Olim at War‘There's a heaviness in the air’
Olim at War
‘There's a heaviness in the air’
100 days into Israel’s war against Hamas and since the October 7th attacks, CTech spoke to Lior Pirouzian, an American nurse who made aliyah almost three months into the war
Lior Pirouzian says that she felt “the heaviness in the air” upon arriving in Israel. “It’s weird coming to Ben Gurion [Airport] and for it to be practically empty. My second day here, my uncle took me to the center of Tel Aviv and it was empty. I remember being here in 2014 [during the 2014 Gaza War] and this is a completely different feeling and vibe, and we’re three months into it.”
While the number of new immigrants has dropped since October 7th, there is still some migration happening. Over 1,000 immigrants have arrived each month since the war broke out, 1,163 in October, 1,534 in November, and 1,411 in December, according to the Ministry of Aliyah. Pirouzian, a 25-year-old ER nurse from Great Neck, New York, landed on December 28th - over two months into the war.
This article is part of a larger CTech series called ‘Olim in Wartime,’ chronicling the experiences of olim during the war, including those serving in the army, immigrants who arrived shortly before the war and since the war began, and the intersection between their identity as immigrants and Israelis.
The child of an Israeli-Persian mother and a Persian father who fled Iran, Pirouzian grew up in a close-knit Persian-Jewish community, with “a strong sense of Zionism and love for Israel.” She grew up speaking Hebrew and visiting her mother’s family in Israel nearly every summer, and also lived in Israel for a year during a gap year program after high school. She says that moving to Israel “was always part of the plan, it was just a matter of timing.”
Pirouzian began her immigration process in March, meeting with representatives from the health ministry about converting her nursing license to practice in Israel. By October, she had completed her Aliyah process and all that was left was for her to book a flight. Pirouzian was at work covering a night shift on 7/10 when the news came in. She says that while October 7th caused her to think about her planned course, it ultimately didn’t change her decision. “I was going back and forth about when to come. I really sat with it. Finally, around Thanksgiving I decided to book my flight. It was the last flight out of 2023.”
“It was a hard decision, but I knew what I wanted and where I wanted my life to head,” she says. While Perouzian arrived in Israel almost three months into the war, she says that most of the challenges she has faced (less than a month into her arrival) are those that any new immigrant would encounter.
“The biggest thing that I wasn't expecting when I came here was that I would have to re-learn how to be an adult. Everything is new. It’s a test of patience. When I landed I thought ‘what did I do?’ And not because of the war, but because of what I had given up.”
She says that it’s still very “surreal” to be here, feeling both a sense of having accomplished a “life-long dream” but also shock. “I feel freer almost, and a lot better with my life, not that my life in New York wasn’t great, but something was missing.”
