Arrivals: The PC guy

Paul Serkin quit his job, sold most of his possessions and arrived in Israel not knowing what his future held – until he realized his talent for fixing computers could become a career.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
Paul Serkin521 (photo credit: Gloria Deutsch)
Paul Serkin521
(photo credit: Gloria Deutsch)
Paul Serkin moved to Israel in 2009 with no job, no apartment and no clear idea of what he would be doing. His optimistic attitude was pretty much all he had.
“I felt it would work out,” he says.
What he did have was a highly marketable talent: an understanding of computers and an ability to fix them, explain them and improve them almost, but not quite, by looking at them.
“It’s a special mind-set,” he explains. “I can look at a computer and get the feeling of what’s going on.”
For many of his fellow Anglos, his arrival here has provided the answer to a host of problems that can arise for anyone using a home computer, which means just about everybody.
“People often tell me they have a PC guy already, but I provide American service, and I’m often able to solve problems by remote control,” he says.
When he made aliya, he decided he would live in Jerusalem, returning to the city he had lived in 30 years before as a single yeshiva student.
“I get a kick out of seeing neighborhoods that didn’t exist 30 years ago,” he says.
He studied at Yeshiva University, gaining a BA in psychology, and the plan was to work with youth.
“My idea was to bring kids back to yiddishkeit,” he says. “But I couldn’t make a career in that, especially with a young family to support, so I ended up in computers.”
He married at the age of 22 when his wife was not quite 18. She, like him, was a ba’alat teshuva (a returnee to religion), and they had three children.
Today they are divorced. His wife stayed in the United States, but all three of his children live here and all have good and satisfying careers.
His older daughter came here even before her father on a volunteer program, and today she works for an Israeli nonprofit. His son, who came later, was a New York cop and now works in the National Fraud Squad. Serkin’s younger daughter, who followed him here, is a marketing coordinator for a technical company that exports all over the world, including China, where she went recently on business.
In the US, Serkin held a number of appointments, including senior project manager in a large New York City hospital, and other jobs as senior management consultant in various health care projects. In 2009, realizing that the economic and employment situation in the US was not so great, he made a decision.
“If I’m going to have trouble finding a new job, I might as well pick up and come to Israel and have trouble finding a job there instead,” he reasoned with himself.
In the summer of that year he quit his job, sold most of his possessions and arrived through Nefesh B’Nefesh, staying with his daughter in Herzliya for the first two weeks before finding an apartment to rent in Jerusalem. Then he began his job search.
After two months, he realized it was going to be harder than he expected, and he decided that brushing up on his Hebrew skills might help him find employment.
He joined an ulpan with absolutely no idea how he would make a living.
“People used to come to me and ask me questions, and every day I would be at someone’s house helping them solve computer problems – of course, for free,” he says. “Then suddenly I realized that I was busy enough to make this a job.”
Apart from a notice in the OU publication Torah Tidbits, he really doesn’t need to advertise, as clients come by word of mouth, and he is now very well known.
He gets around by public transportation and can go anywhere, even answering emergency calls.
“That’s ironic,” he says, “considering that in the US I practically lived in my car.”
Being single makes him a target for matchmakers, and he has a list of female friends waiting to set him up with someone.
“I’m not interested in meeting anyone until I’m financially self-sufficient,” he says. “At the moment, I’m in no rush to remarry. I am enjoying my children and grandchildren, and if I have any spare time, I like to spend it with them.”
If he does have any leisure time after work and family, he likes to go to the Jerusalem Scrabble Club, now celebrating its 30th anniversary. He plays in the third division, but “near the top.”
“It’s great fun, and I bump into many of my customers there,” he says.
He has made many friends in Jerusalem and is regularly invited out for Shabbat meals.
Coming here, as he says, without high expectations means that whatever would have happened, he can’t really be disappointed.
“I’m making 10 percent of what I made in the US, and the cost of living is 50% higher,” he says, “and yet I’ve never been happier.”
The secret of successful aliya for Serkin is all in the attitude.
“If I didn’t need to do this to make a living, I’d still do it,” he says. “I enjoy helping people and problem-solving.”
And the last four years have left him with no doubts.
“I could not feel more blessed, doing work I love, in a land I love, with family and friends surrounding me.”