Nefesh B'Nefesh Mega Event: Nachum Segal Interviews Marc Rosenberg

Mark Rosenberg joins us Friday over at JM in the AM he's director of the pre-aliad department he is somebody who told us Friday that 1200 people had registered now we hear the numbers closer to 1300. good morning welcome to the mega event thank you for welcoming us thank you very much very much it's great to be here we've already had about 150 walk-ins as well so it's really uh why do people do that Mark why do they walk in instead of pre-registering explain that to me please um what's the what's the psychology I'll turn the psychology I think that sometimes it's a commitment issue is that what it is um they didn't decide till last night they wanted to be here and I think I think that was something that's really important is the I think the the Shabbat conversation the Shabbat conversation was like okay are we going to go you're not you know it turns out that our Sunday plans uh the birthday party we could drop the kids off and we're really going to come and they fitted in somehow to their schedule or or it was so persuasive on Friday or a conversation there you go a little bit of this a little bit of that and all of a sudden you have over 1300 people in 150 walk-ins um so you heard Holly she's expecting to be on the March 13th flight 10 minutes ago she was moving to Spa 10 minutes later she's moving to narrhea and I sit there she should check in with us 10 minutes from now so I can find out where the next place is that she's moving to it it must be remarkable to see people who don't have every Last Detail taken care of and she mentioned she doesn't have a job yet who don't have every Last Detail taken care of but are taking the leap in the way that she is well I think that you know there's that old story about college the college professor takes out this big glass of jar and says you know he puts in a bunch of rocks and asks if it's full and the students say yes and then it takes out a bag of small rocks and throws it in and it's a fool they said yes takes a bag of dirt shakes it in and all the cracks and it fills up and is it full they say yes and then he takes out a picture of water from underneath the table and pours it in and it says it's a fool they say yes okay so what's the lesson and the professor says two there's two lessons one is you can always fit more in but to do that you always have to put the big things in first right so when we talk about planning for Ali we talk about make sure the big things work first of all if you're an applied can you be approved and are you going to receive the benefits so if she's obviously filled out the application she knows that she's eligible eligible for the free flight and the free health care for the first year and this the financial assistance the government is in the financial assistance gives so the basic package that she knows that she'll land she'll have free health care and she can go to an upon is the basics now which upon to go to where to live are the bigger questions that come into it I think that's already um what I think holds back a lot of people um from even coming out to these events um it's definitely the phone calls and emails and Facebook messages that we receive and I think that coming to an event or speaking to a analia professional is able to address it and I just want to talk about the big thing for most people she doesn't have a job yet right our statistics show that it takes about six to eight months for new immigrants to find a job which is actually a little bit lower than immigrants around the world who move from different countries so someone's coming knowing that they're going to take about six to eight months to find a job the government gives them health care for that period of time and they give additional financial assistance the the the key is to know where they will find it so if she says I know my skill set is this and there's jobs in naharia or in swat or in or in Evans wherever the communities then she has that flexibility to you know push herself in a direction you do need I'm going to be extremely clear here you do need an address when you make Alia right you need to have a location that you're going to land in um the government wants to know that we need to know that because we want to make sure that your actually will be successful um but I think that at this stage that people are trying to get those big things in first and then those details will come into Focus to make that decision when you uh so funny you mentioned that in trouble by the way I was surprised to hear a couple people moving there I'm surprised to hear that any Anglers are living there at all it's this is one I'm giving a session today I think it's around uh here's on the clock it's at one o'clock finding your community in Israel and the number one question that I know it's going to be asked is what's the next and they'll say what's the next mode and I'm not saying it but I'm saying that one of the things that comes up is that there are people looking for or where it's going to be going to be great for Anglers but Anglers haven't made the price go up yet so Evan schmel is one of the places that's being talked about I think definitely beresheva's topic that comes up there's incredible opportunities in the South um vote is coming up in a lot of mentions I just found out here that there's a Garin turani that's being that that's working there to help religious couples and religious families move there um I think Carmel is one of these options because there's actually I think I mentioned this previous year there's a young Israel there um like oh wow there's already some of the infrastructure that that we're used to so people are are looking for those places to be all way up North North yes so I think that people are looking for these places that um they're not ready to be that Pioneer the first person that's going to go there but already families have started moving there and I I think I've mentioned this a few times so I I've been living there for 14 14 years now and I moved with my myself my two bags I got on the plane it was easy I was 25 at the time um and it was simpler but my wife moved in 87 when she was younger and there was 40 families that went to the Americas from North America and they moved out to these new communities um you may have heard of some of them somewhere in harno somewhere in a fraud in remote this is 19 87 yeah and they didn't and they turned into these Anglo cities these populations where they're great schools and great infrastructure and I think olim of today at the nefreshment official William today are looking for those new places and it's happening because when Modi when Renata turned into ranana and namoti interned to Modi and Rabbi fast is famous for saying is that about five six years ago Modine asked to come to the mega event because they wanted to put up a table here now we can't get them to come because people know about modin and we got one person who's going to come to help you know organize their arrival but they're not marketing housing to modin because it's already uh it the prices have already popped that's there so I think that places like Evans and and uh and even kiriak got which is a place that Intel is investing in and we know a few Pioneers that are trying to get their first houses there and get into the food a group purchase there um we're gonna hear in 10 years from now it's like oh my goodness it's it the prices have gone up it's going to be the the yadbin Yamin where people like wow