For Seymour “Sy” and Seryl Litwin, their first Rosh Hashanah as Israelis comes with a view of the Mediterranean.
For Rachel Nerenbaum, it will mark a chance to stop, breathe and take in a life she spent more than a decade imagining.
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The Litwins made Aliyah just two months ago, trading Los Angeles for a home in Netanya, where much of their family is already nearby
(Photo: Courtesy)
They arrived in Israel at very different stages of life. Sy, 68, and Seryl, 64, left Los Angeles for Netanya after retirement, ready to begin the chapter they had long dreamed of. Rachel, 32, moved from Georgia to Ramat Gan, starting almost entirely from scratch.
This Rosh Hashanah, all three are experiencing the same milestone: celebrating the Jewish New Year in Israel for the first time not as visitors but as Israelis.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is traditionally a time of reflection, renewal and hope for the year ahead. Its familiar symbols, including apples dipped in honey, represent the wish for a sweet new year.
For new olim, that idea of a fresh beginning takes on an especially literal meaning.
“This is the time that we are connected to Hashem, and what better place to be connected to Hashem than in Eretz Yisrael?” Sy said.
The Litwins made aliyah just two months ago, trading Los Angeles for a home in Netanya, where much of their family already lives nearby.
.Rachel Nerenbaum. For her, Rosh Hashana will mark a chance to stop, breathe and take in a life she spent more than a decade imagining
(Photo: Courtesy)
Even now, they say, the move does not quite feel real.
“We feel very, very blessed to be living our dream,” Seryl said. “To be living in Israel, looking out at the sea and watching people walking by, it still feels like a dream.”
Their first months have been defined, more than anything, by gratitude.
Friends helped them settle in, their family is close and the transition they had spent so much time preparing for has been overwhelmingly positive.
“This isn’t a vacation,” Sy said. “This is life. This is our day-to-day, and it’s beautiful.”
This Rosh Hashanah, they plan to attend an Israeli synagogue and celebrate with both longtime and new friends. Much about how the holiday will look and feel remains unknown to them, which is part of what makes it exciting.
“We think of everything as an adventure,” Seryl said. “We don’t want to miss any opportunity to experience new things.”
Their hope for the coming year is simple: to continue growing, building their lives and embracing the country they now call home.
Seymour “Sy” and Seryl Litwin. For them, Rosh Hashanah this year will look out over the Mediterranean
(Photo: Courtesy)
“Gratitude,” they said. “That’s what we feel.”
For Nerenbaum, aliyah was a dream that took 12 years to become a reality.
She first came to Israel on a Birthright trip and remembers knowing even then that she wanted to live here one day. A year later, she returned through a Masa internship program in Safed, spending two months immersed more deeply in Israeli life and culture.
“I learned more, dove in and understood the culture more,” she said. “I just fell more in love with the country.”
Still, knowing she wanted to move and being ready to do it were two different things.
Making aliyah meant leaving behind the familiar and building a new life thousands of miles away. Financially, Nerenbaum wanted to make sure she had saved enough to give herself a stable beginning.
So for years, Israel remained a future plan.
“I always said I was going to move to Israel someday,” she said.
After October 7, that “someday” began to feel much closer.
Nerenbaum returned to Israel twice on volunteer trips following the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war. The experience deepened the connection she had felt for years and brought her closer to Israelis and other olim.
Having grown up outside a large Jewish community, she said she was struck by the sense of connection she felt in Israel.
“I feel like people care more about each other here,” she said.
Now newly settled in Ramat Gan, Nerenbaum is getting to know a new city, meeting new people and figuring out what she wants her Israeli life to look like.
For Nerenbaum, aliyah was a dream that took 12 years to become reality
(Photo: Courtesy)
That is part of why this Rosh Hashanah comes at exactly the right moment.
“Given everything, moving here and trying to adapt, I’m really looking at this as a new start to everything,” she said. “It’s a year of starting over from scratch.”
After the rush of moving countries, finding a home and beginning to establish herself, she sees the holidays as an opportunity to slow down.
“When you move somewhere new, you just want to go, go, go,” she said. “The holidays allow me to stop and take it all in.”
Her hopes for the year ahead are both personal and national.
For herself, Nerenbaum hopes to build a community, deepen new friendships, prioritize her health and find more opportunities to volunteer.
For Israel, she hopes for greater unity.
“Israel has so many different opinions and there are a lot of divisions,” she said. “It’s okay to disagree, but I hope in the new year that we can come together and stand together for the country. That’s vital for us as a nation.”
The Litwins and Nerenbaum made aliyah with the assistance of Nefesh B’Nefesh, in cooperation with Israel’s aliyah and integration ministry, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and Jewish National Fund-USA.
Their arrivals came during a particularly busy summer for North American aliyah. Nefesh B’Nefesh welcomed more than 2,300 new olim over the summer months and recently marked another milestone: the arrival of its 100,000th oleh.
Behind those numbers are thousands of individual new beginnings: young adults renting their first Israeli apartments, families enrolling children in Israeli schools, professionals beginning new careers and retirees finally fulfilling dreams they have carried for decades.
Each arrival adds another family to Israel’s story.
For the Litwins and Nerenbaum, the sweetness of this Rosh Hashanah is simple: This year, the new year begins at home in Israel.