Making Aliyah with the Rosners

One of the two families with whom I will be traveling to Israel on the Nefesh B'Nefesh aliyah trip is that of Rabbi Shalom and Dr. Tamar Rosner. Tamar is a pediatrician from Boro Park (daughter of the prominent Drs. Susan and Robert Schulman) whom I first met some 14 or 15 years ago, when her sister married a close friend of mine. R. Shalom is a quickly rising rabbinic star. Aside from being the son of Dr. Fred Rosner, R. Shalom is a popular teacher in YU, lecturer on the web (link) and pulpit rabbi in Woodmere. (As a sort of disclosure, I should add that Yashar Books published a book edited by Dr. Rosner and Dr. R. Schulman: link).

Rabbi and Dr. Rosner have been planning on making aliyah for years, but between Tamar's residency and R. Shalom's obligation to YU's kollel to teach in North America (YU obligates members of its kollel elyon to teach for a certain number of years in North America), and then becoming comfortably settled in Woodmere, it kept getting pushed off. As their six children (their newborn baby is not shown in the picture above) started getting older, the parents decided that they had to make the move. Rabbi Rosner was able to find teaching jobs in Israel and then a new community that was looking for an American rabbi. The circumstances could not be more pre-ordained.

The new community to which they are moving is called Nofei Hashemesh (link) in Beit Shemesh. The community is being built around R. Rosner's vision, which is explained in this essay: link I've been hearing about this community for months now and it sounds like an extremely exciting.

I'll be meeting up with them on the flight and give you a little more color about their big move, as well as introducing you to another family making aliyah.