Aliyah tips and mistakes to avoid

Just writing up a few minor tips that might be useful to others making Aliyah, based on my personal experiences:

  • It's a good idea to have a permanent Israeli number as many services (e.g. banks and banking Apps) seem to need an Israeli number (I recommend trying to have a dual sim phone, so you have Israeli sim card plus sim card for your home country in same phone, so it's easier to travel)
  • On leaving Israel in 2019 I thought I could just activate roaming on the prepaid sim card I had been using. Several days before I left, I went to the Partner store to ask them to activate roaming, and was told that the prepaid sim cards 'don't support roaming' and that I'd need to sign up for a plan. Although I didn't mind doing that (and immediately signed up for a plan), I had so little time left before my  flight that I didn't have time to go collect my sim card, and in 2020 when the Covid situation and travel lockdowns arrived, I got stuck for an extended period outside of Israel without a working Israeli number - this caused very large headaches (e.g. with banking services, still linked to my old number)
  • Although the mobile company (Partner Mobile) was willing to send a new sim card, they'd only send it to an 'address in Israel', so personal friends of mine in Israel (Ilan and Merav Kernerman) very kindly assisted me with this to get my number working again. When the sim card arrived it didn't work, but Partner Mobile gave good technical support and very phoned me and assisted to do a sim replacement on the system, which fixed it. Although Partner Mobile was very difficult to get English technical support via their mobile number, I eventually got hold of someone via their support email (orange.pniya@service.partner.co.il) who was very helpful in assisting me while overseas (in English)
  • I only have experience with two banks (Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi), and although I've had some difficulties with both, ultimately I'd recommend Bank Hapoalim over Bank Leumi, based on the fact that I was able to verify my identify in the new Hapoalim App by letting the App scan my ID (Teudat Zehut) and face, but with Bank Leumi (although they seem easier to contact) ultimately just said they "can't help me because they can't verify my identify overseas"
  • For the bus system etc. get a 'Rav Kav' card. There's an App you can also install on your phone and if your phone has NFC support, you can even just hold the bus card to the phone to scan it (when I was there there seemed to be only a Hebrew App, but since then I've seen also a separate English Rav Kav App in the Play Store)
  • I found the Moovit App very helpful for transport timetables etc.
  • I found the Gett App helpful as a local Uber-like alternative
  • If you are staying in Tel Aviv, check out the Facebook group 'Secret Tel Aviv' - very helpful for various things
  • Sherut: Although most the public transport (e.g. buses) stop on Shabbat, there's a minimal service called Sherut that is helpful if you need to get around then
  • Banks: I found that although in many of the banks most the staff don't speak English, usually they'd maybe typically have one or two staff members who could speak English, so when you go into the bank ask for English ('Anglit')
  • Similarly when I went to the government department for applying for passports etc., they seemed to have specific staff members that can assist in English - ask when you go in for English ('Anglit') assistance
  • [Google Translate] I've found services / Apps like Google Translate indispensible, although be careful as they can become a 'crutch' where one avoids learning the actual language
  • [National Insurance and leaving Israel]


Learning Hebrew

Useful resources:

  • YouGlish: Search for Hebrew text in YouTube video subtitles (Closed Captions) so you can hear how words are pronounced (you can also use automatic translation of Closed Captions here, though imperfect, to translate the text into another language to help understand)
  • Forvo: Listen to how words or phrases are pronounced by mother tongue speakers





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