Wanna buy a home?

 An ad for an apartment in Israel (and not in Jerusalem)

4 rooms means 3 bedrooms for $654,420. 

And that's small rooms with no closets. And these are old apartments built 20 years ago. The doors won't work. There will be non-operative switches. The doorbell probably is broken.

100 square meters is 1076 square feet.

In Lakewood, which is not cheap housing, [it has the fourth highest home valuations among small towns in the entire USA] for $60,000 less you can get a 4 bedroom house with 1,497 square feet, much bigger rooms, and a yard. 

In the frum area of St. Louis, for $440,900 you get a 4 bedroom house with 2,255 square feet and a yard on a 7,840 sqft lot.

Here's your kitchen in St. Louis:

It's 16x10 feet with new appliances, tiling, and cabinets. My kitchen in Israel is 12 x 7 with old everything. That's 160 square feet vs 84. The kitchen in St. Louis is twice the area for 2/3 the price.

Here's a kitchen in israel in an $800,000 apartment not in Jerusalem.

3,000,000 New Israeli Sheqel = 819,900 US Dollar

Here's your living room  in St. Louis:

My living room in Israel is 11x11 feet. This living room is 18 x 13 feet. That's 121 vs 234 square feet, the latter being nearly twice the size and with lovely, latticed windows that you can actually open on two sides. My living room has clumsy dirty windows on one side and doesn't have carpeted floors and beautifully painted walls. My walls are made of cement. But there's more, my living room is also my dining room and my den. It's the only room where we can gather. This house in St. Louis comes with a 187 square foot dining room, a 285 sq foot family room, and a recreation room.  That's 706 square feet plus the recreation room. Thus, for 2/3 the cost, you get 6x the area in which your family can relax, study, work on projects, get space from one another - be human and sane. Plus you get a yard!

Here's a living room in Israel for 3.1 million shekels.

That's $848,160 dollars folks. That's your living room for $848,160.

3,100,000 New Israeli Sheqel =

848,160 US Dollar

Here's another living room in Israel, this time in a $746,000 apartment. Note the bare walls. It's hard to hang anything on concrete.

Here's another kitchen in Israel in an $800,000 apartment. Note the crumbling cabinets and the old floor. 

Compare to St. Louis in a $400,000 home.

Facts & features in St. Louis

Interior

Bedrooms & bathrooms

• Bedrooms: 4
• Bathrooms: 3
• Full bathrooms: 1
• 1/2 bathrooms: 2
• Main level bathrooms: 1

Primary bedroom

• Features: Floor Covering: Wood
• Level: Main
• Area: 182
• Dimensions: 14x13

Bedroom

• Features: Floor Covering: Wood
• Level: Upper
• Area: 140
• Dimensions: 14x10

Bedroom

• Features: Floor Covering: Wood
• Level: Upper
• Area: 110
• Dimensions: 11x10

Bedroom

• Features: Floor Covering: Wood
• Level: Upper
• Area: 99
• Dimensions: 11x9

Dining room

• Features: Floor Covering: Wood
• Level: Main
• Area: 187
• Dimensions: 17x11

Family room

• Features: Floor Covering: Carpeting
• Level: Main
• Area: 285
• Dimensions: 19x15

Kitchen

• Features: Floor Covering: Ceramic Tile
• Level: Main
• Area: 160
• Dimensions: 16x10

Living room

• Features: Floor Covering: Wood
• Level: Main
• Area: 234
• Dimensions: 18x13

Recreation room

• Level: Lower

Heating

• Forced Air, Gas

Cooling

• Electric

Appliances

• Included: Dishwasher, Disposal, Microwave, Electric Oven, Refrigerator, Stainless Steel Appliance(s)

Features

• Flooring: Wood
• Windows: Some Stained Glass
• Basement: Bathroom in LL,Partially Finished,Rec/Family Area,Walk-Out Access
• Number of fireplaces: 2
• Fireplace features: Wood Burning, Living Room, Primary Bedroom

Interior area

• Total structure area: 2,255
• Total interior livable area: 2,255 sqft
• Finished area above ground: 2,255

Property

Parking

• Total spaces: 2
• Parking features: Attached, Basement/Tuck-Under, Rear/Side Entry
• Attached garage spaces: 2
• Has uncovered spaces: Yes
• Details: Driveway: Concrete

Features

• Levels: Two
• Fencing: Partial

Lot

• Size: 7,840 sqft
• Dimensions: .18
• Features: Level

Bedroom in St. Louis

The first secondary bedroom is 14x10 feet with closets. My first secondary bedroom is 9x9 without closets. And shall I mention that one of your bedrooms in Israel will be a bomb shelter? It will have thick concrete walls, a heavy metal door that must be slammed to be closed and a metal plate the rolls over the window. This week we heard sirens every day, some at 3 in the morning. 

Here's a bedroom in Israel in a $745,000 apartment. Note the standing closets that take up floor space. Note the bare walls.

