Planeload of Jews Land and Declare Israel Their New Home
 
by Baruch Gordon
August 19, 2009

(IsraelNN.com) A jumbo El Al airliner touched down at Ben Gurion
International airport early Wednesday morning with 366 Jews 
aboard who all packed their belongings, kissed North America 
goodbye, and now continue their lives as residents of the 
Jewish State.

The planeload of North Americans was preceded by 23,000 
others in the past seven years who made aliyah (immigrated to 
Israel) through the Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN) organization, 
a group dedicated to revitalizing Jewish immigration to Israel 
en masse from North America and the UK. 

The charter flight follows a group aliyah flght (a block of reserved 
seats in a regular commercial El Al flight) that departed from 
Canada Monday carrying 48 olim (new immigrants) to Israel. 
Another group flight will depart later Wednesday from Newark 
airport, capping off forty-eight hours in which 455 Western 
new immigrants will be making aliyah through Nefesh B'Nefesh.

The newcomers are among more than 3,000 Western immigrants 
moving to Israel on 16 flights this summer as part of an ongoing 
"aliyah revolution" launched by the NBN organization in 2002. 

Forty-six people from Wednesday's flight will be moving to Israel's 
northern region as part of NBN's "Go North" program, a historic 
initiative which encourages Western olim to settle in northern Israel, 
by providing enhanced financial, employment and social support. 
"Go North" aims to bring over 1,000 immigrants to Israel's morth 
over the next few years and will have assisted 32 families by the 
end of this summer.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edestein told the olim at the 
welcome reception that he toured towns in the north on Tuesday 
and heard from local residents of the dire need to bring more Jews 
to populate the region, which has a large Arab presence. 
Edelstein opened his remarks saying that it is a sad day for him 
as Minister of Diaspora Affairs as he now has 366 less people for 
whom he is responsible in his government portfolio. "But as a Jew 
and a Zionist, it is a very happy day," he said.