Bringing the Best of Diaspora Jewry to Israel

When my family made aliyah over two decades ago, we left behind in Bergenfield, N.J., a synagogue that played a central role in our religious and communal lives. We loved our shul, our rabbi and the close-knit community that formed around it.

Our greatest concern wasn’t employment or language. It was whether we could recreate the communal infrastructure that had shaped our family.

With that in mind, we chose the Sheinfeld neighborhood in Beit Shemesh, drawn to Rabbi Avishai David and Beit Midrash Torani Leumi (BMTL). Known widely as “Rabbi David’s Shul,” BMTL reflected a model familiar to many Anglos: a synagogue that serves not only as a place of tefillah and shiurim, but as the organizing center of communal life – chesed, friendships, youth engagement and shared responsibility.

Several years later, we moved to Nofei Hashemesh, where the inspiring Rabbi Shalom Rosner serves as its spiritual leader. There too, serious Torah commitment exists alongside integration into Israel’s broader national life. Seeing our children, after high school, enter hesder programs – learning in yeshivot and protecting our nation in the armed forces – reminds us that while these communities may feel culturally familiar to Anglo families, they are deeply and authentically Israeli.

This approach did not begin in Beit Shemesh.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Lincoln Square Synagogue was among the first to embody it. In 1983, at the height of a flourishing American rabbinate, he made Aliyah. His commitment to Israel was already evident. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, under Rabbi Riskin’s guidance, Lincoln Square redirected funds designated for a synagogue expansion to support Israel in its hour of crisis. Yet solidarity from afar was insufficient. Rabbi Riskin sought to help shape Jewish life where Jewish history was unfolding.

That vision became Efrat, demonstrating that Torah commitment, inclusivity, and civic responsibility could coexist within Israel’s evolving society.

Over time, similar communities developed across the country, attracting English-speaking families eager to make Aliyah without relinquishing the communal framework that had nurtured them. Leaders such as Rabbi Shai Finkelstein, who reinvigorated the Nitzanim shul in Baka, and Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, now moving to Ramat Beit Shemesh, continue strengthening communities grounded in Torah while fully engaged in national life.

Which brings us to the present.

Rabbi Kalman Topp — senior rabbi of Beverly Hills’ Beth Jacob Congregation and formerly of the Young Israel of Woodmere – has chosen to make Aliyah in the prime of his career to help establish a new kehillah in Givat Hamatos, Jerusalem’s first new neighborhood in decades.

His decision reflects a much older pattern. Well before Rabbi Riskin, figures such as Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook and Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog left Europe to assume rabbinic leadership in the Land of Israel. They understood that Jewish destiny was no longer centered in Europe. Torah leadership needed to stand where the Jewish future was being built.

Today, amid rising global antisemitism and uncertainty in the Diaspora, many Anglos considering Aliyah are searching not only for housing but for belonging. When seasoned communal leaders relocate and invest in building strong synagogue-centered communities, they ease the transition for new immigrants and provide a framework for meaningful Jewish life.

Aliyah does not require abandoning the communities that shaped us. For our family, it has meant carrying forward the warmth and framework we once knew in Bergenfield – now part of our lives here in Israel, where we are privileged to witness the next chapter of Jewish history unfold.

Gedaliah Borvick is the founder of My Israel Home (www.myisraelhome.com), a real estate agency focused on helping people from abroad buy and sell homes in Israel. To sign up for his monthly market updates, contact him at gborvick@gmail.com.