Millie and Ricky Schweky

Living the Dream in Israel

Sarina Roffé

From the time she was a young girl, Millie Schweky nee Marcus always dreamed of living in Israel. An ardent Zionist, Millie feels there is no other place she would rather live than Israel. She feels she is living in the history of the land.

The oldest of four children, born to Sandra and Brian Marcus, Millie graduated from Yeshiva of Flatbush High School and spent a gap year in Israel. She then earned a bachelor of arts in psychology from Brooklyn College and then attended Touro University where she earned a doctorate in physical therapy, specializing in pelvic health.
Millie met Ricky Schweky during their college years and married in 2017. Ricky attended Baruch College and became a software engineer. Settling on Brooklyn, they chose not to buy a house as they kept talking of moving to Israel. “It was always part of our conversation,” said Millie.
The clincher came when Millie went on an ILEAD trip with Sephardic Community Alliance and saw Israel from a different perspective. “All Jewish history is here and I needed to give my two kids the gift of this land,” she said.
Millie and Ricky chose to explore living in Israel and spent six weeks looking at places to live. When they went to Ra’anana, they loved the social scene, the Syrian synagogue, the amenities, the shopping and that they could walk everywhere so they decided to make this city their home.
Ricky works his old job in New York remotely from Israel. Millie had a private practice in Brooklyn and when she moved to Israel, she had to take the licensing exam in English, yet studied for it from poorly translated Hebrew
They moved in June 2023, with their 2-year-old son Jacob and 5-month-old daughter Selene, just months before the October 7 attack. Encouraged by family and friends to return to New York, the couple stuck it out in Israel. They learned to use the shelter when the sirens went off and outfitted their safe room with toys and snacks.
“It was a scary time, but I never thought of coming back. I am hard core. To me leaving was the opposite of what to do. Soldiers were flying in to help. I had a lot of family pressure, and phone calls. I had to stop answering calls. I never even had a thought to go back. We said that if we feel like our lives are in danger we will look into options.
We used the safe room about twice a week for about five months, then things quieted down. We went to Deal for the summer. I saw clients in Deal and Ricky caught up with his employees.
We came back to Israel. One night we had to go in the shelter at 4 am and it was crazy. Another night we were eating dinner on Simcha Torah, the kids were playing outside, and the siren went off. We went inside to the safe room. It turned out that a piece of shrapnel had landed where kids had previously been playing. It was scary. We used the room a lot and the kids associate it with eating Bamba. I have to protect their innocence.
Each of us had a different reason to move. Mine was religious Zionism. For Ricky, it was for a more meaningful life and the values you can get here that you can’t get anywhere else. We just celebrated Yom Haatzmaut and it’s such a collective feeling being here in the country.
There were soldiers on my block that were killed in Gaza. We waved our flags and and stood our ground on our own land. Here you see different Israelis and you feel bigger than yourself. You are part of a nation, and every person is part of it and you are part of Jewish history. My kids are young and appreciate it, they come home with flags and so proud we live here” said Millie.
She also had to make adjustments to the way she cooked and what they ate. Millie said “Israel does not import produce, so everything is seasonal. You always get the freshest off the land, the land knows your needs. The fruit we can get changes based on the time of year.”
Millie works Sunday to Wednesday. Thursdays she is off and that’s when she cooks for Shabbat and takes a class. She loves that she is 15 minutes from the beaches at Herzliya. Friday is family day and they take the kids to the beach for a hike or to a park.
The couple has made many friends, some of them are parents of her Brooklyn friends. Millie loves the new friends she made in Israel, plays tennis and goes to classes. She hosts people for Shabbat, has networking events and conducts workshops. She speaks on college campuses and grew professionally.
“The Syrian crew from shul are my adopted aunts. I rely on them for help or to do an errand,” she said. Millie and Ricky love to go skiing in Europe and they love that they have people to rely on to keep an eye on their children.
“Israel is very kid friendly. The whole country revolves around raising the next generation. The Israeli school system teaches values such that you contribute to society and be a team player. Israel is home to me. I could never leave.”

A genealogist and historian, Sarina Roffé is the author of Branching Out from Sepharad (Sephardic Heritage Project, 2017). She is researching a new book: Syria – Paths to Freedom. Sarina holds a BA in Journalism, an MA in Jewish Studies and an MBA.