Finding her center

Finally settling in Israel, this Montreal native uses her world travel experience to better her business outreach.

By GLORIA DEUTSCH
After Participating in the March of the Living in 1998, Ulrich appreciated the idea of living in the Jewish homeland even more. (photo credit: GLORIA DEUTSCH)
After Participating in the March of the Living in 1998, Ulrich appreciated the idea of living in the Jewish homeland even more.
(photo credit: GLORIA DEUTSCH)
When she was growing up in Montreal, visiting Israel was always a part of life for Lindy Ulrich, today 32 and living happily in Tel Aviv since her aliya in 2006.
Her father, Gary Ulrich, was a keen sportsman and Canada’s president of the Maccabiah Games. As a young man he played basketball, representing Canada in the 1961 and 1965 games. Nowadays, he devotes himself to fund-raising and is a well-known figure in the Montreal community.
Ulrich visited the Jewish state many times as a child and teenager, volunteering on a kibbutz and deciding she wanted to attend university here as well as in Canada.
She did the one-year overseas program at Tel Aviv University, taking courses in Jewish politics and history; it was then she decided she wanted to live in Israel as well as study.
After earning her degree in communications at Montreal University, Ulrich decided to make aliya on her own.
“It took me a few years to organize,” she says. “Of course, you can move here overnight if you really want to, but I felt I needed to prepare myself properly if I wanted to start a life here – which I did.”
She got some traveling out of her system, visiting South America among other places, and planned her move to Israel meticulously, going first to the absorption center in Ra’anana, where she spent the five months of ulpan.
Post-ulpan, speaking good Hebrew, she went for her first job interview and landed a spot with the company she is still with, LivePerson. It’s a software company that helps businesses around the world connect with customers through an online chat platform and other digital engagement solutions.
Ulrich was part of the company’s sales team for five years, and was named No. 1 salesperson for small and mid-sized businesses. Recently, she was promoted to her new role as LivePerson’s Israel sales coach and strategy manager.
Now well-settled in an apartment in Tel Aviv, she feels she did the right thing by immersing herself in Israeli society and not confining her social life to other Anglos.
“I feel that if you have only other English speakers as your social circle, it’s harder to stay put when times get hard,” Ulrich says. “The majority of my friends are Israeli, including people I met on my travels abroad.”
However well she had prepared for life in Israel, the first year was very hard.
“I was on my own and I had to learn to fight the usual battles with bureaucracy, with only my newly acquired Hebrew,” she says. “I didn’t ask anyone for help.”
Moreover, in the beginning her job was not well paid, as she had joined the company on quite a low level and rent was high.
“I almost reached a breaking point and didn’t know if I would manage to make a success of my aliya,” she says. But she understood that the company had growth potential, and was a good starting point for a career in hi-tech.
In time Ulrich got used to the Israeli mentality, so different from the Canadian one she grew up with, and she learned to put things into proportion, appreciating the idea of living in the Jewish homeland. Part of what strengthened her was the memory of a visit to Poland in 1998 on March of the Living, with Jewish teenagers from all over the world.
“It blew me away,” she remembers. “It’s very hard to comprehend something like that when you are 16, and I’d like to go back today and experience it again from an adult perspective.”
Every few years, she feels the need to visit Yad Vashem and be reminded of the Holocaust.
“It affects me more each time,” she says, noting she has visited other memorial sites with friends who experienced the same emotions.
Life in Tel Aviv is very full, and Ulrich fills her leisure time with many activities. Like her father she was always very sporty, and saw no reason to stop when she moved to Israel. While playing basketball is not so easy to organize, she runs and does Pilates, among other things. Living near the sea in Tel Aviv, she is able to jog along the beach whenever the mood strikes her.
Ulrich feels grateful she found a company like Live- Person and that it contributed to her successful aliya, by providing such a warm work environment.
“It’s a lovely company to work in with many benefits, and I’ve made good friends there,” she says. “I believe I can progress in the company, as there are many opportunities for growth and mobility.”
Another part of her job involves training overseas staff, and this requires a week spent in New York every so often – but she is always happy to come back to her home in Israel.