Martin wrote in 1959:

"On January 1, 1948, I arrived in Palestine, where I have lived ever since."

He called himself Joel in Israel, joined the kibbutz Hama'apil, where some members of the Zionist movement from Sennfeld had already settled and where his childhood friend Manef Biran (Manfred Bernheim) from Hechingen started a family.

Joel Eppstein married his wife Chanah here and had three children with her.
In Israel, he first worked in the fields of the kibbutz and then in cattle breeding.
The difficult years in Germany, in Australia and in England now also affected his health.