B'lev Shalem

26/08/2026

Planning for an aging parent's Aliyah isn't just about preparing for the move. It's one of the best ways to decide whether Aliyah is the right choice in the first place.

Here are five questions every family should ask early in the process.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆? Not the reassuring picture from a two-week visit. An objective one. A comprehensive geriatric assessment before the move gives everyone the same understanding of the starting point.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲? Near family, yes. But also near the doctors, hospitals, and community they will need, and somewhere they can get around if they stop driving. Then ask: what type of housing? Independent living, diyur mugan (sheltered housing), or a higher level of care?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀? Healthcare begins on arrival. A live-in foreign caregiver can only be arranged after arrival. Who fills that gap, and for how long?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁, 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁? The meaningful comparison is between meeting your parent's care needs where they are today and meeting those same needs in Israel. Sometimes the numbers surprise people, in both directions.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁? Before the decision is made. Planning does not commit you. It gives you options, and options are exactly what disappear when an unexpected fall or hospitalization forces the timeline.

Over the years, we've watched older adults who had become increasingly isolated and disconnected rediscover connection, purpose, and the comfort of being surrounded by family. That is what can wait on the other side of a decision that feels overwhelming today.

The full blog walks through each of these in depth: https://www.blevshalem.com/post/bringing-aging-parents-to-israel

When families search for help with an aging parent in Israel, they're often overwhelmed by unfamiliar healthcare systems, caregivers, government benefits, and difficult decisions. In this behind-the-scenes look at geriatric care management, Sharon Beth-Halachmy shares what it truly takes to coordina...

17/08/2026

"Should we bring Mom to Israel?"

One of the biggest mistakes families make with this question is waiting until they have made a final decision before they begin planning.

It feels logical. Why research healthcare, housing, caregiving, and costs before you are sure?

In reality, it is exactly backwards. Planning does not commit you to Aliyah. It gives you the information you need to decide whether the move is realistic, what it would involve, and when the time is right.

In this month's issue of From the Heart, our monthly newsletter, we share three practical steps every family should take before deciding, including the one thing worth starting now even if you are still on the fence.

The issue goes out tomorrow. If your family is having this conversation–or you simply want practical guidance on navigating aging in Israel–we hope you’ll join us.

Sign up here: https://www.blevshalem.com/newsletter

11/08/2026

One aspect of Aliyah for aging adults catches almost every family by surprise.

Healthcare begins immediately. Long-term care doesn’t.

An older adult making Aliyah can join one of Israel's four kupot cholim (health funds) from the day they arrive. Any age. Any pre-existing conditions. Primary care, specialists, hospitalization, most medications. For many families, that is an enormous relief.

But a live-in foreign caregiver cannot meet your parent at the airport.

Before a family can legally employ a foreign caregiver, they need a permit, a heiter hasaka. And that process can only begin after the parent arrives in Israel. Approval takes time. So does finding the right caregiver.

Which means that for a parent who needs daily care, there is a transition period between landing and having permanent care in place. Families bridge it in different ways: providing support themselves, privately funding temporary caregiving, or arranging a short stay in a rehabilitation or residential setting while permanent arrangements are put in place.

None of this makes Aliyah impossible. Far from it. It simply means the first weeks need to be planned as carefully as the move itself.

The families with the smoothest transitions are always the ones who understood the whole picture before they began.

About the photo: one of our Care Managers celebrating her parents' Aliyah from the UK.

05/08/2026

Naomi has lived in Israel for nearly twenty years. Her children were raised here. This is home.

Her mother still lives in Toronto.

After Naomi's father died, the weekly phone calls slowly began to change. Less about grandchildren and holidays. More about medications, doctors' appointments, neighbors checking in, and whether her mother was really managing as well as she insisted she was.

Eventually Naomi asked the question we hear almost every week: "Can I bring my mother to Israel?"

Sometimes it comes from families planning Aliyah themselves who want to bring a parent with them. Sometimes from people who have lived here for decades and yearn to have their parents near their children and grandchildren. Sometimes from older adults who left Israel long ago and want to return for their later years.

Every family's circumstances are different, but the questions are remarkably similar.

Healthcare.
Housing.
Caregiving.
Costs.
Timing.

Families often try to answer these questions one at a time. The real challenge is understanding how they all fit together.

Our new blog walks through the whole picture: when to start planning (earlier than you think), how to understand what your parent really needs, where and how they should live, what the first weeks after landing actually look like, and how to think about the costs.

If your family is having this conversation, or thinking about starting it, this one is for you.

Read the blog here: https://www.blevshalem.com/post/bringing-aging-parents-to-israel

When families search for help with an aging parent in Israel, they're often overwhelmed by unfamiliar healthcare systems, caregivers, government benefits, and difficult decisions. In this behind-the-scenes look at geriatric care management, Sharon Beth-Halachmy shares what it truly takes to coordina...

28/07/2026

Good care management is so much more than responding to today's crisis. It's making sure tomorrow's crisis never happens.

