As part of Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' special series commemorating Aliyah Day, we met with Joey and Pnina Savery, who immigrated to Carmay Hanadiv in Kiryat Malachi.
When we asked Joey and Pnina Savery why they made Aliyah, the answer was simple, “they wanted to come home.”
Pnina says that, “As a teenager growing up in London, I always wanted to end up in Israel. That was always my plan. Joey adds, “I think it was more a question of when, than whether we would make Aliyah.”
“Life in London is good, it's easier, maybe in some ways,” says Pnina, “with family being around and so on. But really here it's our home.”
Joey says that, “We always felt very much that Klal Yisrael should be in its homeland and we felt that we have opportunities that our grandparents and great grandparents didn't have. We wanted to support Medinat Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael and we felt very strongly that that was what we should be doing. So, in a way, it wasn't a difficult decision for us to decide that it was the right thing to do, and it was just how we make it work.”
There are challenges when moving to another country, but as Joey says, “it's a lot about faith, as well as efficient preparation. Thank God, everything just came together. I think there is an element of Emunah in Aliyah. If you kind of take the plunge, Hakadosh Baruch Hu just sorts it out for you. Obviously you need to come with plans and everything like that, but two years in, thank God, things do seem to have worked out. I'm not really sure how, they just all sort of came together by themselves.”
The couple came to be home and they indeed feel at home. “You feel at home here, saying Shabbat Shalom to everyone, from the bus driver to the person in the shop. Really this is our home. This is where we feel it's a mitzvah to live here. This is where we wanted to raise our children, as my 5-year-old always says, “Here in Eretz Yisrael we feel closer to Hashem,” Pnina clarifies.
The war broke out after the Savery’s had already immigrated to Israel, but did not make them rethink and go back to London. As Pnina explains, “The war broke out a year after we made aliyah and a lot of people asked us, ‘how do you feel being such new olim when a war's broken out in Israel.’ Without hesitation our response was, ‘this is our home, we have no other place. We really felt like this is the place to be. In London we'd have just felt so far removed. It was much better to be here, to be a part of it. We never hesitated for a moment that we shouldn't be here.”
We're meeting the couple at their new home in the community of Carmay Hanadiv and here they truly feel at home.
“It's a great place here. We've really been welcomed. On our first day, when we moved in, we were greeted with five different families brought us cakes to welcome us,” says Pnina.
“The community has been really welcoming. People have opened up their arms to us,” adds Joey. Pnina agrees, “We are able to integrate more and for our children we think that's also really important that they're growing up here to really be Israeli.”
Joey says that it does help that, “We have this kind of core network of Anglo families. We have Anglo friends, but at the same time we don't feel isolated from the wider Israeli society. We've got lots of Israeli friends. We feel very much part of Israeli society. It's just that we have kind of that fallback option, which really works for us.”
Joey and Pnina are hoping for more immigrants to join them in Carmay Hanadiv. Pnina extends an invitation, “We're here waiting to welcome everyone. We're here to help you on your process, if you want to join us. Carmay Hanadiv is a great place to begin your aliyah. Please come home.”