Rethinking aliyah in a mobile Jewish world

I’ve been involved in Jewish experiential education since 2007. Over the years, I’ve worked with Jewish communities across the globe — from Australia and New Zealand, through Europe and South Africa, to North and Latin America.

Wherever I went, one question followed me almost everywhere:
Should Jews make aliyah?

Or, as we used to ask more bluntly in youth movement activities:
Can you be a Zionist and still choose to live outside of Israel?

This question has shaped generations of Zionist education. In recent years, this question has been asked even more frequently, driven by the sharp rise in antisemitism across many parts of the world.

But in 2026, I believe it no longer fits the reality we live in.

Today, I participated in an educational seminar for the Kol Ami Mechina gap-year program. The discussion focused on “the day after” — what comes next once the program ends. Some international participants decided to stay in Israel. Others chose to return to their home communities abroad. As usual, the conversation drifted toward the familiar framing: Will you stay, or will you leave?

But watching these young adults, it became clear to me how outdated that framing has become.

Most of us today are dynamic. We don’t make one lifelong geographic decision at age 18 or 22 and stick to it forever. We move for education, work opportunities, relationships, family needs, and personal growth. We live in one country for a few years, then another. Mobility is no longer the exception — it’s the norm.

I know this not just as an educator, but personally.

I was born and raised in Israel. I served in elite IDF units. I completed both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Israel. I got married here, and two of my children were born here. And then — we moved to the United States.

We lived there for six years. We built community, careers, friendships. Eventually, we decided that we wanted to come back to Israel — and we did. Today, we live here and are deeply happy with that choice.

Does that mean we will never choose to live in Europe? Australia? Somewhere else entirely? I honestly don’t know. Only time will tell.

But one thing is certain: our love for Israel, our commitment to Israel, and our sense of responsibility toward Israel did not begin or end with our physical location. Living abroad didn’t weaken it — and living here doesn’t monopolize it.

This is true for many Jews around the world.

Which is why I believe the traditional aliyah question — “Do you live in Israel or not?” — is increasingly irrelevant.

What is relevant is whether Jews are meaningfully connected to Israel. Whether they understand it deeply. Whether they feel responsibility for its future. Whether they are willing to invest time, energy, service, creativity, and leadership into the Jewish people and the Jewish state — wherever they happen to be at a given stage of life.

Instead of measuring commitment through permanent relocation, we should be encouraging Jews to spend significant periods of time in Israel: in high school, during a gap year, through academic programs, professional chapters, or later in adulthood. Time that is long enough to build relationships, grapple with complexity, learn Hebrew, and feel Israel not as an abstract idea but as a lived experience.

At the same time, our educational efforts must focus on cultivating connection and dedication that transcend geography. Zionism in the 21st century cannot be reduced to a passport stamp or a one-way ticket. It must be about partnership, shared destiny, and mutual responsibility — whether you live in Tel Aviv, Toronto, or Melbourne.

Aliyah will always matter. Israel needs people who choose to build their lives here. But insisting on a binary choice — here or there, Zionist or not — no longer reflects how Jews actually live, love, work, and commit in today’s world.

The future of Zionism will not be decided by where Jews live permanently, but by how deeply they remain engaged — wherever they are, and wherever life takes them next.