 In 1985 she was a participant on the first Jerusalem Fellowships trip to Israel, and her experience was so positive that she decided to take time off to learn more about Judaism.She studied for a year at the EYAHT and Neve Yerushalayim colleges for advanced Jewish learning in Jerusalem.She returned briefly to Toronto for a writing job for Aish HaTorah, and afterward returned to Israel, where she met her husband, Yakov Palatnik, a native of Chicago.