After moving to Israel at the tender age of 16, Robbie Strazynski, now 41, lives with his wife Miriam and three children in Neve Aliza, a small neighborhood in Ginot Shomron which is part of the Karnei Shomron Yishuv.
After applying to Ivy League Universities in the US, Robbie’s parents also suggested Bar Ilan University as an option and it was then that they told Robbie their intention to make Aliyah and move to Israel. Robbie applied and was accepted to Bar Ilan University and made the move from the US to Israel. Four years later Robbie left Bar Ilan with a Bachelors and Masters in English Linguistics.
After an initial culture shock, Robbie adapted and made the transition to life in Israel. It wasn’t long after Robbie’s move when he met his wife, Miriam, while spending Shabbat with a friend in Neve Aliza. With just a two-month age difference, the pair had a three-and-a-half-year courtship and were married at the age of 20. Five years later and after both had completed their studies, they had their first child in 2007.
The decision to move to Ginot Shomron was a natural progression after both had finished studying. With Miriam’s parents living in Ginot Shomron added ‘family support’ to the list of compelling reasons for the move. This aside, Robbie feels strongly, from a Zionistic point of view, about living in the Shomron.
“I’m very proud to live in the Shomron and happy that I do. If we don’t show a love for our land other people would take it from us. Not take it back. Take it away. And it was never theirs to begin with.”
Robbie is a self-employed Poker journalist. Starting as a side hobby in 2009, Robbie and a friend decided to start a Poker media website. The site named cardplayerlifestyle.com began as a part-time hobby. After two-and-a-half years, Robbie’s partner decided not to continue, so Robbie bought him out and continued the Poker journey alone on nights and weekends while holding down a full-time job. By 2014, the site had grown and began to show potential as a full-time business. After consulting with a financial advisor, Robbie made the leap and has since gone from strength to strength in the past-five-and-half-years. Traveling the world, covering Poker tournaments in person is fulfilling a dream and what Robbie was once told by a friend “Find something you love to do and get paid to do it.”
Looking to the future, Robbie hopes that his children stay on the same path religious that has been his guiding light. “The best lessons are caught not taught.” Robbie quoted Rabbi Brander from Los Angeles. Robbie tries his best to show his children a good example of how to live life as a “mensch”. Knowing that G-d has been with him has given him strength to face his lowest periods of life and get through them.
The full video interview with Robbie Strazynski can be viewed below:
