"One day we stopped and looked around. Unlike other kibbutzim, people said hello and smiled. That won us over"

What do you do with the minus, how much do you pay for the apartment, and what dream did you fulfill in the shadow of the war? People from all over the country tell candidly about life itself. This time: the Haran family from Kibbutz Neve Eitan (Beit She'an Valley). In the photo: Yarin (43), Yael (37), Karni (11 months).

The apartment: 3 rooms for rent, paying 4,500 shekels.

Yarin: "In Jaffa we paid close to ten thousand shekels for an apartment half that size. At some point it was too crowded and suffocating, so we moved. We will build a house here in the expansion, which will cost about 2.5 million shekels."

How did you meet?

Yarin: "On Facebook. My friend posted me in a section for eligible Tel Avivians, and my profile filled up with messages. Yael's message caught my eye first. She wrote: 'I have shifts, so the date can only be in a week.' We've been together for three and a half years. At one of our first meetings, she asked if I knew the 'On the Sofa' section. I told her I loved it, and we decided that when we got married, we would do it too. And here you are."

Where are you from?

Yarin: "I am originally from Bat Yam. I lived for 20 years in Tel Aviv, Jaffa, and Givatayim."

Yael: "I am from Rinatia, a moshav near Ben Gurion Airport. We lived in Jaffa, and I always wanted to raise my children in a moshav, but Yarin was locked on Tel Aviv. However, a trip to visit my brother, who moved to Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov during the coronavirus, changed something in him."

Yarin: "I am completely urban; I never traveled in the country. I fly abroad, eat at Michelin restaurants, and love the urban scene, but when we drove north, my mind opened up. Suddenly there were fields and air, and I felt my pulse drop. After one of the trips, I told Yael I wanted to live in a kibbutz or moshav."

The move?

Yarin: "I opened an Excel sheet, and we started looking for places. We visited different kibbutzim, but I didn't want to live in Ashdot Ya'akov because I need my space from the family. Then Kibbutz Neve Eitan popped up in my feed. One day we stopped the car here and walked around; unlike many other kibbutzim, people said hello and smiled, and there was a pleasant atmosphere that won us over."

Cost of living?

Yarin: "There is no Wolt, which is excellent. The nearby city is Beit She'an, five minutes from here, so it's either ready-made food or some pizza."

Yael: "Don't think we don't miss many things in Jaffa, but we travel to the center once every three weeks. When we arrive, we leave Karni with the family and go out to tear up the city."

What do you do?

Yael: "I am a nurse. I worked in geriatric rehabilitation at Ichilov, but I quit when we moved here, and I am currently looking for work."

Yarin: "I have been working for 18 years in high-tech. Today I am an operations project manager at a security company called Zscaler. My expertise is arriving at startups after they are acquired and making the adjustments for the connection with the big company. I travel to the center twice a week and work from home the rest of the time."

Economic situation?

Yarin: "I have a nice salary, but we are currently living only on that. What helps keep our heads above water is the fact that I have shares that mature every quarter."

Yael: "We live well, travel abroad, and go on vacations, but we understand that we need to hunker down a bit because there is a child and a house we want to build."