#Meet_the_Oleh Emmanuelle Gold

Aliyah Date: Summer 2015

Made Aliyah from Paris, France

Currently living in Tel Aviv

Emmanuelle "Manou" Gold's experience in Israel was like connecting the dots, from music to a job in high tech...it all slowly came together. Scroll down for the story!”

Emmanuelle "Manou" made Aliyah because she wanted a change. The question was..where could she find change? Originally she came to Israel on a MASA program. However, she had a Plan B (Canada) and Plan C (Australia) if things didn't work out in Israel.

Raised in a very Zionist home, Manou always had a strong connection to the land. She just wasn't sure if she was strong enough to build a life in Israel. She loves the culture in Israel -- the l'haims, the joy, and she knew she wanted to try it out here.

When she first came to Israel, she immediately went to Jerusalem. After two weeks of Ulpan, she decided she wanted to stay. Her history involved working in startups...so you'd think she would choose Tel Aviv, the start-up capital! No... the warm glow of Jerusalem had her fall madly in love with the city. She told herself she would look for a job until October, and if she found one, she would stay. Right after her deadline passed she found one! She stayed in Jerusalem for the next two years before moving on to Tel Aviv.

In the past five years, she worked in various start-ups with an impact. Manou is "amazed by the innovation and management tools, the problem solving, and intensity of start-ups".

And then..there's music. She started to practice music the year before she left Paris. She only began playing guitar at 18-years-old. Later on, she took a music course on Broadway music, and at the age of 28, she wanted to audition for a musical in Jerusalem, but she needed to take a vocal course first. Her neighbor was a piano teacher and vocal course teacher and agreed to teach her singing only along with the piano. At 28-years-old, Manou started to play the piano.

She did a few more courses on music in Israel; one on pop music and another on performance, and that's how she got on stage. She started to record her songs, and then really got into performing in Tel Aviv.

Manou thinks the best part of Israel is that there is such a pure identity here for Jews. She loves the hagim, and how every holiday is a big celebration. Everything has significance, and spiritually, she learns so much from each experience.

She says, "I'm proud, I'm finding my own identity here. All the music came with that. There's a strong spiritual connection in the last show I did – I performed Jewish songs. I love that I can connect all the dots in Israel".