As we continue to celebrate love this Valentine’s month, we bring you three more incredible stories of couples who defied distance, overcame challenges, and built their lives together in Israel. From chance meetings in faraway lands to navigating the complexities of relocation and cultural adaptation, these stories remind us that love truly knows no borders.
Mathilde & Niv – Across Oceans and Challenges
Mathilde and Niv’s love story is one of adventure, distance, and determination. From sailing across the Atlantic to navigating life in Israel, their journey proves that love can overcome even the vastest of oceans. Mathilde tells us:
"My name is Mathilde, I'm French and I met my partner Niv in 2021 in Las Palmas, Canarias while both getting ready to sail across the Atlantic. We were together there for a week before we had to split and continue both of our trip.
After two months and the crossing of the Atlantic, Niv took a ferry to where I was, and we met each other again on the other side of an ocean!
Weeks later we managed to see each other again in the Dominican Republic where she flew to see me. After this her trip was finished and she had to go back home to Israel. I decided to leave the boat I was on and took a plane to join her to visit Israel for 3 weeks.
I ended up falling in love with Israel as much as I was in love with her, despite my initial worries about it. I stayed almost 3 month the first time and then did some back and forth between France and Israel as I got my paperwork sorted to apply for the partner visa. We are now on our second year of visa and just got engaged!
Since we met we saw each other in 10 different countries, and had to face people's judgement about our relationship and about moving to Israel. We’ve also had to face surviving the 7th of October attacks together in the south and then her being in Miluim for a long time. I parted ways with many people I thought were friends but also gained new ones here in Israel, I gained a new family and we are looking forward to organizing our wedding.
Israel is full of challenges, some harder than others, but it’s also full of beauty and made the woman I share my life with who she is today. The hardship of this year has created a lot of fear and pain but also an unbreakable bond between us as a couple and everyone that has been through it in the country or elsewhere."
Csilla & Nicolas – Finding Home in Each Other
What happens when two people, tired of the dating scene, swipe right during a pandemic? Csilla and Nicolas’ love story is proof that sometimes, love finds you when you least expect it—even in lockdown. Csilla tells:
" We met during Corona on Tinder—what a cliché! We were both coming out of past relationships, with ample life experience, and pretty much over the whole dating scene. The first time we met, I was sure I’d leave after just one coffee. All I saw was a tired father, not the amazing and funny person I would later fall in love with.
As we had to stay home and spent a lot of time together, we fell in love very quickly. I knew he was the one when he made me laugh every second of the day and always had witty answers to my sassy questions. He saw me and understood me like no one ever had before.
When we met, it was clear that, at some point, he would move back to Israel. He brought it up, and I just thought, Why put an expiration date on something so amazing? Not long after, on the first anniversary of our first date, we got married. Now, three years later, we have rebuilt our life here in Israel—but it wasn’t without challenges.
We had to relocate in just a few months. Without all the support from my husband—taking care of everything before I arrived—I don’t know how we would have managed. He fought to secure good health insurance, collected documents for my visa, rented and furnished a new home, and dealt with countless obstacles I hadn’t even thought of.
It wasn’t easy at the beginning: adjusting to a new family dynamic with his four kids from a previous marriage, navigating a new country, searching for a job, and making new friends. But one thing I’ve learned here in Israel is le’at le’at—slowly, slowly, everything falls into place. I feel so lucky to have his family fully accepting and supporting me. This experience—and this country—has been intense, but its deep emotions resonate with me, teaching me something new every day."
Bethany & Sagi – Love and Life in the Desert
Bethany and Sagi’s story begins with a so-called ‘walk’ in the desert—one that turned into a five-hour trek. Little did they know, the journey back would lead to something much greater: a lifelong partnership. Bethany tells us:
"When a group of Israeli volunteers in a Kibbutz in the Arava desert ask if you want to join them for a “walk” to see a “desert spring" a short while after arriving in the country … be warned. What for them seemed a leisurely stride turned into a 5 hour hike to arrive at a mud puddle. On the upside after the uphill, the person who I walked back with would be the person I would share a much longer and lovelier life journey with.
We met in Kibbutz Samar in 2020. We were both volunteers, our individual journeys put on hold. Samar became our sanctuary during the Covid19 period. We worked together in the date plantation, initially friends, until one Shavuot evening when Sagi smashed the mosquitoes from my feet with his feet.
From the desert oasis we embarked on our new journey together back into the real world, moved to kibbutz Gal-On and started the partnership process with MH in 2021. I previously mentioned a mud puddle … well this next one was much muddier and far deeper. But when you find a partner whose ideals in life align so harmoniously with yours you want to grasp onto it. Our want and mutual respect for a simple way of life, our shared love of things that grow, books and bread to name but a few.
Sometimes, external pressures can disrupt the harmony: the struggle for social and financial independence you were used to, language barriers with your tax accountant, kibbutz processes and the unknown document the MH clerk asks for after meticulously filing for the yearly meeting - are definitely the harmony disruptors. Spending Christmas with your family only through the screen throws the harmony into chaos.
Through it all, with a little luck and a lot of communication we are making it through even with a surprise around every corner and now we’ve earned our spot in the A5 crew. We learn from each surprise and add it to the journey of discovery and unofficial field guide to navigating the MH process .
What it comes down to is that we have chosen to be in this together, in this sometimes chaotic country, and against many odds our love just grows stronger. So yalla, we’ll continue to read each other and read to each other,to bake our bread, grow our greens and cherish the simple moments in between the rest of it."
Love, in All Its Forms
With these final stories, we wrap up our Valentine’s month celebration. Each journey has been unique, but all share the same essence—love that defies distance, cultural barriers, and life’s many challenges. Thank you for joining us in honoring these incredible couples.
May their stories continue to inspire and remind us that love always finds a way.
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