There seems to be a phenomenon that people who live in Hashem’s land cry a lot over things they don’t have instead of appreciating and letting the world know about all the advantages that Israel has until Hashem takes them away from them.
What I find very disturbing is that we only hear about perks, which so many in Israel seem to taking for granted, once these are taken away.
Below are a few of the benefits Israelis have, and there are a lot more.
- In Israel, every month, no matter what your income is, every family gets a sum of cash into their bank account for each child.
This used to be a large sum in the past and has gone down a bit as society is becoming more advanced and people are earning more money.
Americans never knew about this Israeli perk. Recently, when the government took off $20 from each child’s allowance, there were massive protests in the streets. Many American family members and friends who saw this in the news wanted to know what the protests were all about, and all were shocked to hear that each Israeli family gets free money each moth for each child no matter what their income is.
Growing up in America, we never heard about the free money given to families. We only heard that “the Israelis” are struggling and need us to send them money.
As children, we came up with creative ways to earn and collect money to send to Israel while at the same time, we wore hand-me-down clothes, and we did not buy soda or sweets because we could not afford it. For a Shabbos treat, we bought one big bag of potato chips divided into smaller bags and each child had one hand full of chips.
When I moved to Israel, I learned that all those families we sent money to own their own apartment, which are fully paid for with no mortgage!!
Yes, their homes were a smaller size apartment than that of what we had in America, but they had no mortgage to worry about and no stress of making the monthly mortgage or rent payments or face being homeless. Most people I know in America have big mortgages and pay taxes. If they fail to pay either the mortgage or taxes, the home is taken away from them and foreclosed.
In Israel, owning your own home does not make you a middle-class family, and if you don’t have lots of money, you can get 80% discount on your tax bill (for medium size apartments) whereas in America the moment you own a home you are classified by the government as a middle-class family and you must pay full taxes forever or risk losing your home.
2)Thousands of mothers in America go to a convalescent home after having a baby. The prices in America is more than double that of Israel, and no insurance company pays for it. While in Israel, some hospitals pay for one free night at the convalescent home and the upgraded insurance, which most growing families have and cost about $50-$100 per family a month depending on the family size, the insurance company pays you to stay at the convalescent home in addition to other great perks.
3) When we had our baby in Israel, we got a lump sum of money into our bank account, which was enough for the extra baby expenses. We never applied for the money and never knew such a thing existed.
When we asked friends about this windfall of free money from the government, they dismissed it and were unhappy with the “small amount” being given to every family no matter what your income is!!
We were told that years ago, when the government wanted to encourage Jews to live in Israel and have children so the Jewish Nation can grow at a fast rate without having to deal with any financial issues, they (the government) gave a large amount of money which covered all baby expenses including the bris, carriage, crib and more.
4)I often see ads for 2 to 3 day vacations filled with fun activities and lectures for women. I asked an Israeli neighbor who these ads were targeting, who has the money to go away for 3 days without the husband and children?
She responded that every mother who has 3 or more children gets a free vacation once a year paid for by the upgraded insurance.
My response was WHAT!! I cannot believe this, you get if for free?
She became defensive and said: “mothers work hard and deserve a vacation once a year.”
To which I responded: that is true! But American mothers also work hard, and no one pays for them to take a vacation!
She did not want to believe me! She, as many other Israelis, falsely believe that the American government is handing out much more cash than we are getting here in order for all American families to live comfortably.
5)I heard from several people who used this social service: the government has an agency that finds people jobs in their field of expertise or desires, even when they lack any experience. They pay you a monthly minimum salary while they are working to find you the right job. They allow people to be very specific and picky with job opportunities, and they are very successful matching people with good jobs. If the job does not cover all the expenses, the government will continue giving the family the needed money.
6)In America, I had to be back at work when the baby was 6 weeks old or lose the job. Here in Israel, every new mother gets 3 months paid off from work. In addition, she has the option to take an additional 3 months off, without getting laid off, her job is waiting for her to be ready to return when her baby is 6 months old.
When I told this to a group of Israel friends that Americans are expected to be back to work when the baby is 6 weeks old, they were shocked and all at once they denounced the short 6-week timeframe. “How can they expect a mother to leave her newborn baby. What about bonding time? What about nursing time?”
It is clear that many people don’t know how good they have it until things are taken away by Hashem for lack of appreciation.
7) Schools are free! Schools are open from 8:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. (a hot nutritional supper which is served in Israel at lunchtime is just $25 a month!! And is optional, if a mother chooses to send along lunch, her children can warm it up in the school’s microwave.
When we first started looking for a school for our daughter, we asked many American friends who live here. The names of 3 different schools kept coming up. Most of these schools are geared towards Americans, and since Americans are used to paying tuition these schools classified themselves as a “private” school and are able to charge some tuition.
They all seemed to be great schools and had a tuition of $2,000 a year! Yes just $2,000 a year!
However, when we asked a Rosh Yeshiva who knows us well which school to choose, he recommended another school that is best fit for us.
This school has the same curriculum as the 3 we had looked into and was free of charge. In addition, the buses taking the children to and from school is also free! Furthermore, I found that there are many English speakers at this school as well. They teach English classes beginning in first grade.
When I went back to those who recommended the schools with tuition to hear why they chose a school that they have to pay for versus a school that is free of charge, most of them either did not know that this option existed or they had assumed that they get a better more private education in the school they paid for. This is not the case at all (two of the families we spoke to, have since done research and decided to change their children over to the wonderful free schools system).
It always pains me greatly to see how writers who live here in Israel and write English magazines which are sold all over the world, complain about every little inconvenience while at the same time they don’t write about the many great financial and social benefits we have here.
While I was working on myself to find a way to be dan l’kaf zechus, and spoke to immigrants, I discovered that many of these complainers came here to Israel right after they got married and never lived a “real adult American life” with the hardship that it includes. Buying a home, getting a job and paying the high-priced bills and giving birth with a large family at home, (If they went to America to have their baby, they left the other children here and were at their mother’s home etc).
Having lived in and given birth in both countries, I can tell you I was shocked with how much we get here in Israel. Israel is a small country and puts great emphasis on helping each and every one of its citizens thrive and live life to the fullest.
