When is a New Immigrant No Longer New?

The term “Oleh Chadash”- new immigrant- defines someone who has recently moved to Israel. The funny thing about this phrase is that there is no exact time when one’s status changes from “Oleh Chadash” to simply “oleh” or dare I say “Israeli.” Some people consider themselves olim chadashim all of their lives while others are convinced that after 3 months they are full fledged Israelis. Most of us fall in the gray area in the middle. I think it has to do with how confident you feel you understand “the system” and know how to use (and at times abuse) it. The government gives immigrants certain rights and tax breaks depending on how long they have been in Israel. After a certain number of years, usually 3-5, they lose those rights. However, regardless of what it may say on your ID card, some immigrants are still very much new immigrants well after the 5 year mark. Others simply ‘remember’ this fact when it comes in handy: “No Officer, I didn’t know I was not allowed to do that, I’m an oleh chadash.”

The other day I was in the supermarket at 8:30 in the morning with 2 boxes of cereal in my hand. There was of course just one lane open and a woman with a full cart of groceries in front of me. I asked her if I could please go in front of her seeing as though I only had 2 items. She responded “if you must,” to which I simply smiled and pushed my way pasted her (because why would she actually get out of the way since she was nice enough to let me go ahead of her.) In this case, one would argue that I was acting as an Israeli.

On the other hand, yesterday I had a package to pick up at the post office- another hellish place to be, especially on a Friday morning. The post office closest to me recently closed so I had to go to a different one. I brought my package slip with me and took a number to stand in line. After waiting for over 20 minutes it was finally my turn. I went up to the teller and said “I would like to pick up a package.” Her response? “If you have a package you don’t have to wait in line, just go to the first window on your left as you walk in the door.” Had I read the sign pasted on the number machine or bothered to cut in line to ask anyone if I in fact had to wait in line to pick up a package I could have saved myself 20 minutes and a lot of frustration. For an immigrant who actually knows how to read Hebrew, I should have known better.

I guess I still have some more to learn before I can drop the “new” part of my immigrant status.