Julia Selow

I dreamed of living in Israel since I was twelve. At 23, after facing rising antisemitism in Germany, I stopped waiting. I got on a plane and decided to make my dream happen from inside the country I wanted to call home.

It was far harder than anyone had warned me. I spent a year and a half in court just to prove my roots. The day I finally became an Israeli citizen was the proudest of my life, and I quickly learned the journey wasn't ending. It was only beginning. Understanding, living and truly integrating into a new country is its own mountain, especially when you come from a completely different world.

A few years in, family reasons took me back to Germany for a while. When I was finally able to come home to Israel, it felt like making aliyah all over again, every bit as overwhelming as the first time.

Looking back, so much of the hardship came down to one thing. No one hands you the rules. If I had known the definitions, the requirements and the fine print before I began, the whole process would have been so much faster, and far less frightening.

That's when I decided I'm not doing this the hard way again, and neither should anyone else. I built Habaita to be the system I wish I'd had. It brings everything that's already out there into one place, organised the way I was raised in Germany to structure things, and shaped around each person's own situation, whatever their story. Before and after aliyah, for the people moving here and for the country welcoming them, so that we all arrive, and belong, a little more easily.

Julia Selow, Founder