Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, the co-founders of Nefesh B’Nefesh, were presented the Jerusalem Award for Nefesh B'Nefesh's efforts on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people. The award was presented as part of the Arutz Sheva Jerusalem Conference in New York City.
Gelbart and Rabbi Fass gave a special interview on stage about how their organization has adapted to the increased demand to move to Israel during the war. “We’ve seen an incredible spike of interest, close to 90% of what we've experienced beforehand, which requires us to have enough staffing, proper technology, and a synergetic relationship with the government.”
Gelbart talked about the war's impact on the Nefesh B'Nefesh programs to expand the north and south of Israel. “We've already built the infrastructure so anybody can immigrate, be it ten, twenty, or fifty thousand.”
The two also reviewed the MedEx initiative to encourage doctors to immigrate. “We're helping medical professionals to move to Israel. Our goal is to make sure that we get 2,000 physicians in Israel in the next 5 years. MedEx is a one-stop shop for physicians to get licensing approved, specializations recognized, and hospital interviews. This is a crisis, and we have a solution.’’
They also spoke about the challenges of working with lone soldiers, who come to Israel with no family support network. ‘’Since October 7th, we have 5,000 lone soldiers under our umbrella project. We started this concept called Operation Hug, and we flew - for free - over 1,00 parents from over 30 countries, just to give a hug to their son or daughter who was in combat. We can't begin to tell you how incredibly inspiring those reunions were.’’