From suburb to kibbutz

NEWTON -- He's the founder of a nonprofit Jewish agency. She's a well-respected rabbi and author. They, along with their five children, live in a big house in a beautiful neighborhood.

But they are leaving for a new life in Israel, where the children will be expected to shovel out camel stalls and all will face the risks of a region in upheaval.

The Abramowitz-Silverman family, like thousands of American Jews, are making aliyah -- or going to Israel -- despite tensions in the Middle East and the country's recent uneasy cease-fire agreement with Lebanon. The family of seven is moving to a communal-living town located on a spit of desert wedged between Egypt and Jordan in southern Israel. Still, the constant threat of war and the ongoing worldwide argument over Israel's right to exist doesn't deter them.

``I think this is the right thing to do," said Yosef Abramowitz, 42, who recently stepped down as chief executive of Jewish Family and Life, a nonprofit publisher. ``Not going is giving in to terror. It's also taking away our own dreams as a family. Why would we let that weaken the Jewish spirit and our own family's dream?"

Before year's end, about 3,000 North American Jews, including 180 from Boston, will immigrate to Israel, up slightly over last year despite regional uncertainties.

Far from being a cause for fear, the current issues between Lebanon and Israel seem to attract Jews, said Michael Landsberg, who heads the Israel Aliyah Center in New York.

``No one cancels aliyah," said Landsberg, who regularly accompanies immigrants to the airport in New York. ``That's amazing, right? In fact, I see more people, especially young people, applying for an express aliyah."

Abramowitz and his wife, Susan Silverman, will be downsizing their lives in moving to Israel, living in a three-bedroom space in Kibbutz Ketura. They'll be required to pull their weight to keep the kibbutz running smoothly. Each dweller there has a job, from cooking a community dinner to washing the laundry.

Because the adults aren't taking on specific chores, they have agreed to give the kibbutz $35,000 a year. Silverman, 43, a Reform rabbi, said she wants to spend more time with her children and help improve the state of Israel.

``I'm not feeling like God wants me to go, but there is this sense of wanting to go and build the Jewish state," she said. ``There are some things Israel is doing that I'm not proud of. . . . I want to be a part of building that social justice."

The family's current furniture, many of their books, all of their winter clothing, and most of their nonessential possessions will be donated or given away, though a few prized possessions are going into storage. Next week, they will indulge in a last bit of American culture by attending a Mariah Carey concert before heading to New York with one-way tickets to Israel.

The move is intended to steep the children in their Jewishness and help establish them as insiders, not outsiders, the parents said, while their two adopted children, born in Ethiopia, might feel more at home in a place with many Ethiopian Jews, they said.

Abramowitz lived in Israel as a child from 1969 to 1972 and is a dual Israeli-US citizen. He was on the Israeli ballot earlier this year, as one-third of the Atid Echad political party, which lost an election bid for a seat in Parliament.

On the kibbutz, Abramowitz plans to continue writing for his organization and updating his blog, www.peoplehood.org. Silverman wants to complete her book on the relationship between adoption, her family, and God. The family will keep their vegetarian kosher lifestyle and hope that their new culture will drown the clutter of American life.

``When my 7-year-old said to me, `Mommy, I want an iPod,' I knew we had to leave," joked Silverman.

Other Boston-area Jews are preparing to make the same journey. Jean Jacobson, 55, of Ashland, is leaving on Sept. 5. She's giving most of her possessions to her children and moving to an apartment in a war-torn section of Israel, Har Halutz, so she can live with her new husband, a childhood sweetheart.

``I love my religion," she said. ``And the bottom line is this is my life, and I want to be with Don."

All said they are aware of risks. Though their children's music classes could be held in bomb shelters, the Abramowitz-Silvermans look forward to the transition.

``We're going from a very blessed, suburban, individualistic existence, and we're going to the opposite extreme of communal and nonmaterialistic," Abramowitz said. ``We're going to focus on our family and our work."

Adrienne P. Samuels can be reached at asamuels@globe.com.