If you have a parent in Israel and you are managing their care from a distance, these are the questions you should be asking yourself before you need to:

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀? Do you know who picks up when something happens on a Friday night?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴? Not a general sense. The actual list, who prescribed each one, and when it was last reviewed.

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲? Kupat cholim, Bituach Leumi, and banking all require one-time passwords sent to a local Israeli phone. If your parent can no longer manage this, who has access?

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀? Power of attorney, advance directive, will, insurance policies. If something happened tomorrow, would you know where to look?

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗱? Not just the caregiver. What is working, what has changed, what is coming.

Most families don’t know the answers to these questions until they suddenly need them. Part of our job is making sure they never have to find out under pressure.

Read the full article on what this work actually involves here: https://lnkd.in/dwwGMhHJ

20/07/2026

A question we hear often: does income from abroad count when applying for Bituach Leumi's long-term care benefit?

Many families assume only Israeli income matters. Others assume a U.S. Social Security check disqualifies them automatically. Both assumptions can lead to the wrong decision — applying when it won't help, or not applying when it would.

The real answer is nuanced and it surprises most families we speak with.

We break it down in the Care Tip in this month's issue of From the Heart, our monthly newsletter. This issue also takes you behind the scenes of a care manager's day and introduces two wonderful new members of our team.

This month’s issue goes out tomorrow. If you'd like practical guidance on navigating aging in Israel, we'd love to have you join our community.

Sign up here: https://www.blevshalem.com/newsletter

14/07/2026

"You're a miracle worker," families tell us.

I always respond with this: “It's not a miracle, it's just work you were never meant to see.”

Families see the successful hospital discharge.

They don't see the twelve phone calls it took.

Families see the approved Bituach Leumi benefit.

They don't see the supporting documents, the persistence, and the follow-up calls that got it there.

Families see the MRI appointment.

They don't see the hours spent calling imaging centers across the country until someone found an earlier opening.

And that's more than okay. Our job is to make complexity disappear.

So families can focus on being daughters, sons, spouses and grandchildren—not full-time care coordinators.

09/07/2026

There is a moment that happens in almost every initial meeting with a new family.

Someone exhales.

Sometimes it is visible—a breath released, shoulders dropping a centimeter. Sometimes it is just a shift in tone. It comes twenty or thirty minutes into the conversation, after they have had a chance to tell their story.

Until that moment, they have been trying to piece it together alone. Conflicting advice from doctors, social workers, government offices, and the internet. A parent who needs more than they can give from where they are. Systems they do not know how to navigate in a language they do not always speak.

The shift comes when they realize that someone is actually listening and paying attention to the picture as a whole.

That moment is what care management is really about: the moment when a family stops carrying everything alone.

This month's blog pulls back the curtain on a day in the life of that work.

If you have a parent in Israel and you are wondering what a care manager actually does, this is for you.

Read the blog here: https://www.blevshalem.com/post/elder-care-israel-geriatric-care-manager

When families search for help with an aging parent in Israel, they're often overwhelmed by unfamiliar healthcare systems, caregivers, government benefits, and difficult decisions. In this behind-the-scenes look at geriatric care management, Sharon Beth-Halachmy shares what it truly takes to coordina...

29/06/2026

If you are visiting a parent in Israel this summer, this is for you.

You have a limited window. And if you are not careful, you will spend the whole thing on admin and leave wondering why the visit felt like work. The goal is to spend it being present. The answer is to do both by being strategic with the time you have.

Here is what we tell every family before they land:

𝗦𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗹𝘀. Kupat cholim, Bituach Leumi, government services, banking. All of it now requires one-time passwords sent to a local phone. You cannot do this from abroad. Do it while you are physically here.

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. What is your parent taking, who prescribed it, when was it last reviewed? Write it down. Keep a copy.

𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲. Powers of attorney, advance directives, wills, insurance policies. If something happened tomorrow, would you know where to look?

𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳𝗳. End-of-life wishes, decision-making preferences, burial plans. Summer, with its warmth and its rare feeling of togetherness, can be a gentler time than you think.

𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸. They have been carrying this all year. Cover shifts. Handle appointments. Let them go away for a few days. The person who is always here does not always get to be seen.

And then, after all of that, take your mother to the sea.

If your family is coming together this summer, the full article includes practical suggestions for making the most of that time together.

https://www.blevshalem.com/post/caring-for-aging-parents-in-israel-long-distance-caregiving

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22/06/2026

Distance changes everything in family caregiving.

You cannot reset a kupat cholim portal from New York. The one-time password goes to a phone in Ra'anana.

You cannot supervise a caregiver on a screen. Zoom can tell you a lot but it cannot tell you everything.

You cannot be the sibling who is always here when you are not here. And the sibling who is always here cannot do it alone forever.

Summer is when families reckon with this reality, because summer is when they visit. And when they land, they see it clearly: what has been managed, what has been held together, and what has been slipping between the cracks.

If this sounds like your family, this article was written for you.

It is honest about what distance really costs, practical about what to do when you are all together, and clear about what matters most when the visit is over and you get back on the plane.

Read the full article here: https://www.blevshalem.com/post/caring-for-aging-parents-in-israel-long-distance-caregiving

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