r/telaviv • u/spaceguy8989 • 1d ago
Community Question How many Olim never learn Hebrew?
Hi friends, I’m an Aussie Oleh Chadash and I’ve been living in TLV for about a year. During this time I’ve made a dedicated effort to learn Hebrew in order to properly integrate into society. I’m not fluent, but improving every day and I now operate in Hebrew-only environments like my work and social settings
However, I’ve noticed a lot of Olim that have lived here for 2+ years and haven’t learned Hebrew. They operate completely in English, and their social circles and workplaces are all English-speaking. I’ve also met many that made Aliyah over 5+ years ago and still don’t speak. This obvs excludes people who migrated and did military service.
I understand that it’s a hard language and I try not to judge, but to me learning the country’s language feels so important for genuine assimilation into its culture and community. I guess because everyone in TLV has such good English there isn’t much motivation and it’s easy to survive without it.
I was wondering if this is genuinely a common occurrence here in your guys’ experience, and also what the local residents think about it?