"I built knesset2026.com to help olim (immigrants) understand Israeli politics. Users can answer 16 questions to discover the candidate that best matches their views, then receive a daily news email about Israel in their language,” said Dan Finel, a recent French immigrant. 

The free, user-friendly online questionnaire is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and even in Hebrew.

“On October 27, I will be voting for the first time in Israel, and I wanted to understand the different candidates and their opinions,” he explained. “There are many candidates I don’t know much about, and I couldn’t find enough information in French or English. I spoke with many olim from different countries, and they told me it’s difficult to find information online in foreign languages.

“So, for those who cannot follow the news in Hebrew, I decided to create a quiz where you answer easy questions about your views. At the end, we tell you the candidate most aligned with your thinking. We update the questions often. And then, every day, you receive curated news about Israeli politics in your preferred language, in an easy-to-understand format. At the end of each newsletter, which is also free, is a review of the latest election polling results.”

Finel, 27, is learning to perfect his Hebrew on the job as a data scientist at Similarweb. Meanwhile, his knesset2026.com platform has attracted more than 50,000 users, mainly between the ages of 25 and 40. (I’m much older than the average user, but I found the website helpful in confirming my choice of candidate.)

Growing up in Paris in a traditional, Zionist family, Finel visited Israel annually from the time he was six years old. Although he is the first in his immediate family to make aliyah, his grandparents live in Ashdod, and he has aunts and uncles in Givat Shmuel and Tel Aviv.

While finishing his studies at a top business school in France, he had the option to do a six-month internship abroad and decided to do it in the start-up nation through the Jewish Agency’s Masa Israel Journey career development program.

The track he chose was Israel Tech Challenge (ITC), a Jewish Agency and Israeli National Cyber Bureau initiative connecting young professionals and students from overseas with the tools they need to break into careers in Israel’s hi-tech industry.

“I loved the country, and I wanted to see what it was like to live in Tel Aviv,” he said.

Originally, his flight had been scheduled for October 9, 2023. For obvious reasons, that flight was postponed, and instead he arrived in November. Despite the wartime situation, his ITC experience cemented his decision to move here.

“I really loved meeting Israelis and people from around the world; in Paris you were only with French people,” he said.

ONE OF THE people he met during his six-month internship, Susana Arditti, was from his past and she’s now part of his present and future – they’re getting married in October.

“Susana and I met in kindergarten in Paris, and we were basically in love,” said Finel. “Then her family moved to London, and we didn’t see each other for 20 years until we met again in Masa. She was going to make aliyah, and I said, ‘I love life in Israel, and I want to leave Paris, so let’s do it.’” Arditti works as a corporate brand designer.

Finel officially made aliyah in September 2024. “Now I’ve been here for more than two years, and I have lived through war and bombings. It’s been quite challenging. Sometimes you can’t sleep at night,” he said.

“One regret I have is that I didn’t do the army; I arrived at 24, a bit too late. But I have friends in the army, and they say it’s hard, but they feel proud to defend the country.”

When asked his favorite aspect of Israeli life, Finel didn’t hesitate to answer: “The people.”

“You feel that even if you don’t know anyone, if something happens to you, people will help. I felt it at work the moment I arrived. I’m a French guy; nobody knew me, and I didn’t speak Hebrew well, but I immediately felt they were like family. They told me if I needed anything, they’d be there for me. And that’s been true.”

The biggest difference he notices between French and Israeli culture is the Israeli directness in communication.

“Relations between people are much more authentic and honest,” he said. “In France, you don’t say exactly what you think, and there are many topics you don’t talk about. In Israel, nothing is off limits. If you think something, you can discuss it openly. At the beginning that was difficult for me, but you get used to it.”

In addition to the warm culture, he enjoys “the quality of life, the sun, the beach, the restaurants, the food.”

One of Finel’s favorite hobbies is cooking and baking, everything from pasta and fish to chocolate cake. “I love learning and trying new stuff,” he said. He’s also an avid runner and all-around sportsman.

With everything he has going on in his life, he still felt the need to contribute his skills voluntarily toward greater unity among Israelis. Using his favorite Hebrew word, bekitzur (in short), he phrased it like this:

“The country is a bit broken, very divided, and that’s difficult. This is why the election is so important. I feel we should all be together, going in the same direction and helping each other get there, even if we don’t all think the same way. We have so many enemies; we need to be together.” ■

Dan Finel, 27

From Paris to Tel Aviv, 2024