Nefesh B'Nefesh and the Jewish Agency have done it again. Tomorrow morning, the first of two chartered EL AL jumbo jets bringing close to 800 North Americans on aliyah to Israel is scheduled to land at Ben Gurion International Airport. Bringing these Jews home to Israel was made possible by the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, in close cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel. Some 500 North Americans came on aliyah in similar flights last year.
Prime Minister Sharon, Finance Minister Netanyahu, and Absorption Minister Tzippy Livni will be joining hundreds of family and friends in welcoming the flight. Also on hand for the gala welcoming ceremony will be Jewish Agency head Salai Meridor and Nefesh B'Nefesh co-founder Tony Gelbart.
Akiva Werber of the Jewish Agency's Aliyah Department provided Arutz-7 today with some statistics on North American aliyah:
"The aliyah from North America is very interesting, in that it dropped when the current war started, but then went up last year by 25%. More than half are Orthodox, and close to 20% are Conservative. Many come from religious and/or nationalistic reasons... The average number of olim [new immigrants] per year has been something like 2,000... Two weeks from now, another similar planeload will arrive, in which we [the Jewish Agency] are partners with a volunteer organization, Nefesh B'Nefesh, which has taken upon itself to organize and help olim pay off their school debts and the like. This is a very important boost, in that paying back these debts often delays aliyah just long enough so that it becomes a permanent delay..."
Werber said that there are currently only about ten Jewish Agency aliyah agents - shlichim - in the United States: "They are doing a good job, and have helped bring up the numbers."