yeah, it's really crazy to sue for your rightfully earned salary)

Israelis never think to sue, and they are resigned to getting screwed over in lots of areas of life (work, business, bureacracy).

2 months you wer elucky, my father did not get paid for over a year and then the owner of the company skippe dthe country owing the goverment millions, and all his employees, you see HaSh-m's hand in parnasah in Eretz Yisroel very vividly

The cell phones. They're everywhere, and ringing. You acquire a phobia way beyond any coherent scale.

Ok, ok. Hebrew was a challenge, because unlike most Olim, I went straight into Sherut Leumi and didn't have that pillow-soft period [which in most cases is life-long] of staying among my same-language group.
Therefore, I caught on quicker, but had and have severe inferiority pangs.

You haven't been here recently, apparently.



You should realize the laws here are different it is harder to sue here for "damages".

Also, many religious people go to beis din to decide small claims cases.

What you say is true. And americans (olim) get screwed more because Israelis know they can take advantage of them.

Bird is right - Just saw my uncle had Golden Flow Orange Juice. (There are some stores in Har Nof and elsewhere that sell it.)

It cost 22 NIS - but the Israeli brand is 18NIS so it's really not so bad especailly if you really want it that badly.

In the shuk,in Geula you can get a lg cup squeezed in front of you. None better.

Also as maybe the most senior olah here I can say that when I came 23 years ago there were nearly no familiar US products. We complained, grinned and bore it. When they finally hit the stores I found that I preferred the Israeli and my kids thought the Am. product icks. The Am products are overpriced and full of sugar.

I lived in the middle of a citrus grove for about 5 yrs in Rechovot. I had trees in my yard. What should I do? Pay 22 sh for reconstituted OJ + sugar?

BTW Delta underware and t's are better than most US brands and have told the folks to stop bringing. White shirts can be bought at any quality level you are willing to pay.

The hardest thing I had to deal with was the disgusting staff of the maon olim I came to. They were imported to save the olim from the locals and make our life difficult.

Example:
Me: "My space heater has only one working coil and my baby is sick and the room is cold. May I exchange it for one that works?"

Menahel: " I was in America and I never even saw anyone with a heater at all, and it was snowing. No, you may not". ( Doesn't he know that in America you have central heating and don't need space heaters?)

The minahelet (Director) at Ulpan Etzion (absorption center for singles I went to) was also not so cool all the time, but I hear she is no longer there.

Once, all the water in the whole absorption center started coming out brown! Literally all the sinks in the whole place were spewing light brown water!
When I asked the minahelet what was going on and was the water safe to drink? when would the water be fixed, etc.? she said to me "It's not my responsibility! It's the eerya (municipality)!"

That is what's called a "Rosh Katan" (literally a "small head" but it means someone who can't see the big picture and more importantly take responsibility for anything outside of their tiny little area of jurisdiction.)

I said to her, "You are Director of an absorption center for hundreds of new immigrants. If the water is brown, it's your responsibility to call the eerya and find out what's going on"
Alas, she didn't agree

Similarly when all of us new olim started getting sick (lots of new immigrants get sick their first year, it's a combination of the stress of aliyah plus being exposed to new bugs/illnesses, plus at the mercaz klitah we were living in close quarters from people from all over the world - lots of new bugs to get exposed to!), and in particular when one person picked up chicken pox from a trip to England, and it spread to two other new olim, I suggested to the Minahelet that perhaps those people should have been "semi-quarantined" to avoid spreading the illness, at least given private rooms (there were some empty rooms at the mercaz klitah that year), or at least the rest of the olim should have been warned to avoid contact with them.

She disagreed. The Minahelet said, "It's not my responsibility if all of you keep getting sick! In Israel we are not weak like you people from the Diaspora! We don't get chicken pox once we are adults; we are stronger!"

Did I say Rosh Katan already?

I agree with some of the other posters:

The lack of central heating (for the most part) is hard to get used to.
In Tel Aviv it's much warmer, but Jerusalem is cold in the winter! It even snows occasionally!
And you're living in these stone buildings that make the air colder inside than outside!
I really found the lack of heat really hard - you definitely need an excellent space heater, preferably several. I had one that worked really well; it looked like a radiator but you plug it in. It actually was quite effective in heating my relatively small (but high ceilings) studio apartment.
However, the bathroom and kitchen were freezing still

I also agree; after getting used to them, many Israeli products are just as good or better than their American counterparts.

