'Twenty-five percent of the Jewish population in Ligonier, Pennsylvania made aliya on September 3 of last year," Aaron Pavloff says, pausing for a moment to let this fact register. "We were the only Jewish family in town. I was the chief rabbi at my high school." Aside from a good sense of humor, which he certainly needs to survive here alone, Aaron radiates youthful determination and conviction. "There are no Zionists in Tel Aviv, but I don't let them get me down. I bring them up." BEFORE ARRIVAL "I grew up on a 35-acre [140-dunam] farm. You couldn't see other houses, just nature and animals," he says. Every summer, he went to Reform Jewish camps and loved socializing with other Jews his own age. "I'm not a religious guy. I like the identity more than the religion." In the summer of 2005, he took a five-week trip to Israel with 500 kids from Reform camps all over the US. "We spent a week in Prague and then sailed to Haifa on the Exodus. I'd been to Israel three times before that, but it was the first chance I got to really appreciate it." He knew he wanted to return so he applied for a semester abroad program on Kibbutz Tzova, just outside Jerusalem, and came to study in the spring of 2006. During the program, he decided that he was going to make aliya after high school and do his part by serving in the army. UPON ARRIVAL "My parents put me on the Nefesh B'Nefesh plane and off I went," he says. He spent the first month at an ulpan in Netanya working and learning Hebrew with other kids his age. "There were some Americans, Canadians, an Australian and lots of Venezuelans. I was the youngest and it was all guys. It's the first time in the history of the program that no girls came." After a while the 17 boys were dispersed. Pavloff was moved to an absorption center in Ashkelon, where he spent the next five months. Since then, he's been working a medley of different jobs to support himself until he can start his army service. FAMILY HISTORY Pavloff's younger brother will be a senior in high school this fall. His maternal grandparents live in upstate New York on a dairy farm and his paternal grandparents have both passed away. "I never met my paternal grandfather because he died before I was born, but I was close to my grandmother. She died just before I made aliya, at the age of 98, in December of 2006. We came to Israel once together for her 90th birthday and had a great time." His parents, who still live in Pennsylvania, have a small human resources business they run from home. His only family in Israel is his second cousin James Snyder, the director of the Israel Museum. WORK Not financially supported by his parents, Pavloff is determined to make it on his own His first job, which lasted for three days, was in a sandwich bar on Rehov Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv. "All I've got left from that is the T-shirt," he says. Then came the position as a waiter in the Hilton, but that wasn't a huge success either. For the last several months, he's been working at a company in Ra'anana called DSNR that helps clients apply for green cards in the United States. Although the hourly wage is low, he gets commissions. "I sell the American dream from Israel," he says, laughing at the irony. LIVING ENVIRONMENT "Now that is going to be a good story for my grandchildren," he says of his spacious, three-bedroom apartment in South Tel Aviv with no air conditioning and big roaches. On his first night there, he was awakened from a deep sleep by one of them crawling across his arm and into the palm of his hand. He instinctively squeezed the bug and threw it against the wall. A few seconds later, he felt another creepy creature crawling up his leg. To combat the problem, he began to sleep with the lights on, but then he discovered that his entire body was covered with mosquito bites. "I put up a four-person tent in my room and zipped it up to sleep. That worked for a while but I eventually bought a proper bed and mattress." ROUTINE He works night shifts six days a week. He has one day off in the middle of the week and likes to work Shabbat because it means getting paid overtime. "I usually leave the house around 1:30, walk to the bus station and hop on the bus to Ra'anana, work until about 10 p.m." When he gets home around 11:30, he hangs out with friends until around 3, watching movies and playing poker. HOBBIES He loves camping, fishing and being out in nature. One of his favorite pastimes back in Pennsylvania was taking road trips and getting lost on purpose. "Pennsylvania is the US state with the most roads," he explains. "You can get anywhere 1,000 different ways so it was a fun challenge to just head out without a map and then see if I could find a new way to get back home." These days, he's enjoying city life in Tel Aviv. "It's the greatest city on earth. I love living with palm trees." CIRCLE In his first month here, he met a large group of Venezuelans who introduced him to other Venezuelan friends who now live 10 blocks away. "When you come here without your family, your friends become your family and these guys are like my brothers." LANGUAGE "I was the only native English speaker in the entire Ashkelon absorption center," he says. "You would think that would make my Hebrew really good, but it just improved my Venezuelan slang." RELIGION Raised in a Reform household, Judaism was never as attractive or interesting for Aaron as a religion as it was as an identity. His mother, who was born Catholic, converted before he was born and his father is a practicing Jew. The family attended services, but Aaron never particularly liked going. "The older I got and the less they forced me to go, the less I went," he says. IDENTIFICATION Aaron identifies himself as a Jewish American who is half Venezuelan, thanks to the friends he has adopted here. "I'm not Israeli yet, but being in the army is going to make me Israeli," he declares confidently. PLANS He had his first meeting with the IDF this fall and passed the physical exam with a perfect score. This December he begins a three-month long army training program, and in March he will take the exam to enter a combat unit. If he passes, he will serve in the special forces, which is his great hope. If not, he'll serve in a regular infantry unit. "I don't envision myself sitting around guarding outposts. I want to be a paratrooper and be in the best unit I can," he says. "I wouldn't mind being an officer either so I can tell Israelis what to do," he adds. 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