Approximately 400 immigrants from the United States and Canada landed this
morning at Ben-Gurion International Airport in the largest aliyah group
from North America in 25 years, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Rabbi Joshua
Fass, a new oleh from Florida and cofounder of Nefesh B'Nefesh, the group
that sponsored this mass immigration, said this aliyah is "a passionate
and palpable expression of solidarity." 

Another 150 North Americans are expected to arrive later this summer via
Nefesh B'Nefesh, a program conducted in conjunction with the Jewish Agency
and the Ministry of Absorption. The program offers economic assistance in
the form of one-time grants of $5,000 to $25,000 to each new arrival or
family, with the help of private donors. Funding for this initial group of
400 came mostly from a $2 million grant from the International Fellowship
of Christians and Jews . The program hopes to bring a plane of immigrants
every three months. 

Among this first group are 152 children, of whom 99 are under the age of
five. According to an El Al spokeswoman, the youngest immigrant is four
months old and the oldest is 62. 

Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor said, "The Jewish community in the U
.S. is the largest in the world and therefore from a strategic point of
view, it is a great potential reservoir in the world for immigration." In
recent years the Jewish Agency has been examining different ways to
encourage and promote North American immigration.