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Ideal Jerusalem Real Estate Properties and Investments specializes in Jerusalem homes, Jerusalem apartments, Jerusalem flats in exclusive neighborhoods and in plots in Israel.

About Us

Liaura Zacharie, director of Ideal Properties & Investments" was born and raised in Paris.

She majored with honors in psychology and political science from Yeshiva University - New York.

Since her Allyiah, Liaura has done extensive work for the community, including the initiation of large scale projects for students, new-immigrants and Jewish singles.

She has brought her match-making capacities from the world of singles to the field of real-estate. "Finding a suitable place to live for someone is similar to finding a match. People come with lists of criteria and usually settle for something different from what they initially said they wanted! The "love at first-sight" syndrome appears in both scenes! The most important is they are happy with their choice".

Her "service to the community" orientation, her large network of connections and interpersonal skills, combined with her wits, dedication and integrity, have made her a leading real-estate agent in Jerusalem.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY ABOUT US

The Sarels, from Talbieh

The Schechters, from Nachlaot

The Pilzers from Rehavia

The Azulays, from Old Katamon

FROM THE PRESS

A Realtor To The Rescue

Steve Lipman

The Kaminer family of Kiryat Bialik, a Haifa suburb, needed a new place to live, temporarily, on short notice.

A Katyusha missile fired by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon exploded near their apartment two weeks ago. It was 20 yards away. “It was a miracle no one was injured,” says Chaim Kaminer, a 59-year-old businessman. His home wasn’t damaged, “thanks God,” but his family’s psyche was. “It’s driving you crazy to stay all day in the shelter.”

Kaminer closed his import business, loaded his wife and two young grandchildren and some personal belongings into a van and headed south, joining thousands of Israelis from the Katyushas’ line of fire who were bombed out of their residences or were simply unnerved by the constant attacks. Most are now housed with friends, or are staying in hotels.

Some Israelis don’t have friends with enough space, or don’t have the shekels for a week or more in a hotel.

Enter Liaura Zacharie.

The Kaminers are among a few dozen Israelis who found new living quarters because of Zacharie, a Jerusalem realtor who has used her knowledge of available houses and apartments to offer temporary shelter to the suddenly homeless.

Zacharie is hooking up North Americans who own apartments in Israel, now unoccupied, with Israelis who need a safe place to stay. Neither she nor the owners are charging for their service. (She can be reached at idealisrael@gmail.com.)

“People want to help,” she says. “Of the [owners] I’ve asked, nobody has said no.”

Chaim Kaminer, a native of Germany who came to Israel with his family in 1948, says his family is satisfied with the small, furnished house Zacharie found them in a residential area of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv.

They’ll be there, he hopes, for no more than two weeks.

“It’s very comfortable, but it’s not your house,” Kaminer says. Sometimes they watch the news on TV. “Which is not so comfortable.”

From Liaura's previous professional life

Jewish Week 28/05/2004

Danger Signs In Nation Of Singles

Growing numbers in Israel seen not just as a social issue but a matter of survival.

Gary Rosenblatt - Editor and Publisher

Suddenly, it seems, the increasing numbers of Jewish singles are gaining attention, from demographers warning of our shrinking numbers, to entrepreneurs pushing JDate and a host of other dating Web sites and matchmaking services, to psychologists worrying that today’s young people are being unrealistically demanding in choosing a mate.

While there are as many reasons for people being single as there are single people, the subtext of the communal concern is that the Jewish world simply will not survive if Jews don’t marry and have children. Nowhere is the issue more pointed than in Israel, where demographics has such a direct impact on political policy and where leaders worry that Jews will become a minority in their own country.

What astounds even government officials there, though, is the fact that

one out of every three adult Israelis is single — about 1 million people, comprising 45 percent of the Jewish men and 37 percent of the women between the ages of 20 and 44, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Approximately 400,000 of those people are 25 or older.

“I was amazed,” acknowledges Ephraim Lapid, director of public affairs for the Jewish Agency for Israel. He says the issue of singles should be a top priority of the Jewish agenda, but “no one cares enough.”

A rare exception, he notes, is Liaura Zacharie, who in 1995 created a Jerusalem-based not-for-profit organization called Eden 2000 (www.eden2000.org.il), which seeks to deal with singles on a national as well as personal level, not only helping people meet through social events, but promoting marriage as a means of revitalizing aliyah, strengthening the society and improving the country’s economic condition.

That’s a tall order, but “she has great vision and commitment,” Lapid says of Zacharie, a native of France who was educated at Stern College in New York before settling in Israel nearly 20 years ago.

