Jerusalem, ISRAEL — Coming to Israel as a student or volunteer, you can easily determine how independent, or how insulated, you want to be.
With all the package-deal options available through organizations like MASA Israel Journey, you might never have to face the “housing question,” but MASA and others also offer you a chance to challenge yourself with the full immersion experience.
I have had two stages of life as an adult in Israel—from primarily academic to primarily self-structured. I started out in Israel in a work-study program that provided me a fairly rigid weekly schedule but gave me freedom in matters of room and board. My only friend in Israel invited me to stay with them until I found a place of my own, though they were already two in a one-bedroom flat. With apartments limited because of the pre-university scramble, this was hospitality on par with that of ancient Hebraic society, and I was given a month of pure immersion in the best side of Israeli culture.
Because I was living with Israelis who had a close friendship with their next-door (Israeli) neighbors and other natives, I had immediate access to the local Jewish experience and perspective—highly recommended! We often played cards and shared Mediterranean cuisine along the coast, or took a weekend for camping in the North, or biked through the city. In effect, I was able to enjoy enough of the country to satisfy me during the hectic work-study schedule to come.
I spent a month sleeping on my friends’ couch before I was able to secure a room in my own apartment, using my regular Web-search haunts: Craigslist and Janglo for easy access to English, and (the painstakingly translated) Homeless and Yad Shtaim, which offer the linguistic advantage of living with Hebrew-speakers.
I pushed myself to find a place with Israelis and have trended local since. This brought along with it the benefits of not being cut off in a subculture of English-speaking internationals and, as a plus, helped me understand some of the cultural expectations and subtleties of communication here that differ from those found in the United States. For example, in the U.S. South, politeness is defined by vaguely alluding to a concern or a request before putting it forward imbedded in pleasantries or deep sensitivity to its resulting burden on the other. Israelis find circuitous speech confusing and disrespectful. To survive and adapt to Israeli culture, it is important to step out of your cultural mentality and realize the common perspective here.
Before leasing an apartment or a room, you should seek the assistance of a Hebrew-speaker who understands legalese to some degree and can give you a rundown of the apartment contract. A contract is a contract, even if you can’t understand a word of it; if you sign one, there might be fees and expectations that you could otherwise overlook, such as painting your room before you leave or taking an equal responsibility for building-repair costs. You will also need someone local to sign security for you (to pay anything you end up being unable to cover); if you haven’t had the opportunity to acquire Israeli contacts, that can be more difficult to do.
If you are coming to Israel not as a formal student but in order to study Hebrew in an ulpan (which, take note, doesn’t give you grounds for a student visa) or as a long-term tourist, I recommend trying out the sublet route in your search for accommodation. If you don’t have a place to immediately go to like I did, try secure for yourself a sublet for a month or a few weeks which you can immediately move into from the airport; it will give you the satisfaction that you have a place to immediately unwind that isn’t as expensive as a hotel or as chaotic as a hostel—unless you feel those possibilities fit your personality better.
After my work-study program made way for a preference to pursue Hebrew fluency, I closed out my room at the end of my lease and signed up for a year of lease-less living. If you can handle going from sublet to sublet a few times a year without it being a depressing experience, it will save you some of the bureaucratic hassles of communicating with a landlord or landlady that might have limited English, and signing a very Hebrew-rich document while inside everything is shouting: “Never sign a contract you haven’t read!”—or in this case, can’t read.
Sublets can last from anything like a couple weeks to a month to half-a-year or more, and four months into my sublet-hopping, I’ve been prompted to learn about more parts of Israel than my self-limiting routine would have pushed me to do. The benefits of taking this route also include developing friends or contacts within completely different circles—truly immersing yourself in Israeli life and opening up doors to unique opportunities that aren’t even on your radar.
Finally, if you have never been to Israel or have only done a whirlwind tour, give yourself the chance to experience it on a deeper level. Get to know the natives, the language and the national identity; and at the end of it, you might even discover that Israel has become home.
