Jen (Selevan) and Jonah Keyak: Jen is from West Hempstead; Jonah is from San Francisco. They always knew they wanted to make aliyah and decided that their timeline would be when their oldest was ready to enter kindergarten. Upon their marriage, they lived in Washington Heights and then spent a year in Baka to get a feel of what it would be like to live in Israel. There, they experienced Israeli bureaucracy when they discovered that despite the mesader kiddushin at their wedding being a well-known rabbi, their marriage wasn’t recognized by the Rabbanut and they had to get “remarried.” After their year in Israel, they moved back to the States and decided to settle temporarily in Memphis. They bought a home; Jen worked as a labor and delivery nurse and Jonah worked as a rabbi at the JCC.
Then, COVID happened. Suddenly they were let go from their jobs like so many others in the U.S. during this time. Jen had two miscarriages while away from family whom she couldn’t visit, which was really difficult. They decided that if they were already going through all of this away from family, maybe Hashem was giving them a message that it was time to push up their timeline to go to Israel. But aliyah is a big step, and Jen wasn’t ready to jump in just yet. Having been kept away from family for so long during COVID, they decided to live with her family in New York for a year while renting out their house in Memphis to save money for aliyah.
They weren’t able to go on a pilot trip before arriving and relied on research to find their new community. Jonah felt strongly that if they were moving to Israel that they should live over the Green Line for ideological reasons, and they also wanted to live within commuting distance of Yerushalayim. They entertained the idea of Efrat but felt it wasn’t a good fit for them. Someone suggested Nerya, which introduced them to the Binyamin region website. That’s where they first heard about Mitzpe Yericho. Upon seeing a video about the community, they were sold.
Mitzpe Yericho is a yishuv in Midbar Yehuda, with a breathtaking vista of desert mountains and conveniently located off of Route 1. It is about ten minutes past the city of Maale Adumim, a 20-minute drive from Eastern Yerushalayim, surrounded by many beautiful hikes (including water hikes), a zip line and not far from the Dead Sea. The community itself is warm, has a strong Anglo presence but a largely Israeli feel. What’s more, it’s far more affordable than many areas in the Center. Everything was lining up with what they wanted. They knew people who had moved to Mitzpe Yericho from West Hempstead and they spoke to several other people who were moving there or had recently moved there. Without ever seeing it, they knew they’d found their place.
The challenge, however, was finding an actual place to move into. At the time, Mitzpe Yericho was in the midst of building a new project and housing was scarce. In a story that would only happen in Israel, Jen reached out to Mitzpe Yericho’s Anglo mayor, Aliza Pilichowski, who was able to help her find a gorgeous two-floor penthouse apartment to rent with a view of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River crossing for only 5,000 shekels a month! They made aliyah in December 2022 with two small children and expecting their third, after a delay due to bureaucracy. They were disappointed to come on a very small flight without much of an arrival at the airport but to their surprise, they arrived at the yishuv to a warm welcome of dancing, cookies, and cakes from Israelis and Anglos from across the community!
As is common with new projects, their apartment wasn’t ready in time but the person they were renting from set them up with a tzimmer, which is like an Airbnb, and it provided an easy landing with all of the furniture and kitchen set-up they needed. They were very lucky to move into their apartment and get settled before their baby was born shortly afterwards!
The Keyaks love Mitzpe Yericho. There are three sub-communities, including a newer and older area, and a close-knit Anglo community that has several WhatsApp groups and a women’s shiur. The Israeli families are wonderful, and they really feel like they are living in Israel with all of the Anglo support they could want: the best of both worlds. As Jonah likes to remind Jen, it is a safe area since the Arabs nearby are largely moderate and there has hardly been a siren during the war.
“There is nothing like raising your kids on a yishuv,” says Jen. “My kids have independence and it’s a small kehilla bubble. You know everyone or have heard of everyone. It’s beautiful here and tourists stop by often. The views are gorgeous. The yishuv has an outpouring of chesed and we do a lot for the chayalim stationed nearby. Everyone trusts each other’s kashrut and we all cook for each other, which is really special. The drawbacks of a yishuv are that there is a limited amount to do, especially at night. There is a pool, great parks, and a makolet but no restaurants or big stores.”
Jen has not transferred her nursing license from America, but she worked first in medical billing and now at a start-up company from home. Jonah is a rabbi and a social worker and has clients online, and also works for Aish. Financially, it’s been a challenge, but they’re making it work.
“Living far from family is hard. When we had our fourth child, we had to call a friend to stay with our kids when we went to the hospital, but other than missing family and maybe Target and the ease of Amazon, I don’t miss America at all. When we look out from our mirpeset, we see Ever HaYarden – which is from Tanach, but isn’t everything in Israel? We are so grateful to have replanted our roots here! I can’t wait until my kids correct our Hebrew. When we made aliyah, our t-shirt said ‘Five years, five houses; finally going home.’ We couldn’t be happier.”
