In a recent interview, you mentioned how you stayed on an extra year as President Trump’s Middle East envoy. You planned to be in his government for two years, and you stayed three. According to an interview you gave in Mishpacha magazine, in your own words, this is the reason why you left:
“We have six children with yeshiva tuitions and the relevant expenses, and for the last three years, we were cutting into savings significantly. ,” he told Mishpacha. “Naomi and the children were packing up and driving up to D.C. almost every Shabbos. I couldn’t often get away. It was a crazy lifestyle. They were amazing years, but it wasn’t family life.”
Did you leave a job sitting right next to the leader of the free world so you can further your children’s Torah education? There were times you yielded more power that our Prime Minister and you gave it up so your kids could learn Gemara.
What a Kiddush Hashem.
G-d bless you Jason.
Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor
For all the good you did for your brothers and sisters here in Israel, what do you get for it? Now you have to go back to living in a law firm 60-70 hours a week to make the money you need to keep things afloat.
Why not move to Israel?
The Best Education without Having to Finance Your House
Tuition for a Yeshiva in New Jersey or Monsey may run over $20,000 a year, but in Israel, students get a first-rate education for a lot less. I have two girls in Beis Ya’akov, and we pay NIS 3,800 annually for tuition and private buses for both of them.
For less than $10,000 a year, your six children can learn Torah in the Holy Land, have all the books they need, field trips to resting places of Sages, Prophets, and Jewish Kings, and enjoy special events for all the Jewish holidays, while immersing themselves in the very language the Torah is written.
After their education, they can go to college in Israel. The cost is less than $5,000 per year for citizens. If they live in the same city as the university, it’s even less. If they choose a religious army track like Hesder or a Haredi unit, the army will cover most of their tuition.
What Commute?
It must have been intense to live in New Jersey and commute to Washington every week. That’s at least three and a half hours by car and 55 minutes by plane – not counting the time to get to the airport and clear security. Even a presidential convoy can get stuck in traffic on the I-95.
One of the greatest perks of working in Israel is the commute. Take our Prime Minister. He works in Jerusalem and lives in Caesarea. That’s a 90-minute commute by car. During the week, he is in the city, dealing with the challenges of running a nation. For Shabbat, he has a bird’s eye view of the Mediterranean Sea. His backyard is a beach.
How do you think he outlived Obama?
All of us in Israel enjoy working right next door to where we live.
Your Deal of the Century will pave the way for de-facto annexation and a huge building boom in Ma’ale Adumim and the Gush Etzion area. You can work in Jerusalem and commute 30 minutes home. Your children can learn Torah in the same city as King David.
The commute from English speaking cities like Beit Shemesh, Efrat, and parts of Jerusalem make the commute to and from work in Israel shorter than the commute from Teaneck, New Jersey to Manhattan. |(Okay,there are traffic jams at peak hours, but you can avoid that by being flexible about work hours.)
Life Savings
You mentioned how you had to dip into your savings to work for the president. You will be happy to know that the cost of living in Israel can be a lot less if you want it to be.
Taxes are not nearly as high here as they are in the New York Metro area. Education, as we discussed, costs less than a tenth of the money as America. Health care is also a lot less in Israel. It's also a lot better. According to the United Nations, we have the 12th longest life expectancy, trialing number 1 by 18 months. America has the 46th longest, trailing Israel by four years.
As the life expectancy of America continues to contract, ours keeps expanding, thank G-d. If you factor out the Israeli Arabs – not out of racism but because they have a much higher rate of smoking and their life expectancy is equal to that of America, the life expectancy of a Jew in Israel reaches the top 5 at over 84 years.
The Deal of the Century for Jason Greenblatt
Jason, you have done it all, now it’s time to enjoy it all.
Take your family home.
Sell your assets in New Jersey and buy something in Israel. Put your kids in Yeshiva here.
Save tons of money on education, homes, and health care as you replenish your dollar deficient savings accounts with lots of New Israeli Shekels.
Every moment you are here, in merely living as a Jew, you are providing the greatest service to the State and to the Jewish People.
Hatzlacha!