Impressive? Look again

You were told that Israel is full of charity organizations. Here is the new building of one of them:

Impressive? Well, don't be deceived by appearances. This is the new building of a Modern Orthodox organization that perpetually fund raises, which would be fine if they actually gave out some aid. What they do is help you with your resume. I sent to them a family that was living in a storage locker, literally. Not even a $100 loan was offered. But a can of olives was available from the food shelf.

Now you know how they have the money to build fancy offices. 

Don't assume that you will be bailed out here either by the government or tzedukah groups. One of the Haredi tzedukah organizations is more generous. They'll give a few hundred shekels a month for a while and a box of food on Pesach. And not surprisingly, they don't have fancy offices. But this won't pay your rent. You need a job for that, but don't assume that you'll land a job either even with resume help.

Another so-called tzedukah organization lists in its brochure psychotherapy services with low fees that are paid by the Health Maintenance Organization, the kupah. Sounds lovely doesn't it? Sounds so caring. I applied for a therapist because I need to be able to talk to somebody about the hell I'm going through in this country and how to manage family issues that are the result of it. Guess what? The waiting list is ONE YEAR! I have been waiting for six months and they'll called me today to say that they don't have anyone and the wait is ONE YEAR! They don't tell you that in the brochure. Hiring a private therapist is out of the question because they charge $125 an hour and salaries here are around $20 an hour for people who actually do work. A person could have a nervous breakdown in one year.

Nefesh b'nefesh pulls similar tricks. They list their services to include a buddy family and Hebrew tutors. So the buddy family was a bust for us. They never met with us even once. We asked for a replacement. They also never met with us as they were having family in town and couldn't meet for a while. They never met with us or gave even the slightest assistance of any kind despite our calling several times. But still NBN will list buddy families as a service on their website and you won't know to inquire if this is real or not.

And the Hebrew tutor? That consisted of a single Zoom call with a teenage girl who is related to an administrator at NBN. 

So be careful of false advertising. And among the worst of it is that you are home now in a country of your brethren who will give you the shirt off their back. The reality is they won’t give you the shirt off of your back. They’ll steal it. I remember one oleh that I met in NJ telling me that "We do so much for each other there," with there meaning Israel. I cannot imagine what the heck he was talking about. As I have noted numerous times, olim are delusional! They are madmen. You should never talk to them, ever. You'll find more honest people running three card Monty tables in Times Square.