2,730,000 New Israeli Sheqel = 746,655 US Dollar

In St. Louis, your front yard where your kids can play:

Your backyard and parking and garage:

\

Here's your front and back yard in Israel:

That is to say you don't get a yard. You live in an apartment., all for 50% more money, even though you earn 50% less. Your kids play in the parking lot where cars race in, electric bikes knock them over, and bullying is rampant. 

Perhaps you'd like to spend $541,170 for a two bedroom place in Israel (outside of Jerusalem where you get even less for your money).

Here's another ad

That's what they call luxury in Israel. This will cost you around $600,000. 

Don't believe those liars at nefesh b'nefesh when they show the photos of the nicest places in Jerusalem. Those cost 2 million dollars. 

Here's a $568,465 apartment.

Here's the living area you get for 1/2 million dollars in Israel.

Compare to St. Louis where you get three living rooms:

Here are some more apartments in Israel (outside of Jerusalem which is much more expensive.)

The least expensive of these is around $625,000. That's what it costs to buy any kind of apartment. 

You better love living in the land. You better love Israeli society with all its internecine hatred, shouting, shoving, cheating, and paranoia. You better love 3 years in army to deal with this. I hope you survive it because as we have learned the army doesn't care about the soldiers, 10,000 of whom have been wounded this year and 1,000 killed. And you have to convince your spouse and kids to love it too.

And you better find a way for them to enjoy Shabbos while cooped up in your little apartment with nowhere to go outside. In America, you have nice roomy shuls in elegant buildings to spend time in. In Israel, you get  smallish places with plastic chairs. Oftentimes it's a trailer. If you are Modern Orthodox, sometimes there's a real building, but like the schools, they are damp and don't have real space in them, don't have places to sit, usually they are dirty. And since they are Modern Orthodox, that means sons in the army which is a hazard to life and soul.

I can hear the Zionists now with their obnoxious and thoughtless remarks, "You only care about materialism." When of course they are the most materialistic of all because Zionism for most of them isn't about kiddushah, or mitzvos of the land, it's about having their own army and legislature.

But all that aside, this isn't about luxuries or materialism. It's about living like a mentch. First of all, you don't want to be homeless. Do you have $650,000 for a small apartment? Do have several times that to buy apartments when your kids get married? Otherwise, they might have trouble in shiduchim. And if you have it, should you be spending it to live in Israel? Maybe buy a house in St. Louis and invest the rest.

If you don't have the money, how will you get it? Earning $20,000 a year isn't going to do it. So you'll rent. But that means getting thrown out of your apartment when your landlord, who will likely be very bad about making repairs, wants to sell or wants to give it to his kid. That happens all the time. This means you have to move and kids around here only make friends with kids in the vicinity. Your kids will lose their friends if by slim chance they managed to make any.

But there's more. Will you come with all your American furniture and books and clothes and kitchen stuff? Israelis tend to have much less stuff. American apartments are always packed to the gills and it's hard to move around.

In a small apartment, your older kids can't meet with their friends. If you are yeshivish, girls can't come over because of your boys and vice versa. 

Where will your kids play, on top of each other? So many fights break out. This is one reason that Israelis fight and yell so much. They are on top of each other. You want your kids becoming like that?

Where will they do homework? There's no space? What about guests? There's no room. People here are terrible about hachnachas orchim. That's not materialism. It's a mitzvah.

Also what if you are used to space? What if your family presently has a house. OK, so you are Mrs. Idealist. Is your husband? Are your kids? So many young olim go off the derech. It's rampant. They can't deal with the change, with the stress.

Most of the year here is blazing hot. Winters are cold and wet. The streets are full of bullies. So you are couped up in a tiny apartment all Shabbos. Is that menuchah?

What happens when you take your kids to see their grandparents and cousins in America or England and they see the vast difference between life there and here? What happens if they go on the Internet, as do all Dati Leumi in Israel, and see how they living compared to the rest of the civilized world? I know kids who look at their parents as if they are crazy people for moving them to a substandard conflicted, stress-out war-torn country. You want them to look at you like that? Will they have the same fervor for Zionism that you picked up at Yeshiva University? Don't assume that they will. 

Is this how Hashem wants us to live? I live in Israel so I'll answer the question. No, it's not. Israel is for Israelis who are used to all this, who are rough and tumble, and hot tempered, and have all the connections to make this work, who are used to this junky living spaces. It's not for you. 

If the people around here were all holy and the life so full of wonderfulness it might be worth the cost, but it's no more religious in Israel than in America. Middos are terrible. Torah learning is in many ways worse because it consists largely of stubborn people shouting at each other. There's lots of cheating. The schools are much worse and many of the teachers are mean. Then you have the draft, and all the social strife. You will not be any more religious in Israel. So is it worth the cost? You will be working six days at week for longer hours. You'll study less Torah. How can you even justify it? This isn't about materialism. It's about Torah and mitzvos. If being part of a secular society of people who were born to Jewish mothers is more important to you than Torah, than the welfare of your children, than your sanity, then maybe you'll come here and become even more secular than you are now. But don't brag to me about how you made aliyah because it's not a meritorious act under these conditions.