AVON - Lloyd Dreilinger is back in town, emptying out the family’s house for new tenants. In early July, he and wife Gwen made aliyah with Nefesh B’Nefesh, an immigrant-support organization.
Not such an unusual story, except that the Dreilingers are in their 50s, and they are parents not only to three grown children, but to 5-year-old Anna Ting, whom they adopted from China in 2003. Anna Ting starts kindergarten in Tel Aviv next month. And soon, Lloyd expects, she’ll be accompanying her parents to Israeli government offices as a translator.
“Making aliyah is something I always thought I wanted to try,” he says, and with their second-youngest well ensconced in college, the time was right.
As the three older Dreilinger kids n David, Rachel, and Jacob - went through Solomon Schechter Day School in West Hartford, Lloyd says he became more involved in the Jewish community. “I always felt some Zionist leanings,” he says. “I decided that if I was really interested in Israel, I should probably be there, instead of only supporting it from here.”
After several trips to Israel as tourists and volunteers, the three Dreilingers spent last fall in Tel Aviv on a test run. “The suburbs have been a good place to raise our children, but we wanted a real city,” Lloyd says. “Gwen is a real New Yorker, and if we’re not going to move there, Tel Aviv is a good second choice: There’s the beach, and religious options: you can be as observant as you want to be.”
In just five weeks, “we’ve had some real adventures,” Lloyd says: The apartment that was supposed to be ready July 1 wasn’t and still isn’t, so the family has been living out of suitcases. “Everything is a bureaucracy; you’re dealing with people who don’t speak a lot of English and don’t have a lot of patience and aren’t forced to be nice to you.”
The Association for Americans and Canadians in Israel has been invaluable in navigating through the paperwork and red tape, Lloyd says.
The fact that both Lloyd and Gwen are attorneys doesn’t necessarily make things easier. Dealing with a landlord in a foreign language is a challenge. An Israeli friend who is an attorney reviewed the lease and gave his okay, but the landlord wouldn’t accept the Dreilingers’ signatures unless they first had the document translated into English.
In September, as Anna Ting goes off to kindergarten, Lloyd and Gwen will start Hebrew classes at Ulpan Gordon, where 90 percent of their fellow students are under age 25, Lloyd says, and most are from France, South America, and Russia. They’ll also start looking for work.
Lloyd is hopeful that Anna Ting will thrive in yet another new environment. “There are not many adopted Chinese babies in Tel Aviv, and I’m not certain that Israelis are the most open-minded in that respect,” he says. “But Tel Aviv is a terrific place for kids and so far she’s having a great time. People let their kids run around and don’t worry about them too much.”
The Dreilingers don’t know how long they’ll end up staying. “We made aliyah but things are very open and fluid for us,” Lloyd says. They plan to return regularly to the U.S. to see their kids.
Lloyd has discovered a secret to winning over the sometimes prickly Israeli. “If you tell people you’re an oleh chadash [new immigrant], they smile and say. ‘Are you crazy?’ But then they start showing a little patience, and help you out.”
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