I have talked about broken phones, clocks, sinks, smoke alarms, refrigerators, water coolers, water heaters, showers, Internet connections, phone connections, doors, light fixtures, and kitchen cabinets, keyboards, and ripped pants. I have talked about the high price of appliances, apartments, and automobiles.
What about the stuff you can't even buy here? And that's not even the "modern conveniences" that Rabbi Hershel Schachter promises. I'm talking about a portable mechitza (room divider) for a shul. We looked for three years. I even spent a day in Tel Aviv looking in the handful of office supply stores. We couldn't find them anywhere and resorted to hanging disposable table covers from the old COVID plastic sheet lines that the government forced us to hang in the shuls years ago. It was a real pain in the neck setting them up every week for kiddush on Shabbos. Finally, after years, one guy found something.
Same with wall mounted paper holders for displaying parsha sheets. I finally found something in the mall. It had to be ordered like everything here. It didn't arrive for months and when it did half of the parts were missing!
Why is it that every time somebody goes to America, he says, can I bring you back anything? Or you ask him, can you bring me back something? If Israel had all the modern conveniences you wouldn't have to do that.
I can name so many more products that you cannot obtain in SSOI. Another example a ceiling light fixture that uses bulbs. You can't get it anymore. They only sell these crazy LED light boards that in my opinion don't give off enough light and are difficult to replace.
I can name so many more products that you cannot obtain in SSOI. Another example a ceiling light fixture that uses bulbs. You can't get it anymore. They only sell these crazy LED light boards that in my opinion don't give off enough light and are difficult to replace.
The list really is endless of what's not available here. Aliyah salesmen push this line that Israel today is radically different from Israel 50 years ago. It isn't. I was told, you won't recognize Jaffa and Ben Yehuda streets in Jerusalem. I recognize them. They are the same, except now there's light rail on Jaffa. Big whoop. It's the same with availability of products. Israel is not like Western Europe or America. Not even close. Maybe that's not important to you. But don't lie. Give people an accurate picture of what they are getting themselves into.
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.
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