Israel: too expensive for Jewish teachers from overseas to live

[david1967]

My wife and I are seriously considering returning to Israel with our two, young children.  We looked into the possibility of also moving to a kibbutz.  I concentrated on the kibbutzim near Gaza, because I thought that it would be more promising to us.  A privatized kibbutz expressed interest in us, and even expressed an interest in me teaching English at their local high school.  The problem is that starting salary for a teacher in Israel would be between 4,000 to 5,000 shekels per month.  (That's about $1,000 to $1,250/month)The expenses for the services on the kibbutz would be around 8,000 ($2,000) shekels per month.  My wife spoke to somebody from a kibbutz in that area.  He said that if both husband and wife teach, and both work an extra part-time job, you might just be able to break even.  That's without having a car and many other expenses also.
It seems also like the collective kibbutzim are quickly changing to the privatized model.  The remaining collective kibbutzim appear to be only absorbing children and family already born in the kibbutz.  It seems like that option is closed to us as well.
The rents in the big cities, especially Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, are comparable to New York City.  If you want to take your family to Israel, you need to be a doctor or in high tech. 

[cjd]

Sadly moving to Israel seems to be a hardship for people who have a family and are established in other countries... Something clearly needs to be done to help bring more good Jewish people and their families into the state of Israel.. 

[david1967]

You're absolutely correct, CJD!  It'd extremely expensive to live there, and most of the salaries aren't even close to what you need in order to live there.  I guess that's why most of the persecuted Jews of Western Europe and South Africa are either deciding to stay where they are, or are moving to third countries like Canada, Australia and the U.S.

In terms of my situation, Israelis keep telling me that there is a huge shortage of English teachers there, but the salary is supposedly less than the amount that the Israeli welfare system pays to poor, Israeli families!

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

The market is artificially skewed towards extreme prices in Israel due to socialism and politically-correct appeasement; i.e. the "settlement freeze". Rents in Israel will go down if Jews are allowed to expand and build homes cities all across Jewish land.

[david1967]

Interesting, about the reason rents are so high.  Do you think these new apartments being built in Jerusalem will have more affordable rents?

[Lewinsky Stinks, Dr. Brennan Rocks]

Interesting, about the reason rents are so high.  Do you think these new apartments being built in Jerusalem will have more affordable rents?

I doubt it, Israel is a tiny and extremely overcrowded country. If all of Yesha were finally annexed and built upon, then maybe.