JerusalemIsrael
Jerusalem is a U.S. Foreign Service post in Israel, in the State Department's Near East bureau, with a 15% hardship differential, 15% danger pay and 70% post allowance (COLA). The current U.S. travel advisory for Israel is Level 3, reconsider travel. Daily life runs on Hebrew and Arabic, and English will also get you by. Bidders will find 1 international school for mission families and summers to 91°F, winters to 43°F, ~54 rain days/yr. This post report brings together allowances, schools, safety, weather, flights, embassy holidays, and anonymous community reviews from Foreign Service families who have served in Jerusalem.
What stands out
How Jerusalem differs from the other 255 posts, worked out from the data on this page.
- In its favour: 70% COLA, higher than 93% of posts
- Note: 15% hardship differential plus 15% danger pay
- Note: Away-from-post schooling is funded at every grade, K to 12
- Worth knowing: Level 3 travel advisory: terrorism and civil unrest
Against Washington, DC
The same measurements, taken the same way, for the city most bidders are leaving.
- Hottest month averages 91°F, 3° hotter than a Washington summer
- Coldest month averages lows of 43°F, 15° milder than a Washington winter
- Rain on only 54 days a year, against 124 in Washington
- Everyday prices are close to US levels
- Air as clean as Washington's, with almost no unhealthy days
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Climate & weather
Temperature range, F
Rain days
Air quality, monthly PM2.5 (ug/m3)
Green under 12 (good) · amber to 35 (moderate) · red above (unhealthy for sensitive groups)
Real data: Open-Meteo archive (2022-2024 daily, temperature, rain, daylight) and Open-Meteo air quality API (CAMS, hourly PM2.5 2022-2025), aggregated to monthly normals.
Embassy holidays 2026 (official)21 closure days
local US federal
Real data: official embassy holiday schedule ↗. Observed-at-post dates; religious holiday dates are subject to lunar confirmation.
Pay & allowances
Paycheck simulator
What Jerusalem's allowances actually do to your pay, estimate only
| Base salary | $100,000 |
| Hardship differential (15%)taxable, % of base | $15,000 |
| Danger pay (15%)taxable, % of base | $15,000 |
| COLA (70%)non-taxable, % of spendable income | $33,950 |
| Estimated annual total | $163,950 |
Estimate only, for planning purposes; figures may not reflect the most recent DSSR updates. COLA is applied to spendable income (approximated here at 48.5% of salary, the official tables vary by salary and family size). Grade/step fills from the official Overseas Schedule (includes Overseas Comparability Pay); taxes and premium-pay caps are not modeled. Allowance rates: allowances.state.gov, fetched 2026-11-02. Verify current rates in the DSSR and with your HR office before making career decisions.
Community & mission
Community ratings COMMUNITY-REPORTED
Loading community ratings
What do these categories mean?
- Housing
- Community average (1-5) for assigned housing: size, condition, commute, and how the housing pool compares to expectations. Housing type (government-leased, compound, apartments) is on each post page.
- School rating
- Community average (1-5) of how families rated the schools their kids actually attended: academics, support for arriving mid-year, special needs, and how happy the kids were. Reviewers' grade levels vary, read individual reviews for your kids' ages.
- Morale
- Community average (1-5) for overall post morale, the intangible sum of community, leadership, workload, and whether people would bid it again. Often the number seasoned bidders read first.
- Internet (community rating)
- How livable the internet actually felt (1-5): reliability and VPN-friendliness, not just headline speed. Can diverge from the measured Mbps, outages and throttling show up here first.
- Spouse / partner employment
- Community average (1-5) of how realistic it is for an accompanying spouse or partner (EFM) to work at this post. It reflects three paths: jobs inside the mission (EFM positions), local-economy work (depends on the bilateral work agreement and language), and remote work for a U.S. employer (depends on time zone and internet). 1 ≈ career pause likely · 5 ≈ multiple realistic options.
- Healthcare
- Community average (1-5) for healthcare at post: local care you would actually use, English-speaking providers, and how much falls back on regional medevac, a real factor for families and chronic conditions.
Foreign Service overlay
- Housing
- Family members working locally
- Bilateral work agreement: accredited spouses and dependents may seek work on the local economy in Israel.Status changes, and the HR officer at post has the final word. State's list ↗
- Language training
- Hebrew is an FSI Category III language: about 44 weeks of full-time study to reach professional working proficiency. English will get you by in the meantime.Applies to language-designated jobs; whether yours is one is in the bid list. FSI ↗
- Allowances source
- allowances.state.gov (public) · fetched 2026-11-02
Housing and EFM notes are crowdsourced from the community, never from internal systems.
