How to find an apartment in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel
A list of the apartment websites that have been helpful to me and hopefully will continue to be helpful to others. If you have updates about these sites or new sites, leave me a comment.
1. Magar Meida (English and Hebrew): Daily email with latest listings. Costs roughly 250 shekels for 2 months. You can freeze the membership after you find an apartment. The fee is well worth it.
2. Flathunting (English)
3. Janglo – Real Estate section (English)
4. Yad2 (Hebrew)
5. Homeless (Hebrew)
6. Sheal (Hebrew)
7. Hebrew U. (Hebrew)
8. Sublet.com (English)
9. Baboo.co.il (Hebrew)
10. Craiglist (English) Beware of West Africa Apartment scams
11. Madas (Hebrew)
12. WinWin (Hebrew)
13. BipBop (Hebrew)
14. Homely (Hebrew)
How to find a job in Israel – helpful websites
Updated Feb 9, 2015
Here’s a list of helpful employment websites for job seekers:
- Israemploy: (English) Daily updates. 36 NIS per month.
- Janglo (English)
- Nefesh B’Nefesh Linkedin Job Board (English)
- Gvahim Linkedin Job Board (English)
- Digital Eve Israel (English) Yahoo Group for professional women, though open to men and women.
- Nefesh B’Nefesh’s list of a gazillion employment resources!!
- Alljobs (Hebrew)
- Shatil (non profit) (Hebrew)
- Muvtal (Hebrew)
- Drushim (Hebrew)
- Manpower (Hebrew)
Networking events in Jerusalem:
Newsletters & Events for job seekers:
- Janglo Newsletter: Janglo’s weekly newsletter is amazing! Packed full of useful tidbits, they often feature networking events, conferences, and job-related news.
- Nefesh B’Nefesh Events: Nefesh B’Nefesh regularly runs interview workshops and employment consulting in different cities across the country.
- AACI Newsletter: AACI often offers navigational series lectures that cover finding a job in Israel and career advice. They also have a weekly professional women’s networking forum.
- Gvahim Events: Gvahim connects international talents into the Israeli economy and society. Their programs leverage highly-skilled immigrants, mentors & recruiters from Israel’s top companies and major actors in the startup world. This enables Olim to succeed professionally in Israel and contribute to the Israeli ‘Brain Gain’.
Internships
- Tzeirim BaMerkaz (Young Adults in Jerusalem): offers an internship program for Jerusalemites who have completed at least a BA. For more info, contact Roni at roni@jcya.org.il or call 02-623-2224.
- Big list of Israel internships 2015
Today’s Balagan and Chaval Award
Today’s Balagan (mess) and Chaval (shame) Award goes to the Classics Book Store which closed its business today. Located downtown on the steepest alleyway between the municipality (ugh! Arnona) and the misrad hapnim (Ack! The face office), is a yellow gated, easy to miss, used English book store. Here’s how it looked inside. Imagine your bookshelf at home. Now imagine being really angry and shake the bookshelves until all the books fall out. Now attempt to smush them back in wherever there is room. Oh, and make sure that all the books are in front of other books and all over the floor. This is how it felt today, but worse. Nowhere to step. No friendly hi when I walked in to make up for the balagan. No respect for books, or people for that matter. I felt belittled. People went up to the attic of the store which was not lit, to look through boxes and boxes of books. I asked him where the books are going after the sale. He said recycling. Recycling! Chaval. He couldn’t give it to another bookstore?! A few of us at the sale suggested cynically that it would be easier to find the books we wanted at the recycling bin after the sale than at the sale itself. I asked what was going to be taking the place of the book store. He said, get ready for this, a book store!
Supermarkets are not for the wimpy.
Israel has finally figured out how to sell packaged meat. Until now, you needed to go to the meat counter and order what you wanted. But this technologically advanced country has finally caught up and invested in a plastic wrapping machine and an open refrigerator. As I approached the packaged chicken section, I was disappointed to see a worker who was not giving out green flavored chicken but rather green colored fliers. I tried to taste one, but it just wasn’t that good, tasted kinda papery. If only it had been a taste sampling. I love those! I asked her how much a packaged chicken was, telling her I hoped it was 20 shekels, the great deal I found a few weeks ago. To my dismay, she said no, and, they NEVER sold it for 20 shekels. Maybe for 20 shekels a kilo but never a whole chicken for 20 shekels. I told her that I had in fact only paid 20 shekels at the register less than a month ago. This didn’t budge her. She told me that I must be wrong or have made a mistake.. Do I fight back? I couldn’t believe it. Was this part of their training – whatever the customer says, they are wrong. And prove it by having the last word! Hmph. But now who has the last laugh, chicken lady! Take that! And that!
You made aliyah! you crazy?!
When you make aliyah, it seems normal. You’ve prepared yourself – if that’s possible. You’ve lined up something in Israel that you’re looking forward to. So why is it that when other people I know make aliyah, I think it’s the craziest decision. How the hell did you do it? You just left everything like that? Go back before you get stuck! I have been in Israel for 3 years, and some friends just made aliyah. It seemed like they were taking crazy pills. Is everyone searching for something new and different? After 3 years of living in Israel I am tempted to go wild and move somewhere that I’ve never lived before. To start anew. Clean slate. At what point do we force ourselves to settle down because ‘the time has come’ and when do we travel the world because, hey, you only live once.
sabra cats
At some point during the course of living in Israel, you find yourself in a situation with a sabra (Israeli-born) cat – whether you want to or not. It might be your cat, it might be someone else’s cat, but nonetheless there is a cat situation that must to be handled. When I lived in my first apartment/dorm/absorption center, Merkaz Hamagshimim, there were cats that became part of the ‘chevre’ weaving in and out of the courtyard, the porch, and the backyard. The most recent and far more intense situation resulted in taking in a very cute kitten. 2 weeks ago, on the long journey back from Kiryat Menachem, we were walking by one of the millions of dumpsters-turned-cat-party and rescued a cute little kitten, a month old (Yosh) that clearly had a slim chance of survival. I won’t even go into all the problems he had. Other people’s stories include finding a litter of kittens, being bitten and going to the hospital, getting stuck with a friend’s cat because they left the country. The stories go on and on. But be prepared, a cat situation will come across your path soon enough and test your ability to land on your feet. Too cheesy?
The meaning behind the big falafel
This blog is dedicated to Jon Stewart of the daily show and his cousin Rebecca Leibowitz. It was on the set of the daily show that I was called a ‘uvula’ for the first time. (the thing in the back of your throat that dangles down). I was hoping to be recognized as a Ninja Turtle, but I learned the hard way that the costume had more versatility than I was aware of. And it was on the daily show that Israel was dubbed ‘the big falafel’ for the first time.
The Big Felafel 