Afew weeks ago, there was a raging debate in our pages about the benefits and detriments of aliyah. On the one hand, live in the land that G-d gave the Jewish People. On the other, have to deal with certain challenges, like myopic school administrators and 100 percent tax on cars.

Look, it’s not easy. My family and I have been here eight years now and every day is a challenge. I still don’t understand the letters the bank sends me and the fear of war is ever present, but all in all we feel lucky to have merited to live in this beautiful and sometimes beguiling land. My great-grandparents would never have imagined their great-grandson would be so blessed.

Recently, I found more evidence of what makes Israel so very special. We already know that Israelis are among the happiest people in the world. Year after year, Israelis tell pollsters they feel fulfilled with their lives and would rather live nowhere else. In 2018, Israel ranked as the 11th-happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row. By way of comparison, the United States ranked 18th in the report while the United Kingdom ranked 19th.

Now, there’s evidence that living in Israel might also prolong your years. The Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index reports that Israel is the tenth-healthiest country in the world, ranking alongside those Nordic paradises of Norway and Sweden, and not far behind Switzerland and Japan. According to Bloomberg, the index ranks countries based on factors like life expectancy and medical care and imposes penalties for risks like tobacco use and obesity. Spain ranks as the healthiest country in the world, according to Bloomberg, based primarily on its Mediterranean diet, which is very similar to Israel’s.

The United States ranked 35th on the list, one place below Costa Rica but a little better than Bahrain. The Bloomberg article announcing the ranking noted the reason for the US’s poor showing: “Life expectancy in the U.S. has been trending lower due to deaths from drug overdoses and suicides.”

Indeed, the life expectancy rate in the United States has now fallen for three years in a row, the result of an opioid epidemic and a sharp rise in the suicide rate. Since 2008, suicide has ranked as the tenth-leading cause of death in the United States, and in 2016 became the second-leading cause of death for those ages 10–34 and the fourth-leading cause for those 35–54. Last year, 47,000 people in the United States took their lives.

It’s unfathomable, isn’t it? Perhaps the wealthiest and most powerful nation ever to exist contains within it a rot so deep that thousands of people every year decide that they can’t stand to live another day.

Nobody asked me, but I have a theory on why Israel is ranked among the healthiest and happiest countries in the world and the United States is slowly slipping. Despite the wars and the terrorism and the high taxes and the annoying supermarket clerks and the rude drivers and the nonexistent lines, Israelis are happy because they have something to live for. They feel a tremendous sense of mission in their lives. If you are a religious Israeli, you know why you’re here: you’re here to settle Eretz Yisrael and to be close to the Shechinah. For nonreligious Israelis, their sense of mission comes from putting a finger in the eye of those who say Israel can’t succeed and participating in the rebirth of a once destitute land.

I fear for the United States, the land of my birth. It has become a country where girls are boys and boys are girls; where the most vicious politics now dominates the public sphere; where traditional values are steadily under attack; and the country crumbles while the debt grows. While its trajectory is clearly downward, Israel’s is upward.

A few weeks ago, there was a raging debate in our pages about the benefits and detriments of aliyah. On the one hand, live in the land that G-d gave the Jewish People. On the other, have to deal with certain challenges, like myopic school administrators and 100 percent tax on cars.

Look, it’s not easy. My family and I have been here eight years now and every day is a challenge. I still don’t understand the letters the bank sends me and the fear of war is ever present, but all in all we feel lucky to have merited to live in this beautiful and sometimes beguiling land. My great-grandparents would never have imagined their great-grandson would be so blessed.

Recently, I found more evidence of what makes Israel so very special. We already know that Israelis are among the happiest people in the world. Year after year, Israelis tell pollsters they feel fulfilled with their lives and would rather live nowhere else. In 2018, Israel ranked as the 11th-happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row. By way of comparison, the United States ranked 18th in the report while the United Kingdom ranked 19th.

Now, there’s evidence that living in Israel might also prolong your years. The Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index reports that Israel is the tenth-healthiest country in the world, ranking alongside those Nordic paradises of Norway and Sweden, and not far behind Switzerland and Japan. According to Bloomberg, the index ranks countries based on factors like life expectancy and medical care and imposes penalties for risks like tobacco use and obesity. Spain ranks as the healthiest country in the world, according to Bloomberg, based primarily on its Mediterranean diet, which is very similar to Israel’s.

The United States ranked 35th on the list, one place below Costa Rica but a little better than Bahrain. The Bloomberg article announcing the ranking noted the reason for the US’s poor showing: “Life expectancy in the U.S. has been trending lower due to deaths from drug overdoses and suicides.”

Indeed, the life expectancy rate in the United States has now fallen for three years in a row, the result of an opioid epidemic and a sharp rise in the suicide rate. Since 2008, suicide has ranked as the tenth-leading cause of death in the United States, and in 2016 became the second-leading cause of death for those ages 10–34 and the fourth-leading cause for those 35–54. Last year, 47,000 people in the United States took their lives.

It’s unfathomable, isn’t it? Perhaps the wealthiest and most powerful nation ever to exist contains within it a rot so deep that thousands of people every year decide that they can’t stand to live another day.

Nobody asked me, but I have a theory on why Israel is ranked among the healthiest and happiest countries in the world and the United States is slowly slipping. Despite the wars and the terrorism and the high taxes and the annoying supermarket clerks and the rude drivers and the nonexistent lines, Israelis are happy because they have something to live for. They feel a tremendous sense of mission in their lives. If you are a religious Israeli, you know why you’re here: you’re here to settle Eretz Yisrael and to be close to the Shechinah. For nonreligious Israelis, their sense of mission comes from putting a finger in the eye of those who say Israel can’t succeed and participating in the rebirth of a once destitute land.

I fear for the United States, the land of my birth. It has become a country where girls are boys and boys are girls; where the most vicious politics now dominates the public sphere; where traditional values are steadily under attack; and the country crumbles while the debt grows. While its trajectory is clearly downward, Israel’s is upward.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 751)