Location
- Local time right now
- --:--:--
- Coordinates
- 31.77, 35.21
- Region
- Near East
- Elevation
- 783 m (2,569 ft)
Life at post
The parts the fact sheet leaves out
Getting away
Nonstop routes for R&R, long weekends, and getting home
Cheapest weekend round trips · typical fares
Also nonstop
Family visiting? US passport holders need an electronic travel authorization, stays up to 90 days (ETA-IL).
~$ = typical round-trip economy fare, refreshed monthly, plan with it, don't book with it. Routes fetched from Wikipedia (Airlines & destinations), 2026-11-01.
Health
Security & context
- Official U.S. travel advisory
- Level 3: Reconsider Travel Read the full advisory ↗Risks the advisory names: terrorism and civil unrest.Real data: travel.state.gov, fetched 2026-11-02
- Earthquake exposure
- Moderate seismicity, 4 quakes of M5+ within 300 km since 2000.Real data: USGS earthquake catalog.
- What crime looks like
- Governance & daily freedom
- Relations with the US
Home & daily life
- Messaging apps
- No blocking measured: WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram connect normally in network tests from Israel.Measured by OONI volunteers over the last 60 days, country-wide. A network test, not a legal statement.
- Power & plugs
Plug type: C/H · 230V 50Hz , US plugs won't fit, bring adapters. Phone and laptop chargers are fine on 230V; only US-only appliances (hair dryers, kitchen gear) need a transformer.
- Household help
- Pets
- Quarantine: none
- Microchip must be implanted before or on the date of rabies vaccination; some breeds need import license.
- Official import requirements for Israel (USDA APHIS) →
Getting around & fitting in
- Getting around
- Rules of the road (and the bar)
- Drives on the rightDriving age 17Drinking age 18Road deaths 3.9/100k (US ~14)
- Language
- HebrewArabicEnglish gets you by
Arabic here means the local dialect, which can differ a lot from the one you studied.
Tell the posts page what you speak to filter all posts by your languages. It is never shown to anyone.
LGBTQ+ travelers
Official State Dept guidance for Israel · page updated October 22, 2026
LGB Rights: There are no legal restrictions on same-sex sexual relations or the organization of LGB events in Israel. Israeli anti-discrimination laws protect LGB individuals. Acceptance and tolerance of LGB people vary throughout the country and from neighborhood to neighborhood. As of August 2014, the Law of Return allows that same-sex spouses of Jews immigrating to Israel – known as “making Aliyah” – are eligible to make Aliyah with their spouses and receive Israeli citizenship. The legal systems in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are based on the 1960 Jordanian penal code which prohibits consensual same-sex sexual activity. However, the PA has not prosecuted individuals suspected of such activity. Societal discrimination, including from families, based on cultural and religious traditions is commonplace, making the West Bank and Gaza challenging environments for LGB persons. PA security officers have harassed, abused, and sometimes arrested LGB individuals because of their sexual orientation. NGOs have reported that Hamas also harassed and detained persons in Gaza due to their sexual orientation. See our LGB Travel Information page and section 6 of the Department of State's Human Rights report for further details.
Same-sex spouse and MOH accreditation is decided post by post and is not published publicly. Community reviews are the best read on how it works here in practice, and glifaa (LGBTQ+ employees of foreign-affairs agencies) maintains member resources.
Money & prices
- Local currency
- Israeli new shekel · 3.11 ILS/USD. Has strengthened sharply against the dollar over 24 months (+17% vs. USD). A weakening currency stretches a dollar salary further; a strengthening one quietly shrinks it.
- Local inflation
- 3% CPI inflation (2025). High inflation means posted prices age fast, and COLA reviews chase reality.
- Overall price level
- Local prices run about 101% of US prices overall (World Bank PPP, 2025). Imported and expat-favorite goods usually cost more than this average suggests.US 100%
Schools & reviews
Schools
Education allowance
The yearly maximum State reimburses per child. Office of Allowances, effective 11/01/2026.
- Grades K-4
- $54,900
- Grades 5-9
- $58,200
- Grade 10
- $39,900
- Grades 11-12
- $41,950
A higher away-from-post rate of $77,850 applies for every grade. That is the rate that funds boarding school, and the Office generally sets it above the at-post rate only for grades it does not consider adequately served locally.
The Jerusalem directory is brand new. Served here? Pass along the pediatrician or dry cleaner the next family will need.
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Community reviews
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