it's the perfect place the location is one wonderful but now you know as a North American I can't get a housing there because uh they're they're all taken which communities or give me a couple of examples are doing the marketing here are there um we have uh first of all we have a lot of representatives from the negative and Galileo here that talk about different opportunities in the north um we do have um the representative from Jerusalem municipality um it is the number one destination for North American olim no matter what year and year out I think it's even among young people even amongst young people first of all the Jewish agency has a great program of upanishion that brings uh brings them to study there um I think we can't get away from uh the Passover seder um from the end of Yom Kippur server where we say you know image it is still this destination but what happens is and I don't want to ruin this but there's there's a bounce rate that people get their dream is to live in Jerusalem and then once they arrive they realize the dream is actually to live in Israel and it opens up the opportunities when they say wow there are ways to there's a world outside of there and I think that's why we invest in we're bringing these communities here is that it shows that you know you slime is wonderful I'm I'm a paid paid resident citizen I pay full taxes it's wonderful I love the city don't don't charge me extra for my arnona it's a wonderful City but it's um a lot of people are saying wow there's a there's a world that's outside there that I can say hmm I can live in the suburbs we have some we I mean someone on staff here lives in Surah daso which is a lesser-known suburb that's outside of there across the street from Batar yeah so and and we have the the opportunity to bring people to communities to make sure that they know what they're getting involved in uh you could do your own show you know it's you you ask the questions all right you bring it out my father always said I had a face for radio so the most diabolical thing the Netflix did to me is make this program three hours instead of two because I'm already feeling terrible that I am here in the United States it's not even noon yet imagine that no no I think that listen I I I'm here for about maybe seven or eight shabbats a year um because of work um my mom loves it I get to see her and my brother and my and my family and my cousins um and it's uh it's important to say that I think us Israelis especially Arlene don't we we're not judgmental I mean I think I want to say judgmental I love me I want to say this because if you go on Facebook you'll see that there's a lot of these people that that will make the judgmental comments and and have this attitude but it's it's about the opportunity and I think that um if you had the opportunity to read Rabbi Festus um uh he had a great editorial just this last week in the link um it is about the opportunity for people and if you take that feelings of the of this excitement and don't see it as a as as guilt or feeling bad about it but to turn it into saying what can I do for Israel what can I do for amisrael and I think that um with all the talk that I heard this Shabbos about the political situation or the tone of the conversation whether it's about schools and communities or the national political conversation um what's interesting is that um for a lot of the conversation it turns back to what's happening in Israel right and to be able to sit in those front row seats and to be able to actually have to go into the ballot and have to choose between someone to vote for it's an awesome responsibility for those of those of us who are able to do it not always easy to figure out who to vote for in Israel either you know so I actually actually spoke to a group and I said that one of the biggest challenges for olim when they get to Israel is that there's three big questions is um what's your name going to be who you're going to vote for and what you want to be when you grow up and I said it's important because people always ask these small questions but my name for example it's Mark Rosenberg but you know my my Hebrew name is moshinachman and when I moved to Israel like am I going to be Mark I'm going to be Moshe and Marcus member I don't want to be soup so like this identity crisis about what you're going to be called in Israel so you have so you're not home so you'll be knocking so it's it's easier for you so I had an identity crisis and number number three was whatever you're going to be when you grow up is that your dream was to move to Israel so what's going to happen next you achieved your dream and question number two I said is who can vote for a lot of people here in the U.S the the foreign policy issues uh the security is the number one issues and I get this question my mom even calls me up and say so is Israel going to bomb Iran I was like I don't know the Prime Minister hasn't called me but in Israel we're talking about you know you go in the booth do you vote for civil issues or security and it a lot of times here security is the number one issue for you here because the perspective of Israel you don't see the Civil Society issues but for once you're in Israel You're shift changes and I see people's politics moving right or moving left because your perspective changes when you're in Israel excellent analysis I love that so that's one of the challenges for olim um and that's when you walk into the booth it's like I'm really casting I'm really casting a ballot and there's going to be compromise afterwards it's because we have a interesting Coalition political system that forces forces Jews to try and find ways to work together our booth is going to be interesting in November I'll tell you that much it's important I think it's important to have their perspectives about it um and I think that uh for everything we talk about the discourse um about Israelis have this Gruff appearance to us um I think that yet the discourse is really important and I think that one of the things that Netflix benefits does a really great job um and it's not us Netflix is that we offer a living bridge for people to really make that connection I think it's easier than ever it's easier than us to make Aliyah because what never benefic has done with the government and it's easier to make Aliyah because of Mark zuckerberger and Al Gore and the internet and connections that people talk to real life people who are here and there and and and and and and they have that connection and they can find out what's really happening in their living room I know you have family in Israel so you're able to say hey well you know what's really going on there and you get answers that are below that political level um to understand the the real impact that people are going through Mark Rosenberg director of free Ali ad Department foreign I really hope that people um who are listening who aren't here we really take advantage of either calling us at 1-8664 layout you can always email me at Mark Marc nbn.org our job is to make your Alia dream come true um it's it's a cliche to say you know we talk about this but um we have when we have a life and I this is I guess the message I would love to throw out there if you have a dream of living Israel let's not make it a regret and let's make it possible it might take us a year it might take us a few years but anything that we could do to make that possible would be our professional pleasure and I personally enjoy it as well thank you Mark Rosen have a wonderful day amazing