“One week or ten days before our departure, scheduled for March 16, we received a call to postpone our Aliyah due to the coronavirus,” recalled Giselle. The family’s 20 pieces of luggage were packed, their jobs quit, kids Dan and Maia had already left school, and they had informed their landlord the apartment would be available to lease. Postponing moving to Israel was not an option but every day, the coronavirus situation continued to get worse.

In order to travel, the family had to sign a formal sworn statement agreeing to comply to a 14-day quarantine period upon their arrival, and 72 hours before boarding the plane, they were at The Jewish Agency’s office signing papers and arranging for people in Israel to leave food at their doorstep throughout their quarantine.

“Despite not knowing what would really happen when we got to Israel and nothing going according to our plans, we never doubted our decision to get on the plane on March 16,” said Giselle.

The idea of making Aliyah was initially Ariel’s. But after Giselle visited Israel in mid-2019, she quickly came around and agreed to the move.

“We know people have different motivations for making Aliyah. There are people willing to for the sake of Zionism, or because it’s their life’s dream, or for economic reasons… In our case, it’s for Zionism and it’s also a bet on the future,” shared Giselle. “People tell us: ‘It’s for the kids.’ We say: ‘No, it’s not only for the kids, it’s also for us.’”