Giant leap: Schrutt family makes aliyah to Israel

JUST OVER a month from now, the lives of a Denver Jewish family will change in a very big way.

Jennifer Schrutt, the wife and mother of that family, takes about half a second to explain the motivation behind the momentous transition.

“Pure Zionism,” she says when asked why she, her husband Max and their three children will pull up their Denver roots, say goodbye to their extended family and host of friends, and make Israel their new home.

Backing up their fervent belief in a Jewish homeland in Israel, Jennifer adds, is the family’s Judaism, which has, like their Zionism, gradually but steadily grown over the past decade.

The Schrutt family — Jennifer, 41, Max, 39, Jaden 11, Talia, 9 and Arielle, 7 — are scheduled to begin their aliyah on July 13 on a flight from JFK in New York to Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. The kids have finished their school year at DAT and the family is already renting out the Lowry house they recently evacuated.

Their year-long process of preparing for the move — assisted and facilitated by the Israeli aliyah organization Nefesh B’ Nefesh — is virtually over.

What awaits them upon arrival will be five months of ulpan — learning Hebrew to help prepare them for life in their new home — as well as establishing their professional footing, enrolling the children in a new school, finding a place to live in Rehovot, the central Israeli city they have chosen.?

“The hardest part is leaving friends and family,” says Jennifer. “All my family lives here now, but we strongly believe that our children need to be in Israel and, one day, G-d willing, their kids, too. And we feel that now is the time.”

THE INTERESTING thing about the Schrutts is that for all the obvious passion and commitment they express about their impending aliyah, neither Max nor Jennifer grew up with Israel on their radar.

Jennifer, who grew up on the East Coast, hails from a Reconstructionist Jewish home and her Bat Mitzvah ended her Jewish growth, although she still celebrated the high holidays. Israel was not particularly important to her family until her mother started working for the Coalition for Advanced Jewish Education.

Years later, she encouraged Jennifer to go on an Israel hiking trip sponsored by the organization Livnot U’Lehibanot (To Build and Be Built), which describes itself as an ‘unaffiliated, non-profit organization that has been running co-ed Israel experience programs since 1980,’ even though she’d never been to Israel herself.

Max grew up in a Conservative family where his mother celebrated Shabbat dinners and was extremely active in her schul and the community. She also pushed Max to try Livnot, and he agreed — mostly because he wanted to visit Italy afterwards.

Max and Jennifer met in Safed in 1997 on the Livnot trip and their passion for Judaism and Zionism really began to take hold.

Designed neither to encourage participants’ religiosity nor necessarily result in aliyah, Jennifer says, Livnot U’Lehibanot trips are intended “to have Jews who are unaffiliated and non-observant to become interested in their identity as Jews. They don’t want to make Orthodox Jews, they just want to make Jews love who they are.”

Both went to Israel for reasons unrelated to Zionism or Judaism – Jennifer just wanted to travel after completing college; Max actually wanted to go to Italy, but his parents insisted that he visit Israel on the same trip.

But once there, things began to change.?

“The trip,” Jennifer says, “totally changed our lives.”

As the youths participated in long hikes, worked on community rebuilding projects and did service for Israeli charities, “all those seeds were planted.”?

Although they might not have realized it at the time, the linchpin came when they met a teacher in Safed (now a close friend of the family) who told them: “One generation will have to suffer. Will it be you guys or will it be your kids?”

The teacher was expressing a central ideal of Zionism: that all Jews are destined to one day return to the Holy Land. The only question is which generation will have the courage and commitment to make the necessary sacrifices.

Asked about those sacrifices, Jennifer is clear: “Giving up the comforts of life in America, giving up family and friends. Basically giving up the life we have here.”

The Schrutts have decided that they would be the generation to do this.?

AFTER THEIR trip, they returned to Denver as a couple, were soon married and eventually began to raise a family.

The seeds planted in Israel began to grow, in what Jennifer describes as a “slow, slow process.”

They became active with local Jewish organizations — AIPAC, Jewish National Fund and others — and signed on with synagogues, first with Aish Denver, later the DAT Minyan.

As the Schrutts moved toward modern Orthodoxy and as their children reached school age, they discovered that adopting an observant lifestyle can be both personally challenging and economically expensive.?

They love DAT as a day school, Jennifer says, but it’s expensive, even though Max, who works for his family’s specialty food distribution business, and Jennifer, who had “a comfortable and lucrative job” in pharmaceutical sales, have incomes.

The reality of family finances, in other words, became an additional, and practical, motivator to make aliyah.

That’s one of the reasons they chose Rehovot.

“It’s centrally located, it’s a great modern Orthodox community, it has a good number of Anglos [English-speaking residents] but not too many, and it’s a transit stop. Everyone was so welcoming in the community there. And it’s affordable.”

Max plans to continue working with his family’s business in Israel, using the Internet and social media for communication, while Jennifer’s dream is to work for AIPAC, JNF or the Israeli government.

“I’m hoping to have six months to a year for breathing room,” she says.

The kids seem enthused about the move even though there are some mixed feelings, especially with their son, who will be 12 by the time they arrive. But the kids’ day school education and the several trips the family has already made to Israel have helped ease the transition for all of them, Jennifer says.

“And there’s technology and social media, so we’ll have weekly Skype calls and stay in constant touch and contact with all of our friends and family.”

Jennifer does not deny a certain measure of uncertainty and nervousness as the departure date draws ever closer.

“There’s always fear in the unknown,” she acknowledges, “but that’s where faith comes in. If you believe that it’s in Hashem’s hands then you have to follow your heart and do what’s right. I want my kids to live in a land that is their home and their classroom, versus us going broke from paying for day school to give us that experience from afar.”

NOR IS the family in denial of the dangers that accompany becoming Israeli.

They know only too well that another intifada might one day erupt, that Hamas might choose to begin launching rockets from Gaza once more, that Iran remains a tangible threat to the Jewish state.

They understand and accept those risks, Jennifer says.

“My family has pointed that out over and over. They see it as, how could I put my kids in a war zone? I feel that it’s the Jewish homeland so why should other parents put their kids on the line for a Jewish homeland and not me? From here I don’t feel like I’m doing my part. I feel that I should be there.”

She adds that school shootings, theater massacres and horrors like 9/11 certainly can and do take place in America, so is Israel really any more dangerous?

“Anything,” she says, “can happen anywhere.”

Jennifer is also the opposite of arrogant about the family’s aliyah. She makes no promises that their move will stick, that they will be able to remain in Israel permanently.

It comes down to how you define “success,” she says.

“I know that many of our friends in the community are watching our adventure and are waiting to see if we stay in Israel or come back to Denver. We have no idea what the future will bring, but we will consider this move a success, regardless of whether we stay or return, because we’re hopefully showing our kids to follow their dreams.”

Chris Leppek may be reached at [email protected].

This article was updated on June 30, 2015.

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