All their bags are packed. They’re ready to go. And on Aug. 5, Joel and Lori Abramson, along with their two kids, will be leaving on a jet plane, saying goodbye to the Bay Area and hello to Eretz Yisrael.
The Abramsons’ departure is bittersweet for the Bay Area Jewish community. For the last three years, Lori served as head of school for Yavneh Day School in Los Gatos, and before that she was long time director of education at Oakland’s Temple Sinai. The Joel Abramson Orchestra is one of the most popular b’nai mitzvah/wedding bands in the region.
But the call of aliyah proved too strong.
The San Jose family is returning to Yokneam, a city of 20,000 just south of Haifa and overlooking the Jezreel Valley. Twenty years ago the Abramsons lived there as a young couple, and have considered it a second home ever since.
“Twenty years ago something grabbed a hold of my heart,” says Lori Abramson. “We’ve been back many times and brought our kids back many times. It’s just a compelling feeling that we need to be there. For me, it’s the huge overarching desire to be a part of Jewish history.”
For Joel Abramson, moving to Israel is likewise the fulfillment of a dream. “We came back [to America] to be with our families, but we didn’t want to leave,” he says. “I always knew I wanted to go back. I like living there, even with all its faults. It’s something that runs through my veins that I ultimately had to act upon.”
Rather than put an end to his business, Joel says the move will expand it from a Bay Area enterprise into a ” multinational.” The Joel Abramson Orchestra will have a few working ensembles here and another based in Israel.
“I will keep my local phone numbers,” he says. “Nothing will change. There is a growing market of American Jews going to Israel to celebrate. They want to do the next bar/bat mitzvah or wedding in Israel and now I will be able to say we can do it. It’s a vision I’ve had for a long time.”
As for Lori Abramson’s post at Yavneh, she gave notice in December. Steve Bogad has been chosen to succeed her. “I’m very excited for the school because they will have a fine educator,” she says. “In Israel I plan on getting involved in Jewish education. I also hope there are some Bay Area projects that might need some oversight there.”
As for the Abramson children, Molly, 13, and Benjamin, 9, the transition may be tougher, but their parents are ready for it.
“We told them since they were born that someday we will return,” says Joel. “[Molly] doesn’t want to leave her friends, but she has a couple of [Israeli] pen pals already, and there’s a part of her that wants to go.”
Adds Lori, “My son’s ready to be there. Obviously there are problems, but day-to-day life there is healthier, more personal and I want my children to experience that.”
Besides, say the Abramsons, Yokneam is a lot like California. It’s located in an agricultural region with forestland a few minutes in one direction and the beach a few minutes in another. Moreover, a burgeoning nearby high-tech industry has mushroomed in recent years.
As for mastering the language, everyone in the family speaks Hebrew with varying degrees of fluency; everyone except Pretty Bird, the family pet parakeet.
Turns out Pretty Bird used to be able to squawk the word “shalom.” But around the time of Rosh Hashanah last year, he escaped. The family managed to find him two weeks later, but sadly, the bird has since fallen mute.
“We hope to teach an old bird an old trick,” says Joel. “We want to teach him ‘shalom’ again, at least for aliyah.”