Aliyah flight
Aliyah flightFlash90

The Ministry for Immigration and Absorption will be launching a special program in the US on Sunday - the "Return Home" Project - encouraging Israeli emigrants to return to their homeland. 

Native Israelis living in the US will be encouraged to move to the Negev and the Galilee, as part of efforts to boost development there. The conference will launch on Sunday in New York and be held in other cities across the US, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami. 

The project will give added incentives to natives Israelis who return to Israel and run for two years, from 2014-2015. Eight million shekels ($2.5 million) have been allotted to the project thus far. 

Incentives include help finding employment and housing, as well as subsidies of up to 20,000 shekel per family. The benefits include rent subsidies (up to the amount of NIS 1,200 a month); grants for finding a job or starting a business (up to 5,600 shekels); up to 24% income tax discount per individual; low-interest loans; and personal business support free of charge. 

Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee, and Minister of Regional Development, Energy and Water, Silvan Shalom welcomed the program's launch.

"I believe that the myriad of benefits and bonuses included in the program will allow returning residents take advantage of opportunities offered around the Negev and Galilee," Shalom stated. "The program is designed to return native Israelis to Israel and strengthen the Negev and Galilee. This is a Zionist effort to help the Galilee, the Negev and the whole country."