Life in Israel can be a major shock for some people. Putting the difficulties of learning a new language aside, it can be so hard to get used to the seemingly paradoxical nature of an extremely casual culture constantly under the shadow of war, political instability, and religion.
But that’s just about the expectations. Some things just can’t be prepared for, and for many new immigrants, the best way to learn about Israel is to be thrown headfirst into the Mediterranean waters.
The culture shock can be jarring, but for Goldie Katz, it was welcoming.
This adventurer at heart has already been living a life full of twists and turns. From growing up in an ultra-Orthodox family in Monsey to spending years living and studying in Taiwan – and learning to speak Chinese – Katz saw her religious identity, lifestyle, and political values change drastically. But even when being pressured to conform by those she considered her community, she refused to bend.
In the end, Katz is her own person, a true non-conformist who has managed to hold her ex-religious and punk lifestyles in balance with her Jewish identity and Zionism. And when life brought her to Israel, she finally found a place that would accept her – no matter what.
After being introduced to Katz by Nefesh B’Nefesh, in partnership with the Jewish Agency, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, Jewish National Fund-USA, and the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, In Jerusalem sat down with her to hear her story.
Tell us about your relationship with Israel.
Israel has always been a massive, massive part of my life. I grew up Orthodox in Monsey, New York, but I kind of became less religious. However, Israel has always been a big part of our lives. I visited Israel for the first time when I was 12. For my bat mitzvah, my parents gave me the choice between a big party and a trip to Israel. And I’ve always been an adventurer at heart, so the choice was really obvious for me. I visited again when I was 17, but by then, Israel and Judaism almost faded into the background of my life as I got busy with school.
When I was in high school, I studied abroad in Taiwan for a year where I was actually sent to a Catholic school, which was an interesting experience. I finished high school back in America, and then went back to Taiwan for college. Then COVID hit, and I had to go home. I started working in New Jersey, and honestly, I started to feel very lost. I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt very disconnected from myself and everything around me.
I was kind of searching for meaning, and I really struggled to find something.
And then, unfortunately, Oct. 7 happened, and things really changed for me.
How did October 7 change things for you?
I had become a big part of very leftist, very liberal-American, social-justice-warrior scenes.
And then, after Oct. 7, I started seeing the social media posts roll in.
I was used to seeing the odd anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, pro-Palestine post from someone I was acquainted with. Usually, I would try to have a conversation with these people. Sometimes they would hear me out, sometimes they wouldn’t. But I started seeing people post anti-Israel stuff pretty much right away. I started trying to message people. I thought they had it wrong. I thought they were just confused, and they didn’t know what was going on either.
So I sent messages like, ‘Hey, I think you might not be super educated on this topic’ or ‘Here’s the history of the conflict,’ and I started getting hit with really nasty replies. People I thought were my friends said some really, really terrible stuff.
And that was the first moment where it really hit me that people aren’t confused. They really think that Israelis are like this. They really think that Israel is the aggressor here.
I started to see pro-Hamas protests on October 8 in America. And more and more people whom I had never seen talk about politics started posting about it.
It started impacting not only my online presence, as I have long been active on Instagram and TikTok, but also in real life.
I worked in a very stereotypical, very leftist coffee shop for many years. I started to see people coming in wearing keffiyeh, and I was really shocked. It got to the point where I quit my job. I think I didn’t even know just how much it was impacting me, but I kind of went a little crazy, and when I quit my job, I lost most of my friends, though my best friend who is Taiwanese still stood by me and even fought for me.
What made you decide to make aliyah?
I had a cousin’s bar mitzvah in May of 2024, and we were coming to Israel for it. My first day here was on Israeli Independence Day. After being isolated from pretty much anything Jewish, anything Israel, for years, suddenly I’m in Jerusalem on Independence Day. “Hurricane” [Israel’s popular Eurovision entry from last year] is playing on speakers, and people are blasting Am Yisrael Chai, and there’s Israeli flags everywhere.
When I put a hostage poster up outside the coffee shop I had worked at, it was vandalized within a week. But suddenly I was in Jerusalem. It was crazy.
We went out to Mike’s Place in Jerusalem. I was sitting at this big table, and this girl and her friends came over and she asked if they could sit with us. I started chatting with her, and she was alternative [a fashion and lifestyle subculture often characterized by dyed hair, tattoos, piercings, and more] like me.
Turns out, she’s from Monsey, too, and went to the same yeshiva I went to when I was a little kid, and actually used to work at my favorite Israeli cafe in Nyack. She was also really active in the punk subculture in New York City, which I was also kind of involved in.
