I will be sparse with the detail to maintain anonymity. I flipped my NY home for an apt in Jerusalem at the top of the NY bubble, and that at least according to the taxi drivers makes me a millionaire. I could not make that move today, but I suppose it give me a head start. I was able to transfer my business, a trade, but yes, at much less money, and serving in a poor (hareidi/kollel)area makes it even harder. Competition is fierce, but excellence sells. as does yashrus, and the american concept of customer service. I have found a niche of fixing other’s shoddy work.
You must have agile language skills. I had a vast vocabulary from my broad learning, and did not attend ulpan, sometimes I speak effortlessly and sometimes haltingly, I don’t feel ashamed, and I generally make myself understood. Because I am a hot commodity, most put up with it.
We felt education costs, healthcare cost (nothing drastic b”h), bituach leumi and taxes not as daunting, albeit with two local incomes at starting level and only city tax as our housing cost.
We did the very discouraged move, of coming with two pre- teens. They were both educationally challenges and “hard nuts to crack”. They both were bounced from school to school many times, today they are b’h almost well adjusted productive members of society. I suspect they inherited my exceptional resilience. The most slimy disgusting bureaucrats we’ve encountered were in the educational field.
Religion: My two youngest are not on the same page as I, but I think back two where they would might have fallen had we stayed in chu”l. My community there had a large tribe of seriously OTDed youth on parade in lurid detail. Did we save them? I don’t know, and I don’t know how they will ripen. I know that spiritual legacy goes missing, but it doesn’t hide well, and it doesnt hide for long.
I, as American Yeshivish, not living in Bet Shemesh, I did not fit in tightly anywhere. I hobnob among the DL and the kollel crowd, I crave intellectual company I find some approachable yechidim in the DL, less so in the Haredi.
Tachlis, it is up to:
emuna and bitachon,
a hard core belief that you belong here,
being able to bend and get along while holding fast to who you are
a plausible way to make a modest living. you can not too much research.
having some or all family here.
speak Ivrit now, and ramp it before or as you arrive. The farther you move from the major population centers, the more the language barrier will loom. though there are some small enclaves that are frum and somewhat english speaking, but for employment, you must have Ivrit, and some arabic is also helpful.
Prospective community and prospective housing. With children, the right schooling trumps community and housing. This is not such an issue in the cities.
Be open minded about changing profession. Academics and desk jobbers have dim prospects of continuing such careers. I know one professor doing janitorial work, he is deliriously happy here.
All the negative chatter, the real and the imagined. can be filtered through the idea that the comfort level in chu”l is likely to dip, as it has for our brothers in France. The level of French spoken on the street is increasing.
It may be that kibbutz galuyot will hybridize us to be what we should be. The wonderful eidlekiet of americans could be an essential ingredient. This is Eretz Hatvi, there is place for all of us, and ????? ???? ??? ?????