By 5 Towns Central Staff

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Aug. 19, 2026) 

“There is still one screaming, glaring issue that keeps getting overlooked or waved away.

The single biggest impediment to American religious Jews moving to Israel is not three-car garages, Amazon Prime, decent pizza, or any of the other lifestyle comforts people like to joke about.

Hint: It’s the same concern that sits at the heart of Hareidi resistance to military service.

If parents believe there is a meaningful possibility that this could jeopardize their children’s religious commitment, then no economic incentive, ideological argument or appeal to sacrifice is going to outweigh that risk.

Think about it. For families whose ancestors struggled for 2,000 years to preserve Torah observance through exile, persecution and assimilation, it simply isn’t worth gambling with the next generation. This is the part outsiders often miss.

So if you ask an American Hareidi what they believe Hashem expects of them as a parent, and at or near the top of the list will be to give your children the strongest possible chance of growing up to remain Torah-true Jews.

So if moving to Israel is perceived as increasing the likelihood that their children will drift religiously, most families will choose the uncomfortable status quo.

Individual families will take the chance, and many will succeed. Others won’t. But mixed results are not a model for mass aliyah.

The other major issue is livelihood. And anyone whose response is that American Hareidim would simply become another population of “freeloading parasitic leeches” does not understand American Hareidim well enough to contribute much to this conversation.

We come from a culture of businesses, professions, homeownership, philanthropy and community-building. Give us the right framework and we will build an economy around ourselves.
That is why the solution cannot simply be come here and fit into what already exists.
Allow us to build our own communities, with our own schools, institutions, businesses and professional infrastructure. Let us use our own capital to build communities designed to let us reliably protect our religious and cultural responsibilities while providing real livelihoods for our families.

Then mass aliyah becomes imaginable. Without that, it simply isn’t realistic.

Are you starting to see?”