Interviews with Olim

Q. Where were you born and where did you grow up?

A. I was born and grew up in Loma Linda, a small town in the Inland Empire region of Southern California (about a hundred kilometers east of Los Angeles).

Q. At what age did you come out? And how did it go? 

A. I came out at age 37. Despite being in the context of my wife divorcing me, it actually went quite well.

Q. Were you involved at all in the LGBT community in your previous country? 

A. When I first came out, I was quite involved in the Inland Empire Gay and Lesbian Community Center. Later, I became a member of Beth Chayim Chadashim, a primarily LGBT synagogue in Los Angeles, and my late partner, David, and I were very regular attendees there until we made aliyah.

Q. What is your involvement (if any) in the LGBT community in Israel? 

A. My involvement with the community here in Israel has been quite minimal, since I have never lived in, or even very near, the Center. I have quite a few gay friends on Facebook whom I have never actually met in person. I marched a couple of times in the Pride Parade in Haifa and once in Mitzpe Ramon.

Q. How long since you made Aliyah? 

A. 18 years

Q. Did you move here on your own or with family/friends/significant other? 

A. I moved here with my late partner, David. Neither of us has ever had any other family members here in Israel.

Q. Why did you make Aliyah? 

A. It started as a crazy idea, but the more David and I talked about it, the more we could see that it was what we really wanted to do. All of our parents had passed away by that time, so our family connections and responsibilities were minimal.

Q. How is it going so far? 

A. Hardly anything actually went as originally planned, but it has been the most amazing and wonderful adventure of my life. Israel has really and truly become my home!

Q. What do you do in terms of work?

A. In the U.S., I was a lecturer in mathematics at California State University, San Bernardino, and at Chaffey College. In Israel, I taught English online for Berlitz. Most of the students were business people in Europe, looking to improve their English. I am now retired.

Q. How is your Ivrit?

A. I’ve finally achieved a level where I can manage conversations when I need to in most situations. But it has been a long process, especially since I never worked in a Hebrew-speaking environment. I still can’t understand most video or audio programs in Hebrew, although that has begun to get slightly better recently. My reading is slow, but I can usually manage to decipher most text if I have the patience. I can chat in writing quite well in Hebrew, actually! I’m always working to improve my Ivrit.

Q. What has been your biggest challenge so far? 

A. I think my biggest challenges have generally revolved around insufficiencies in Hebrew.

Q. How do you perceive the Israeli LGBT community? 

A. Israel is much more family- and group-oriented than Southern California. This makes it difficult for Israelis to come out in ways that I never really faced. On the other hand, in many ways, the general social acceptance here is greater than in many places in the U.S.

Q. How is being LGBT in Israel different to your where you lived previously?

A. This may sound strange, but David and I experienced more social acceptance here in Israel than in California. In dealing with the medical system or the government agencies, I would always refer to him as my ben zug, and that seemed to please them, and they accepted us as a couple without question. And, remember, this was mostly in the periphery, NOT in the Center!

Q. If you were making aliyah now, would you do anything differently?

A. This is a tricky question. There are, of course, many things that I learned AFTER arriving that would have been helpful to know earlier. However, the whole process of learning these is one reason why this has been such a great experience. Some of the things I learned might even have deterred me from making aliyah if I had known them in advance, and then I would have missed out on the greatest adventure of my life!