As rentals in Jerusalem and Bet Shemesh increase there may be light at the end of the tunnel for families seeking more affordable living in Torah observant English speaking communities.
This is part of an ongoing series about Aliyah and English speaking communities living in Eretz Yisrael.
Cost of living has increased all over the world and real estate is one of the largest cost drivers in a family's budget. We are in the process of polling our audience about rental prices for English speaking communities in Jerusalem, Bet Shemesh and throughout the the Land of Israel to help us quantify how bad the damage has been this year as cost of living continues to skyrocket. We all hear horror stories about owners hiking rents beyond the 20% average trying to double the rent in these rental hot spots. However, as tens of the thousands of apartments enter the market in Ramat Bet Shemesh Dalet, some people are getting excited to build the next enclave of English speaking communities in the Holy Land.
When you buy an apartment on paper, you don’t know who your neighbors will be and so often times new home owners will opt not to uproot their families from their community and schools but instead will continue to rent where they live and charge rent for the apartment that they own. This also avoids the wild card of moving into a community when you have no idea who your neighbors will be. Chassidic? Sephardic? Dati Leumi? Yeshivish? Chareidim? The list is endless. And what language will be primary? Hebrew? French? Yiddish? English?
But we found two guys from Ramat Bet Shemesh Aleph who moved in and are making a go of it by identifying rentals and matching up similar minded families with owners looking for tenants at more reasonable prices than the already established English speaking communities.
At TRIBE Journal we like to delve beyond the headlines and the macro and look hyperlocal at the micro. We caught up with two new residents who hit the ground running and are actively building a new synagogue for English speaking members of RBSD.
They literally ran around and collected signatures for a new shul, put a sign on a car, knocked on doors and left mail for homeowners looking to rent out their apartments and simultaneously started getting the word out about their new shul. They're attracting English speaking families who share their vision and have been connecting would be renters to homeowners looking to rent out their flats. Although many Olim are seeking to integrate into Israeli shuls, there is a large percentage that yearn for the more American style shul with kiddush for the whole family, classes for men and classes for women, and a serious but warm place for community life. One driver for places like Ramat Eshkol and Ramat Bet Shemesh Aleph is that there are so many shuls like this for families to choose from. However, now that the price tag has become prohibitive for most, it is important and exciting to see these potential new landing pads for Olim which are arguably more integrated into the Israeli society than their predecessors.
This is only the beginning of a story about what a little sense of adventure, some positive thinking, and not being afraid to step up to the plate can do for one’s own family and for so many economically displaced families during these challenging times.
MEET THE RAV
If you are aware of interesting new options for English speaking communities or are looking for more affordable housing and would like to connect with this and other potential options, please don't hesitate to email us at info@tribejournal.org.
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