Let me tell you about my favorite kind of aliyah story. It's not the one you think. We love the dramatic ones, right? The lightning bolt. The guy who watches the news one night, slams his laptop shut, and announces to his stunned family that they're moving to Israel in ninety days, no further questions. The single, cinematic, turn-on-a-dime decision. I get it. It makes for a great trailer. Judy's story has none of that. And it's one of the best ones I've recorded. Because Jud

What happens when your family has roots in Israel going back to the 1600s, but it still takes nearly four decades before you decide to make Aliyah? This one's personal. If you've listened to Landings & Layovers, you already know Marty Paz. He's my co-host, one of my closest friends, and someone whose Aliyah story I've only ever heard in fragments. What I didn't realize until he sat down across the microphone for Aliyah Chronicles is that those fragments were really just the t

Growing Up in Israel After Making Aliyah as a Child When most people talk about Aliyah, they focus on the person making the decision. The planning. The paperwork. The excitement. The fears. But what happens when you're not the one making the choice? What happens when you're eight years old and your parent decides it's time to leave everything behind and move to Israel? That was Lin's experience. In Episode 3 of Aliyah Chronicles, Lin shared what it was like to leave eastern R

Some people spend years planning every step of their future. Others buy a one-way ticket and figure it out as they go. Talia Krief falls somewhere in the middle. When she arrived in Israel for a gap year, she wasn't carrying a master plan. She wasn't mapping out a future career, thinking about marriage, or imagining herself building a business. She simply knew that something about life in Israel felt right. What followed was a journey that would change not only her own life,

Yoel Israel on Taking the Leap Some people spend years thinking about Aliyah. Others spend years planning it. And then there are people like Yoel Israel, who decided as a teenager that he was going to move to Israel one day and never really let go of the idea. In the first episode of Season 2 of Aliyah Chronicles, I sat down with Yoel, a longtime friend, entrepreneur, marketer, and outspoken advocate for taking action before you're "ready." What followed was less a conversati

When people talk about Aliyah, they usually focus on the big stuff. The paperwork.The move.The airport photos.The excitement.The stress. But after talking to people on Aliyah Chronicles, I think one of the hardest parts of Aliyah for a lot of people isn’t actually the move itself. It’s the cultural shift afterward. And not necessarily in some dramatic way. It’s the smaller things. The things you don’t realize are “different” until suddenly you’re living inside them every day.

Aliyah is one of those words that sounds simple until you actually start talking to people who’ve done it. From the outside, people picture the big moments. Landing at Ben Gurion. Getting your teudat zehut. Posting the airport photo with the Israeli flag in the background. But after talking to people on Aliyah Chronicles, one thing has become very clear: Nobody’s Aliyah story is actually that simple. Some people come because of family. Some because of religion. Some because t

A lot of Aliyah content focuses on the exciting parts. The airport photos. The Israeli flags .The “welcome home” moments. The fresh start. And those moments are real. But after talking to people on Aliyah Chronicles, I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that almost nobody talks enough about the difficult parts. Not because people are hiding them. But because a lot of the harder parts of Aliyah are difficult to explain until you actually live through them. The lon

There’s a version of Aliyah people picture in their heads. A dramatic leap. A lifelong dream. A perfectly planned move where everything suddenly clicks into place the second you land at Ben Gurion. And then there’s real life. For Telma Haviv, Aliyah wasn’t about chasing some romanticized idea of Israel. It was about something much more personal: the feeling that this was the one place where she could truly build a life that felt like hers. In this episode of Aliyah Chronicles

When Paulina Bulgakova discovered her Jewish heritage at 17, she had no idea how much it would change her life. Growing up in Siberia, her connection to Judaism and Israel was nonexistent—until one conversation set her on a path of self-discovery, resilience, and transformation. Seven years after making Aliyah, Paulina’s journey is a testament to the power of embracing your identity and the courage it takes to start anew. A Revelation That Changed Everything For Paulina, the

Making Aliyah isn’t just a move—it’s a leap of faith, a bold decision to build a life in Israel. For Anna Rajko, a French-born social media manager, Aliyah meant rediscovering her Jewish identity, embracing challenges, and finding a place where she could truly belong. In her episode of Aliyah Chronicles, Anna shared a story filled with resilience, growth, and unforgettable moments. From her beginnings in Brazil and France to her transformative experiences in Israel, Anna’s jo