Your first week in Ma'ale Adumim

Most of what you need in your first week in Ma'ale Adumim sits in two places: City Hall at 3 Derech Kedem and the mall next door (Kanyon Ofer Adumim, 5 Derech Kedem), where several government offices share the 3rd floor. This is the order I would do things in. Every fact links to the office that published it; check hours before you go, because they change around the chagim.

Save one number: 107

The municipal hotline (moked) runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Dial 107 or *107 inside the city, or 073-3486000 / 073-3485566 from outside. It routes any municipal request to the right department and follows it up. It also takes reports by online form and by WhatsApp (054-6165173, the number the municipal phonebook lists for hazards).

Most departments see the public by advance appointment, booked through the municipal online queue system, so book before you walk over.

Arnona: register as the payer

The municipality's "new residents" page puts arnona (property tax) first. The municipal payments centre is at Kikar Yahalom (commercial centre, level 1):

• Walk-in: Sun-Thu 08:00-12:30, plus Sun and Wed 16:00-18:00.
• Phone payments and enquiries on 1599-550-105: Sun-Thu 08:30-22:00, Fri 08:30-12:00.
• You register as the payer with a "change of payers" request, and you can set up a standing order by credit card or ask for a discount online.

The municipality has published a notice about the 2026 arnona rate change, with a rate table, on its arnona-orders page.

The government offices in the mall

The mall at 5 Derech Kedem saves a trip to Jerusalem for most paperwork:

• Population & Immigration Authority (Misrad HaPnim), 3rd floor: Sun, Mon, Tue and Thu 08:00-12:00, and Mon and Wed 14:30-17:00. Passports and ID cards are by appointment only, payment is by credit card only, and you must show an Israeli ID card (a driving licence is not accepted). Phone *3450.
• A government self-service kiosk handles address changes, sefach (ID appendix) printouts, registry extracts, and driving and vehicle licence services.
• Bituach Leumi, branch 4142, 3rd floor: in person Mon and Wed 08:30-13:00 by appointment; phone service *6050 Sun-Thu 08:00-17:00.
• The Rav-Kav centre, the Employment Service, the main post office and several banks are in the mall too.

For free help with rights and forms, the Citizens' Advice Service (SHIL) at Kikar Kedem is open Sun, Mon and Wed 09:00-12:00, and Mon and Wed 16:00-19:00 (073-3485800).

Aliyah: who helps you

• Ministry of Aliyah & Integration: gov.il lists its Jerusalem Region office (4 Mavo HaMatmid, Jerusalem; *2994 / 03-9733333) as the office for Ma'ale Adumim and Kfar Adumim. Hours: Sun, Mon, Wed and Thu 08:30-13:30, Mon and Wed 15:00-18:00, Tue urgent cases only.
• The municipal absorption (klita) team: an olim project manager (073-3485642), an absorption coordinator (073-3485640) and a young-adult absorption coordinator (073-3485641). Nefesh B'Nefesh says the community coordinator gives oleh families personal help with renting, school registration, city services, appliances and programmes.
• Volunteers: NBN lists the Ma'ale Adumim Action Committee (MAC), a volunteer group of religious and secular residents who help olim, plus volunteer Anglo contacts on its community page.

An honest note: MAchat, the long-running English speakers' website, says its mailing list and message board closed in November 2025. I have not found a replacement English-language list yet. If you run one, please tell me.

Hebrew: the ulpan

The Ministry of Education ulpan is at 1 Derech Midbar Yehuda (the matnas), phone 02-5357108 / 02-5357587. See ulpan listings.

Safety: the 90-second rule

Home Front Command lists Ma'ale Adumim as its own alert zone in the Yehuda area, with 90 seconds to reach a protected space. Mishor Adumim and Kfar Adumim are separate zones, also 90 seconds. The municipality's guidance is to go, in this order, to an in-apartment safe room (mamad), a floor safe room, an institutional safe room, a shelter, then an inner stairwell or inner room, and to stay 10 minutes. Its emergency page links a booklet, a shelter list by address and a siren map.

Small things that help in week one

• Library card: the public library (6 Derech Midbar Yehuda, 073-3485950) has about 85,000 titles, including new books in English, French, Spanish and Russian. It is closed to the public on Wednesdays.
• Garbage: household rubbish is collected three times a week. Bulky items go next to the bins for Sunday and Wednesday pickup; report large appliances to 107. Glass goes in the purple bins, not the orange packaging bins.
• Religious services: the department's WhatsApp bot (052-8460889) has prayer times, shiurim, shuls and mikvaot, kashrut, weekly zmanim and the eruv map.

The newcomer checklist keeps track of all of this on your own device. If anything here is out of date, please tell me with the email button on the About page.