Josh Polsky was born in Missouri and he attended Solomon Schechter day school until the fourth grade when he switched into public school. Josh grew up in the Conservative movement, attending camp Ramah at age 17 and taking part in the United Synagogue Youth (USY). In his Junior year at the University of Missouri, studying political science, Josh spent a semester abroad studying at the Tel Aviv University and living at Kibbutz Kfar Hanasi. Since then, Josh has wanted to make aliyah which he and his dog Bear finally did on July 7th 2009.

Commentator: Was Israel important to you while growing up?

Josh Polsky: Since preschool we were always talking about Israel, it was part of my identity.

C: How did you hear about Nefesh B’Nefesh?

JP: Last June a friend of mine who had come with a birthright trip and stayed came to the States to visit. We went out for a beer and she said she wanted to talk to me about Israel. She told me that I was the reason she moved to Israel, because how I used to talk about my experiences there. I lived on a kibbutz and was a part of project OREN, I don’t think they are around anymore. It was an art ulpan, learning about Israel through art. It was really cool and I made some of my best friends through that program. The kibbutz movement has been changing a lot, but working in the field, or kitchen, or even the plumbing. They cloned juniper bushes, and we would get orders for 100,000. It was fun we would stand around talking, chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee, and afterward we would go to the kibbutz pub. The pub was actually in the gan yiladim, which had a petting zoo, so there was a petting zoo in the pub, it was a really chilled out pub. When we were at that bar, she told me about Nefesh. I looked it up and I said, “I’m there.”

C: Was it difficult to organize everything with Nefesh?

JP: From the time I started the process, everyone wasn’t very helpful. At first with the sochnut, my shaleach was not too responsive, so I sent her an email saying that if she wanted I could talk to other people. After that, she was on it. Once she started responding she was great.

C: What did you do right before the flight?

JP: Last thing I did before I came to the airport was walk my dog in Teaneck NJ. I talk to my dog all the time, I probably asked him if he was ready. He said of course.

C: Who was the first person you met at the airport?

JP: First person I saw was Rachel Kaufman (Programming & Events Coordinator) and she watched Bear while I returned my rental car.

C: Were you nervous?

JP: No, I was pretty relaxed, not that I didn’t care but it was something that I had been wanting to do for so long. I wasn’t sad about leaving, I was mainly concerned about getting my dog on the plane as late as possible and getting him off the plane as soon as possible.

C: What did you think of the preflight ceremony?

JP: I was not there at the ceremony, I was hanging out with my dog.

C: How was your flight?
JP: On the flight, I talked to people and met the people who were in my ulpan, and who I would be spending the next five months with. I may have slept for thirty minutes on the flight, but it just flew.

C: Were you tired?

JP: When I landed.

C: What were you thinking when those wheels touched down?

JP: That I’m finally here, after all this time. I first came to Israel with camp Ramah when I was 17 and right when I got here the first time I knew that I wanted to live here.

C: What do you plan on doing now that you are here?

JP: I want to open a barbeque restaurant.

C: Did you talk to Nefesh about that?

JP: Yeah, they got me in touch with a small business  assistance firm called MATI, and they have business plan writing courses, there are loans through MATI, and they connect you with other guys in the business.

C: Will the restaurant be kosher?

JP: Kosher, yes. I mean, I’m not sure which level of kosher, It depends on how much it costs. Do I care if a sliver of the charedi population, or Chabadnics come to my restaurant? Not really. But I want it to be kosher so my family who is mesorati/dati can come. I actually considered not doing kosher, because after all what’s BBQ without baby back ribs and Mac and cheese.  Then I thought, A. I would be excluding a large portion of my clientele, and B. I didn’t want to contribute to the deterioration of the Jewish Identity of Jerusalem.

C: What are you doing until then?

JP: I’m in ulpan from 8:30am to 12:50pm everyday with a half-hour break. So far its just review for me, but its new for everyone else in the class, though some of the vocabulary is new for me.

C: Would you have made aliyah had it not been for NBN?

JP: I like to think that I would have but I don’t think I could have made it here now without their financial help.  I like to think I would have, but who knows.