Zacharie, in her charming French accent, says that “Jewish communities around the world make a mistake by addressing Jewish continuity only through education. It should be based on romance and on having babies.”

Romance, she adds, requires social skills, asserting that while society trains citizens in science, health and technology, not enough is done in the art of establishing higher quality relationships so that people can find happiness.

“People today want intimacy and growth and don’t know how to acquire them,” Zacharie says.

Her goal is to have Israel emulate Singapore, establishing a government-run singles program to promote marriage, family and social relationships on a national scale. Zacharie has been to Singapore to see firsthand how the government has worked for more than a decade to advocate for marriage and family in a culture where remaining single was perceived as a preference for many.

Public relations campaigns stressed that married people tend to be healthier, wealthier, less prone to violence and more productive workers, she said. As part of the national effort, large companies set up internal matchmaking companies, and billboards and educational materials urged people to “make an informed choice,” according to Zacharie.

Israel already is one of the most family-oriented societies in the world, but finding ways for singles to meet is not as easy as one might think. Zacharie first realized that when she saw how many young, single people who were inspired to come on aliyah, like she was, went back home within a few years.

“The main reason they were leaving,” she says, “is they were lonely,” a condition compounded by being in a family-oriented culture where people tend to celebrate holidays with close relatives.

While Israel appears to be a close-knit society, Zacharie points out that there are so many divisions and factions — religious-secular, Ashkenazi-Sephardi, sabra-immigrant, urban-kibbutz, and left-right politically — that make it difficult to find a suitable partner.

She started holding parties for friends and their friends, which became bigger and more successful, with people traveling long distances to attend. Realizing that the need was great, she formed Eden 2000, which has drawn close to 20,000 young professionals to some 400 events in the last nine years.

Craig Cole, a Bronx native who made aliyah in 1988, says he met his wife, Yael, a Yemenite Israeli, six years ago at a rooftop party in Old Jaffa sponsored by Eden 2000. What appealed to him, he said, was that the social events the group sponsored, like coffeehouse discussions about aspects of single life, attracted “quality people” and were done “in a tasteful way.” And Zacharie seemed to know everyone there, he said.

The programs “opened the door” for Cole, he said, helping him meet people beyond the small group of Anglos in Jerusalem that he knew.

The Coles became engaged after three months, married six months later, and now live with their three children in Elazar, a community in Gush Etzion.

While continuing to sponsor singles events, Zacharie acknowledges that they are hit or miss, and only address a part of the problem. She has expanded her efforts, launching Romancing Israel, a project to advance the singles issue on a national and then international scale.

Zacharie has received support from the Jewish Agency, which recognizes the benefits to aliyah and to the economy from promoting marriage and family. But until now the support has been more in praise than finances, and she is looking for other organizations to work with, insisting that the goal is “to make a difference, not just put Band-Aids here and there.”

Among her goals are to “elevate the singles issue into the Israeli public consciousness”; encourage universities to establish a discipline that would deal with love, dating and marriage; and work with psychologists and matchmakers in promoting better understanding between the sexes.

Yaakov Ne’eman, chairman of the executive committee of Bar-Ilan University and a former Israeli cabinet minister, says Israel should indeed emulate Singapore and create a government program to focus on singles.

“We must do it,” he says, for the same reason that he supports Zacharie — because “nothing is more important to the state than aliyah.”

Ne’eman sees her work with singles as part of the aliyah picture, since “many who come to Israel leave because they don’t find a partner.”

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is another advocate of Zacharie’s efforts, which he describes as “remarkable.” He, too, would like to see the Israeli government and Jewish Agency investing in this issue on a large scale.

In the past, the Knesset has debated encouraging families to have more children by providing funds, and Ephraim Lapid of the Jewish Agency would like to see a movement to promote the idea of Israelis having at least four children.

But Steven Bayme, national director for contemporary Jewish life at the American Jewish Committee, points out that historically such campaigns are unsuccessful, in any society, because the number of children a couple has is based on personal, not national, priorities.

Bayme adds that despite Israel’s demographic struggles, the Jewish state is “the only society in the world experiencing a positive birth rate.” (Germany and Brazil are the only other Jewish communities that are growing, through immigration.)

Clearly, as aliyah from the former Soviet Union and other area decreases, “internal aliyah” — Liaura Zacharie’s phrase for an increase in the number of Israelis through more marriages and children — is an issue waiting to be tapped. The concept is there, and the organization is in place. Zacharie just needs the financing and support that could, on a wide scale, raise social consciousness — and perhaps result in the raising of many more Jewish children, as well.

