What to Pack, Sell, or Store Before Your Aliyah
Here’s the thing nobody tells you before you make aliyah: the hardest part of moving isn’t the paperwork or the Hebrew or even finding an apartment. It’s standing in your living room six weeks before departure, looking at 20 years of accumulated possessions, and deciding what comes with you to a new life.
So let’s make this less agonizing.
The Customs Benefit You Need to Understand First
Before deciding what to ship and what to sell, understand what Israel lets you bring in tax-free, because the answer is more generous than most people expect.
New olim receive up to three duty-free shipments within three years of their aliyah date. Goods don’t need to arrive when you do. You can land, spend a few months figuring out where you’re actually living, and ship belongings once you have a real address. What you carry on the plane counts separately and doesn’t use one of your three shipments, provided you received your Teudat Oleh at the airport.
The allowance covers furniture, clothing, books, kitchenware, sports equipment, and general household effects. On appliances: one refrigerator, one washing machine, one dryer, one dishwasher, one microwave, one oven, up to three televisions, up to three computers, up to five mobile phones per family, and air conditioners relative to the number of rooms in your Israeli home.
Why does this matter financially? Israel has some of the highest import duties on consumer goods in the OECD. Electronics and appliances cost significantly more in Israeli stores than in the US, Canada, or the UK. The customs exemption can save tens of thousands of shekels depending on what you bring. People who understand this ship their appliances and electronics. People who don’t spend years paying Israeli retail prices for items they sold before leaving.
The Voltage Problem
Israel runs on 220V/50Hz. North America runs on 110V/60Hz. This matters for every appliance decision.
Large North American appliances, washing machines, refrigerators, dryers, aren’t practical in Israel without major modification. Sell these before you leave and buy locally on arrival.
Smaller electronics are more nuanced. Most laptops, phone chargers, and cameras are dual-voltage and work anywhere with a plug adapter. Check the label: 100-240V means you’re fine. 110V only means you need a transformer or a replacement. High-quality kitchen appliances you use daily are usually worth shipping with a transformer. Mid-range ones you use occasionally are usually better replaced locally.
What to Bring
Quality furniture that fits Israeli scale. Israeli apartments are typically smaller than what Anglo olim are used to. Bring solid pieces you love, but think about proportions first before committing container space to oversized items.
Books. Explicitly tax-free, cost-effective to ship, and Israeli bookstores have very limited selection in languages other than Hebrew.
US and Canadian electronics. Laptops, cameras, and screens are significantly cheaper in North America than in Israel even after shipping costs. Bring them.
Clothing in your sizes and styles. Israeli retail is decent but limited in range for larger sizes and business-formal styles.
Children’s specific items. Comfort toys, books in your home language, instruments, sports equipment they’re attached to.
What to Sell or Leave Behind
Large North American appliances are the obvious category. Beyond that: oversized furniture that won’t fit a typical Israeli apartment, garden and outdoor power equipment with no practical use in an apartment building, and anything kept out of inertia rather than genuine attachment.
Quantities matter. Customs looks for household amounts, not commercial ones. A manifest that looks like a family moving clears differently from one that looks like a retail delivery.
Medications: Don’t Skip This
You can bring up to six months of prescription medication on the plane with a valid prescription. The bigger issue is whether your medication is available in Israel at all, under the same formulation and dosage. Some aren’t. Research every prescription before you leave, identify the Israeli equivalent if one exists, and sort out bridging with your doctor before arrival.
Use the Three Shipments Strategically
Rather than one panicked pre-departure purge, use the three-shipment allowance in phases. First shipment once you have an address and know what the apartment actually needs. Second shipment six to twelve months later when you know specifically what you’re missing. Third held in reserve for large purchases made abroad while visiting, or a final round of things you decided to bring after all.
This approach consistently beats trying to move everything at once.
The Bottom Line
Sell what’s cheaper to replace locally. Ship what’s expensive to buy in Israel. Store only what has real sentimental value. And let go of the fondue set and anything you haven’t used in two years because the decision is far easier before you’ve paid to ship it somewhere you can’t find room for it.
The packing decisions you make before you leave will affect your first year in Israel more than you’d expect. Make them deliberately.
Olim Advisors helps new immigrants navigate the practical and logistical dimensions of moving to Israel. Since October 7th, our real estate guidance package is provided to clients at no charge. Reach out before you start packing and save yourself some expensive mistakes.
