250 Jews return to homeland by Marcela Rojas The Journal News http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/122904/b0129nefesh.html December 29, 2004 NEW YORK - Michael Levin of Scarsdale input his parents' phone numbers into his new international cell phone. Meanwhile, Hershel and Diane Rappaport, a retired couple from Mount Vernon, checked in six large suitcases - the contents of which contained their entire lives - at a John F. Kennedy International Airport ticket counter. While Levin, 22, and the Rappaports are strangers and at different stages in their lives, they share a common goal: returning to their Jewish homeland. "We are Zionists. Israel is our land. We should be there," Hershel Rappaport, 59, said yesterday. "My grandfather said it's our mission to go back to Israel. I decided at the age of 5 I would, it just took me a long time to get here." The Rappaports and Levin were among 250 passengers, families, twenty-somethings and Holocaust survivors, who boarded an EL AL flight yesterday. The move was made possible through nonprofit organization Nefesh B'Nefesh, which works with Israel's Jewish Agency to bring North American Jews to live in Israel permanently. "This is not just a culmination of your dreams, but the dreams of past generations," said Nefesh co-founder, Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, before the group's departure. "You are creating history." Through Nefesh B'Nefesh, new immigrants receive financial loans to make the transition easier and aid in finding residence, employment and schooling for their children. Citizenship paperwork is completed on the plane ride. "There have always been a number of American Jews who want to move to Israel, but have difficulty for one reason or another. We knock out those barriers and enable more people to go," said Charley Levine, a Nefesh spokesperson. Since its founding three years ago, Nefesh B'Nefesh, which means "Jewish Souls United," has helped about 4,000 North Americans make aliyah, or a move to the Holy Land. Typically, the organization has flights during the summer, but the response was so overwhelming this year that officials organized its first winter flight. In the last few decades, immigration to Israel has slowed. But 2004 has seen the highest influx of Jews moving to Israel since 1983, Levine said. This year, the organization has sent more than 2,000 Jews to Israel and has five flights scheduled for this summer, officials said. Since 1948, the country has seen waves of immigrants fleeing oppression and persecution. In this case, the newcomers are from free, democratic countries. Such well-educated, professional people boost Israel's job market, housing and economy, Nefesh officials said. "These are valuable human resources for the country," Levine said. He said a recent study showed that each adult newcomer represents $200,000 in value to Israel's economy. "Past immigrants went with little education, job skills. They came destitute," said Levin. "Now, you are going to have a planeload of kids with at least a bachelor's degree and professional people in the middle of their career. No one on that plane is going because of persecution." Levin's decision to move to Jerusalem was an easy one, he said. He spent his junior year abroad at Hebrew University two years ago and graduated from Yeshiva University in Manhattan last week. Levin said he hopes to work as a diplomat for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. But first he plans to do ulpan, or Hebrew language training and join the Israeli army. That will give him a real sense of what it is to be a true Israeli citizen, he said. "I'm going for dual reasons of nationalism and patriotism," said Levin. "As well as pragmatic reasons, to join the army and fight terrorism." The Rappaports, recently retired teachers, are going in part because their 30-year-old daughter has lived there for 13 years. They will arrive to a new home in Zichron Yaakov, one of the country's first settlements surrounded by the Carmel mountains overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Levin's father, Jeffrey Levin, said he is proud of his son, though he will miss him tremendously. "It's a very emotional time, but it's a positive," he said. "We've always kept a foundation of Judaism at home and this is a culmination of what we instilled in him."