They rode the same commuter train in New York without ever crossing paths.
The two American twenty-somethings, Sophie Lichtman of Savannah, Georgia, and Tal Harris of Los Angeles, California, both had good jobs in the United States, and supportive families. Still, each felt that something was missing in their lives.
The Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel spurred them to come to Israel. Then a chance encounter at a Shabbat dinner and a family reunion on the shores of the Mediterranean in Tel Aviv brought them together.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Lichtman told JNS on Tuesday.
A search for belonging
Harris, 28, who grew up in Orange County and worked in tech, came to a cousin’s wedding in Israel in March 2024 as the war was raging against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“After Oct. 7 and the wedding, it was so glaringly obvious that Israel was the place to be, and I work in tech, so why not,” he said.
Harris, who was born in Israel but whose family moved to the United States when he was 3, had an Israeli identity card which, while he didn’t know it at the time, would help expedite his citizenship process.
He took his black Labrador Libby and moved to Israel in July 2024.
Lichtman, 29, who was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Georgia’s oldest city, had never thought of immigrating to Israel, although her family were “super Zionists.”
“We were the Jews who love Israel from America,” she said.
After college, Lichtman landed a dream job at a top-tier advertising firm in New York City, convinced she’d find her husband in a city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.
“I liked it, but I didn’t love it,” she said. “I didn’t picture my life there forever and settling down roots.”
She toyed with the idea of working at a tiki bar in Costa Rica, but then Oct. 7 happened, changing everything for her.
Lichtman came to Israel on a volunteer program in January 2024 and decided she wanted to live there.
“What am I doing?” she asked herself. “This is everything I wanted.”
She connected with the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel and the nonprofit Nefesh B’Nefesh when she got back to the United States. By September, she had quit her job and had moved to Tel Aviv, just two months after Harris.
Neighbors in a new city: ‘That’s the kind of guy you should be dating’
Both new immigrants were now neighbors in Tel Aviv, but they didn’t know each other.
In November, Harris, determined to “find his person,” went to a Shabbat dinner at a Tel Aviv synagogue, where he met Lichtman’s brother, Isaac, who was visiting at the time. The two became friends but didn’t connect further.
A month later, Lichtman’s parents came to visit their children, and the family was walking on the Tel Aviv promenade when Harris, who was simultaneously out on the beach with his dog, suddenly called out to Isaac.
“This guy comes up with his dog with the best energy and vibe full of charisma and this smoochy dog,” Lichtman recounts of their first encounter.
Harris exchanged Instagram information with her brother but went home thinking about his attractive sister.
Meanwhile, Lichtman’s parents told her: “That’s exactly the kind of guy you should be dating.”
Still, she waited for Harris to make the move; sure enough, on Saturday night he connected, and the two began going out.
The following year, they were engaged.
A sign from above?
Harris proposed to Lichtman on her birthday, while the couple was vacationing in California.
Both at breakfast and lunch at two different eateries, they were given the number 36, which is twice 18, meaning “life” in Hebrew numerology, and later that evening he had exactly $36 in his wallet, which he gave as a tip to their dinner waitress.
(He felt it was surely a sign but played it coy when she asked him if he thought it meant anything.)
Then, on the flight back to Israel, the now engaged couple were seated in Row 36.
‘The perfect alignment’
Last month, they got married in Israel.
Reflecting on their life’s journey, the newlyweds said that their stars aligned because of their life decisions.
“The way I met Tal, I had to move to Israel to find my person,” said Lichtman.
“The reason we met each other is that our actions reflected our views and values,” Harris said. “It was the perfect alignment.”