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The silent revolution of the Modern Era,

By Liaura Zacharie, Eden 2000

Written for the Orthodox Caucus Plenum - NY, Feb, 2005

Over the past 30 years, sociological and technological changes have significantly impacted on the manner in which men and women view themselves, dating and marriage. In a society where material comfort, personal freedom and self-actualization have become a priority, marriage seems to have lost its supremacy. True, it is a worldwide trend, considered by European sociologists as “the silent revolution of the modern era”. Some countries like Italy already have a negative population growth; others are headed down the same road. Can we really afford to go along with this modern trend?

According to the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001, published by the UJC:

Proportionally fewer Jews than Americans have ever been married
Jews tend to marry later than Americans
Proportionally more Jewish women than US women remain childless in every age group
Fertility is lower among Jewish women than among US women
42% of the Jewish adult population are single
30% of Jewish households are single-dwellings
Rates of intermarriage have increased from 13% in 1970 to 47% in 2001.

The uncircumventable conclusion is that Jewish continuity depends first and foremost on … ROMANCE! It is hard to understand how for decades we’ve missed this point. However, I believe that the crisis the world is going through is for the better as this will compel us to develop new resources that will upgrade the quality of human relations.

For many years the world Jewish leadership has attempted to counteract assimilation by enhancing Jewish education. But doesn’t assimilation find its concrete expression primarily through intermarriage? If so, why isn’t there a large scale, comprehensive, professional initiative facilitating Jewish marriages?

Some Jews do not care about marrying Jewish, but many find it very painful to marry outside of their faith. They may feel like they are cutting themselves off from their roots, their People, their heritage, their very identity. It is quite a heavy choice, especially when it happens by lack of choice.

Some singles enjoy being single, though many clearly would rather be married. They have a choice to make: they can feel miserable and cry over their fate. Or they can understand that they have a wonderful opportunity to gain greater personal awareness and grow into individuals who will be able to build more fulfilling relationships. Instead of feeling threatened by the disturbance that these “happy singles” bring to the order of traditional society, the married among us can change our often condescending look for a concretely helpful hand: become an informal matchmaker.

We ALL know people who aren’t married. Aren’t we commanded to follow in the footsteps of the Master of the World? According to the Talmud (Masechet Kiddushin), after He created the world, G-od Himself chose to make a match! What could be more uplifting and rewarding than having the merit to bring happiness to Jews who want to build a family, while at the same time strengthening the Jewish People?

So what is the origin of this growing pool of singles?

It is a reflection of the relational discomfort of modern society. Individualism, egoism, alienation, culture of “instant”, superficiality, lack of authenticity, lack of fulfillment, etc. find their most acute expression in intimate relationships.
Because marriages are no longer arranged, singles are the ones who make the choices. These new circumstances necessitate a strong sense of identity and a high level of self- awareness, which singles have not always achieved by the time they are ready to marry.
Today’s singles aspire to a higher quality of relationship including love, intimacy and growth. Functional partnership is not enough anymore. How do you achieve that quality?

Our goal must be to:

Find suitable partners in a way that is easily accessible, efficient, economical and enjoyable.
Acquire the knowledge, tools and skills to make informed choices and maintain a healthy, fulfilling and long-lasting relationship.

We can accomplish these goals through:

1. Education

Public education to elicit national public cooperation to facilitate Jewish marriages.
Singles’ education to provide them with the knowledge and tools to create and build long lasting relationships.
Parents’ education to maintain strong marriages and raise emotionally healthy children.

2. Creating opportunities for singles to meet through new and existing quality frameworks.

3. Information & Professional counseling and coaching
Making relevant information available to singles, enhancing dating skills and providing guidance in the dating process.

4. Professional training and supervision Raising standards, training and efficiencies for the professional matchmaking field.

5. Creative programming: Developing new methods and programs to suit the needs of today’s singles.
Our community tends to function best only in an “emergency mode”. But it is harder to properly address issues after damage has been done and solve situations that are difficult to reverse. We must take care of things at an earlier stage: act on the “prevention mode”.

Many Jewish singles feel bewildered and hurt by the failure of the community and its leadership to recognize their issues and by the absence of official initiatives to deal with them. By ignoring the painful situation of such a large part of our people we neglect our tradition of compassion, concern for others and for the next generations- key values in our ethical and cultural heritage. Let this be the end of the silent revolution, the end of our silence, and the beginning of our future.