No more jokes from Israeli friends about my decision to leave

Israelis used to scoff at those who left the country. On his latest visit home, expatriate MATI SHEMOELOF finds the mood has changed. 

Every year I visit Israel, there is a regular ritual where my best friend, the radio broadcaster Eran Sebbag, makes fun of me in front of all my friends about the fact that I left Israel for Germany. You can hear him making jokes about my broken German as he imagines how I mumble in Berlin, struggling with particular words. But on my last visit, Eran refused to come and make my friends laugh. He said he was not in the mood because of the government’s coup.

This is one example of how I experienced a new attitude in Israel towards me and my life outside of Israel. In the past, my immigration to Berlin has been viewed as a betrayal of Israeliness. Within this, other things were included: a betrayal of the Hebrew language and of Hebrew literature.

And for some left-wing Israeli patriots, it was also a betrayal of their political activism. But now, not only my friend Eran has changed. Suddenly, everyone wants to how I knew to leave Israel in time - 10 years ago. I receive quite a few requests for advice on Facebook from people who want to emigrate to Berlin.

During my visit in August, I was invited to speak on the program Cultural Agent with Kobi Meidan on the public Kan TV channel. My poems that were published in a magazine that deals with the diaspora have become part of the Israeli media agenda. In the studio, the discussion evolved around “relocation”. They were not talking anymore about those who “betrayed the country and left”.

I did like that language change, of course. But I have to admit I never did “Relocation to Berlin”. No company invited me to work. On the contrary. I arrived in Berlin on September 23, 2013, with 23 kilos of luggage and nothing else. I didn't have a job in Berlin or a relocation agent to help me.