Dima Shtrikman (38 years old), graduate of Moscow Technological University STANKIN, lives in Israel for a little over a year.
”When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a doctor”, he says. “But my mom didn’t think medicine was suitable for me. And I started to study engineering in STANKIN”.
After getting his diploma, Dima worked in a large logistics company. Soon he was appointed head of the leading department.
“Why did you decide to immigrate and come to Israel?”
“To be honest, I wanted to leave for a long time. But I decided to move only after being acquainted with a woman who shared my aspirations and desires. This is my wife Alice.”
“How did you survive October 7 and everything that followed it?”
”I wasn’t scared,” says Dima. “There was a different feeling, but it was not fear. When we left Russia, a war was already going on there. And I wanted to escape from that war. That war served as a catalyst for leaving. Because you can’t do anything about it, but they can force you to participate, and you understand that you won’t participate anyway. And you realize what would the consequences be... But here there was a different feeling: you realize that your country and your people were attacked. My dad lives in the town of Ofakim, near the Gaza border. And there, on a nearby street, terrorists seized several houses. Together with the residents. I immediately started looking for an opportunity to volunteer for the Israeli army or at least the police. Because I’m a new immigrant, I didn’t serve in the army. And although Israel is a completely new country for me, I didn’t really speak Hebrew yet, but the desire to defend our country was overwhelming.”
One day a friend from Moscow called Dima. He said with undisguised surprise that many of his acquaintances, who had returned from Israel to Moscow, rushed back to Israel after October 7.
Why do all of you love Israel so much?” the friend asked. “What's so special about it?” "
”At first I tried to explain something to him, but he objected: “No, we have that here too,” Dima recalls.
“Then I said: “Listen, I can’t explain to you what’s so special about Israel, to understand this you need to come here and live here. Then you’ll understand.” Those who stay here love this country. Why does someone immigrate to Israel and six months later, as soon as the “new immigrant’s basket” runs out, leave, while others stay forever? I have a friend. From his first day in Israel he complains - everything is not right for him here. I say: “But we are already here and there are many of us, which means we can change a lot of things here. There are many new immigrants, everyone has great ideas and organizational skills – so start doing something and go ahead!”
Ilya Rivkin, a graduate of the Samara State Construction University, is studying in the same group with Dima at the Level Aleph ulpan of UTime College. Since 2008, Ilya lived in Moscow and was engaged in business entrepreneurial activities for about 10 years.
“We arrived in Rishon Le-Tzion in September 2023, and two weeks later the war began,” Ilya says. “On the fifth and sixth of October we walked around Jerusalem. We returned home late and decided to sleep off on Saturday, the seventh of October. We woke up at noon. We were sleeping so soundly that we didn’t hear the siren (in western Rishon it is weak). I looked at Whatsapp and other instant messengers - dozens of anxious messages: “How are you? What's going on in Israel?”
“Ilya, are you trying to say that you didn’t experience any fear?”
”Don’t think that we are crazy,” Ilya laughs. “Before immigrating in Israel, we lived in Krasnogorsk (our conversation was recorded after the terrorist attack at Crocus – Ed.). There, drone attacks happened almost every night. The next morning you wake up and find out: in one house there was a direct hit. In another, someone got hurt. Here, in Israel, the attacks are massive, but people are calm. Because they know: there is an army here. There is the Iron Dome. And no one is misleading anyone: if five missiles were fired and two exploded, they will report that five were fired, and two exploded. There is nothing to hide here. We are being told the truth – this fact provides us peace of mind and self-confidence.”
In October 2023, when the group began learning Hebrew at Ulpan Alef, Ilya was a hired worker, commuting every morning from Rishon Le-Tzion to a construction company in Petah Tikva. Meanwhile, Dima was actively looking for a field in which he could apply his professional knowledge, organizational talents, and fantasy. He became friends with Ilya right away: “chemistry”, mutual understanding from the first word. Dima and Ilya are not only the same age, but also like-minded people. Active and risk-taking.
Soon the two students of UTime College opened their own business. They repair and improve apartments. European-quality renovation in its purest form at reasonable prices! Ilya has been involved in carpentry for a long time - he decorated and furnished several cafes with his unique works, which he himself designed and built when he was in business in Russia. So the new company has some original innovations to offer its clients – both new immigrants and Israelis. The clients are delighted with the quality and aesthetics. And the novelty. And the prospect of living in an apartment decorated with wood.
”We came in Israel recently,” says Dima. “It seems to you that you are a newcomer, but Israelis accepts you. And you understand why they love this country and would not leave it.”
In no time Dima and Ilya mastered special professional terminology and now they fill quite confident in building materials stores, where most sellers speak Hebrew. They thoroughly studied the peculiarities of Israel’s climate, the quirks of which must be taken into account during repairs of private houses or flats. And now they are already recruiting a team.
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