Meet Rina Deutsch, a single mother of 5, a coach, teacher, and newly minted entrepreneur who traded Toronto for Jerusalem just weeks before the school year started.

In this powerful episode, Rina gets candid about:

• The Defining Moment: Why the events of October 7th made a decades-long dream a non-negotiable reality.
• Family Dynamics: How she navigated moving to Israel with three of her five children, leaving the two oldest behind.
• The Fast Pivot: Going from high school teacher to securing three jobs in Israel and pivoting into the world of marketing—a true testament to the Aliyah hustle.
• Community Surprise: The surprising lack of stigma around being a single, divorced mother in her new Jerusalem neighborhood.

Plus, tune in for a hilarious round of Israeli Mom Rapid Fire and learn the meaning of the essential slang word: "Gahg."

Production by Yazek Shrem

Social Media & Business Coordinator - Tehliah Simantov

Follow us on Instagram @aliyah_stories

One oleh. Lots of stickers. A nation’s messages captured before they vanished.

Meet Jeff Weiss — an American oleh, author, and endurance athlete who found new purpose in Tel Aviv. After encountering the memorial stickers honoring Israelis killed on October 7th and in the war that followed, Jeff launched Stickers of Meaning, a project preserving their powerful mottos and personal stories.

In this episode, Jeff shares why these messages resonated so deeply, what they reveal about Israeli resilience, and how his own Aliyah journey — from New York to Florida to Tel Aviv — led him toward a renewed sense of meaning and connection.

Mentioned in this episode:

Stickers of Meaning — Israeli memorial sticker project https://www.stickersofmeaning.com/

Jeffrey Weiss Author Site — Books by Jeff Weiss -https://www.jeffreyweissauthor.com/

Nahalat Binyamin Market — Arts & crafts street fair -https://www.nachlatbinyamin.com/en/

Ben Yehuda 126 Synagogue (“126”) — Popular Anglo-friendly shul - https://www.facebook.com/126BenYehuda/

Production by Yazek Shrem

Social Media & Business Coordinator - Tehliah Simantov

Follow us on Instagram @aliyah_stories

In this episode of the Aliyah Story podcast, we explore how recovery didn’t just change Eric Levitz’s life — it gave him a mission that could only be built in Israel. Eric, the founder of AZ House Jerusalem, shares how his own near-death battle with addiction and his experience in a free, donation-based recovery center in Cleveland shaped everything he would later build in Israel.

Arriving in Israel with no Hebrew, no money, and no plan, Eric followed what he describes as a faith-based jump — trusting that the reason would become clear only after he arrived. Within six months, it did: he realized that the Jewish world had no free, community-driven recovery center, the very kind that saved his life.

Eric also shares how recovery gave him everything: his community, his life, even the introduction that led him to his wife. “Every dream I ever could have imagined — and many I couldn’t have imagined — came from the decision to get sober.”

This episode is a powerful look at how recovery doesn’t end with getting better — it can ignite a mission, transform a community, and root a person deeply in Israel.

Mentioned in this episode:

AZ House Jerusalem - Eric’s treatment center in Jerusalem. https://www.azhousejerusalem.com/

To support AZ House: https://donorbox.org/the-az-house-a-home-to-rebuild-lives

Pizgat Ze'Ev - https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/en/residents/communities/pisgat-zeev/

Anthony's Pizza - https://www.facebook.com/anthonys.pizza.jerusalem/

Follow us on IG: @aliyah_stories

Production: Yazek Shrem

Business & Social Coordinator: Tehila Simantov