Chanina Rosenbaum, owner and operator of a home based bakery called Holyland Cakes, moved to Israel from Baltimore in 2007. Holyland Cakes was already an established business in Baltimore. After moving initially to Modi’in, Chanina began learning Hebrew in an Ulpan. Based on an Ulpan assignment in her new country of residence, Chanina baked and brought a homemade rectangular cake surrounded with 13 flags, representing the countries of her fellow classmates, with a heart in the middle topped with an Israeli flag. The cake was featured in a local magazine and resulted in Chanina receiving calls from new customers in Israel. Since then, the business has gone from strength to strength.
After being in Modi’in for a year from 2007 to 2008, Chanina, together with her husband and four children made the decision to move to a Yishuv. The family had spent a Shabbat in Ginot Shomron, which is part of the Karnei Shomron Yishuv. By the end of that Shabbat, the whole family had ‘fallen in love’ with the area and chose Ginot Shomron as their new home.
Chanina and her husband Solomon, met during a gap year while studying in Israel. They returned together to the US where they were married and started a family. It was always their plan to move to Israel, but it wasn’t until Gush Katif and the disengagement from Gaza that gave them a huge push. Chanina and Solomon were bringing up their children with the ideology that Israel is the Homeland of the Jewish people. But when they saw that Jews were being pulled from their homes and the land was being given away, it increased the push that was driving them to make a home in Israel.
They had always wanted to live in an area that had beauty and was a little more suburban. Ginot Shomron fulfilled all their expectations and they settled in the predominantly English speaking neighborhood of Neve Aliza.
When asked about the term ‘settlers’, which is often referred negatively to people living ‘over the green line’, Chanina answered “Our fellow Israelis classify us settlers. I think the rest of world follows suit in the words that are used and the way that they’re used. I wish that they would understand what it really means to live here.”
There has been a push to live in areas over the green line, due to the rising costs of housing in cities in Israel. Young families often can’t afford to buy or rent apartments in the center of the country. Many times, the only affordable housing is located in areas that were, and still are, considered as settlements. In general, the cost of living in Israel has risen dramatically. The cost of food, utilities, children’s daycare, and rent have all increased at a extensively higher rate than most people’s salaries.
Chanina has been joined in Israel by her parents and sister and brother-in-law, who have also made Ginot Shomron their home. This solidifies the roots that Chanina and Solomon have already firmly planted.
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