For example, I prefer the Israeli brand of cornflakes. I also prefer the Israeli cheese and yogurts. And let's not get started on the fruits and vegetables (American produce is just a pale imitation of the abundance and quality in Israel).

Some Israeli toiletries are just as good or better too. Ahava moisturizers and all products are really great, and I love the scent and quality of most of the Hawaii soaps.

I also prefer the women's clothing in Israel (for the most part) and find it's more feminine and unusual/unique and fits the body better (at least for me) than most women's clothing in America. They also tend to be made for slightly shorter women, which is good for me since I'm only 5'3" (most clothes in America I need to shorten as they're made for taller women.)

Lots of Israeli shoes are also great, especially the sandals, i.e., Naot and even leather shoes you can buy along Jaffa Street in Jerusalem or in the Arab shuk.

Shoshi - I know who you are refering to and yes my term last summer was the last term she served at Ulpan Etzion.

Funny though. There were empty rooms in my building and we asked her if we could use them. So she said no - because those are needed in case someone gets sick... so there you have it...

Eyzeh yofi!

so glad I never went to a mercaz klitah heard those were rough
I used to hang out in Bayit Vegan near Nof Yerushalyim when I was home sick as all the Etheopians made up for not having any black people around oh and went thru the arab shuk on a regular basis just to feel like I was going thru grand central during rush hour

1 - Hebrew.
2 - Hebrew
3 - Hebrew.

Besides my first 3 issues, the biggest issue was in coping with my "Ideal" of Israel versus the reality of Israel. Living in the Diaspora, in a conservative, traditional, jewish community, there is this "Ideal" of what this country is. Bottom line, maybe after the Mashiach, but not now. She's a country, with alot of people. You know people, they're rude, selfish, ignorant, and all of that.

The amazing thing is how extreme the extremes are. It defies logic. We have the worst of the worst, and the best of the best. For such a small population, you wouldn't expect such extremes.

As for the beaurocracy, it is 10 times better than in the US, you just have to understand how it works. In the US, the typical beaurocracy is filled with truly incompetent idiots. Here, they just act that way, but almost every individual has the brains and the ability to do thier job. So if you go in with an attitude of "Oh, they're going to try to screw me" you'll be right. If you go in with the attitude of "This is a nice person who has a job that, like most of us, they do for the money, and they would rather be anywhere else, but in the end, if I'm nice, polite, and respectful they can and will help me" you'll also be right.

I can get almost anything I want (we have Hanes here, we have levis, we have real juices, fresh herbs, spices, even McCormick if you would want that for some strange reason), worcestershire sauce, Heinz Baked Beans, and the things I can't get I can find good substitutes.

The change in income demands a change in lifestyle. I don't go out and buy 3 cups of coffee a day, I make coffee. I don't go out every night and spend $40, but I can go out and have a great time on 40 NIS. I have to keep a budget of every shekel, and you know what? It works.

I like the mentality of asking personal questions. I never liked the American "Polite" mentality. If someone asks a question I don't want to answer, I tell them "That's not something I want to discuss" and they usually understand. Asking how much you paid for something is not offensive to me, it might help me where to shop.

The other thing is the question:
"Why?" when I tell people that I made Aliya from the US. This is an incredibly personal thing, with answers on all different levels. I have different answers depending on who asks.

I can go on and on with things, but mostly they are differences, and not problems.

I agree so much with what you wrote.

The bureacrats in Israel need to be coddled. If you met them on the street they would probably give you the shirt off their back.
But at their "job" they prefer not to do much at all.
Okay, their job is probably boring and we all know Israeli salaries stink.
So you have to coddle them into doing their job for you.
Tiring but true.

I also agree that you can have a good time in Israel by going out for a felafel with a friend and spending a total of, say $5-$7 each (considering you're earning about 1/3 what you earned in the U.S., that's not a small amount of money).
But still. You don't need to spend a lot of money to have a good time in Israel.
People get by on less money and more sheer personality and charm.

I don't mind the questions about how much I paid or how much I earn.
Totally inoffensive to me, and I never understood why it's taboo in the U.S.

What I do mind is the constant: "Bat kama at?" (How old are you?) or "Are you married?" upon first meeting me.
When I try to defer and say "It's not polite to ask a lady her age" even the most genius Israeli does not seem to GET IT that I don't want to answer!
I am telling you, the culture has no tact or subtlety.
I literally have to spell it out: "I don't want to answer that question" and then they say "Well, why didn't you just say so?!"

This simplicity/lack of tact/subtlety among Israelis can be irritating after a while.