That was the first time I ever met anyone who went through something similar to me, because the same thing happened to her. She was blacklisted from her community. It was so meaningful. Not only am I in Jerusalem, I’m meeting this girl who finally understands what I’m going through.
And she said to me, “Goldie, make aliyah, come to Israel. You’ll find your people. You’ll find the people who won’t judge you, the people who will see you for you and won’t stop being friends with you for surface-level reasons.” It was such a meaningful moment to look into the eyes of someone who was just like me and have them tell me, Goldie, this is your place. You need to come here.
That was when I made the decision.
What were the biggest culture shocks you had about Israel?
Obviously, it’s a crazy adjustment – it is. I mean, I expected it to be hard. I expected it to be different, but there’s actually so much depth to Israeli culture that I honestly did not know about.
And again, I’ve been Jewish my whole life. I’ve been a very passionate and proud advocate for Zionism and everything before I came here in May 2024, but I had no idea how diverse Judaism was here. I thought it was like hardcore hassidic people and then people who were Jewish by blood and like not anything else. But when I came here, I saw Jews with dreadlocks.
I remember when I was preparing my stuff to visit Israel, I asked my mom, “Hey, do I need to cover my tattoos? Do I need to leave the miniskirts at home?” Because I had no idea. And she was like, “Goldie, it’s Israel. Wear whatever you want.”
And then I came to Israel. So many people have tattoos, and so many people dress revealingly. I saw more alternative people in one day in Tel Aviv than I’ve ever seen in New York City.
I met a new Israeli friend recently, and I was asking him about social taboos in Israel, because I’m used to America and its the very PC [politically correct] culture. And he was saying, “It’s like, pretty much the only cultural taboos are that people don’t like to say Jesus Christ. People don’t like to say the name of God.” And I’m like, it’s so weird from America, where religion is one of the most acceptable things to clown on.
What have you been up to since making aliyah?
I put so much time and effort into getting here that I almost didn’t think about what I was going to do once I got here. The past few weeks since I arrived, I’ve just kind of been getting settled, spending a lot of time with my family. It’s so nice that I was staying with my aunt in Jerusalem and her kids, and now we came to Ra’anana for a week, like a little vacation before we go back to Jerusalem. So now it’s nice to spend time with my whole family here.
I spent the first couple of weeks just with them, and they speak Hebrew, luckily, so I was able to drag my 14-year-old cousin with me to the bank and to the health insurance office. He’s been an incredible help with that.
It’s funny, because when my aunt was in her early 20s, she lived with my mom and my family, so I have a lot of memories of her living with us when I was a child, and now I’m living with them, and it’s a nice, full-circle moment. So what am I doing here? Good question.
The plan was to move to Tel Aviv, but I really fell in love with Jerusalem. I’m going to do whatever I can to stay in Jerusalem. I’m looking at apartments right now, and I’m looking at jobs. I’ve sent my application to a couple different places. Since I speak Chinese, I’m trying to find a way I can utilize that. You know, I’m a little too old to serve, which kind of sucks. I’m 24 so I’m, like, just on the cusp.
What was the hardest part about making aliyah?
The apostilles – oh, my God, the apostille [certificate verifying the authenticity of a document].
I was planning to make aliyah in May or June. I didn’t end up making aliyah ‘till the beginning of July, and my apostille for my federal background check expired mid June, so I had to get it redone. I had to drive eight hours round trip to Washington, DC, to try to get my apostille redone in person, and they told me they wouldn’t have it ready for me until July 9, the day after I left.
Basically, I had submitted my paperwork with two months left. The first time I submitted it, I had no issues. I got it back within the five weeks. The second time, it took seven weeks. And I was cutting it so close, I was petrified. They told me that I can still get on the flight. You just can’t be processed at the airport until you have all your apostilles.
That was like the most stressful thing ever, having to drive down to DC and be told they wouldn’t have it ready in time, having to drive back to New Jersey, and just hoping that I would get it in the mail in time. And it turns out that the day I drove to Washington was the day that they had processed it and mailed the original one I sent out. So it turned out to be kind of a wash, but my mom and I went together, so it was nice to have like the last little road trip.
The apostilles were by far the most nightmarish part of making aliyah.
What advice do you have for anyone who wants to make aliyah?
Do it not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. Aliyah is not easy.
I don’t want to sugarcoat it. It’s really hard, and it’s so worth it to be here and feel like I belong. It’s scary sometimes, and it’s hard, but at the end of the day, people here will catch you when you fall.