There are many difficulties, primarily psychological ones. You move to an unfamiliar country, people around you speak a language that you do not know. I remember not being able to get on the waiting list at the hospital. My Hebrew wasn’t that good yet, and I just didn’t succeed. Then I sobbed because I could not cope with basic things.
As a result, you are looking for a person who knows the language and can help. Well, if there is one among relatives or friends. If not, you go to a consultant at the Ministry of Repatriation. Or to centers under local administrations.
There are other difficulties as well. You need to find and rent an apartment, and you still don’t know if the area is good. If there are children, they need to be placed in school. All this is a strong stress that someone copes with, but someone does not. But it is important to understand that later it will be easier: you will learn this city and region, remember where to go and whom to contact in different cases.
You also need to get used to the fact that all holidays here have a religious bias, since Jews live according to the Torah. They are celebrated according to the Jewish calendar, so the dates are floating. Even at the New Year – it is called Rosh Hashanah here. Since the holidays are religious, the first time after the move, you simply do not understand what they are tied to. Besides, there are a lot of them. But the usual New Year on the night of December 31 to January 1 is not celebrated here at all, and I really miss it. It is clear that one can note at home, but this is not the same atmosphere as in Russia.