Nefesh B’Nefesh
Participant Kim Scop from South Africa, who hadn’t seen her son for four months, said “all of us understand that every day is a worry.”
Speaking with Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said that more than 100,000 new immigrants have moved to Israel from other countries in the last four years.
Jewish Agency figures: 38,000 people have immigrated to the Jewish state since Israel’s 73rd Independence Day • Marking this year’s celebrations, Nefesh B’Nefesh welcomes 74,000th immigrant to Israel.
“It is incredibly special to finally be here, and we are looking forward to beginning this new chapter in our lives,” said Charley Smith.
Unlike other events that are broader in scope and may be attended by people in different fields, MedEx is only for medical professionals who are planning to move to Israel in the next year or two.
Amid a 30 percent increase compared to last year, “there is no doubt that the rise in anti-Semitism and the COVID-19 pandemic had an influence,” said Becca Wertman-Traub from Vancouver.
Such growth, said Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the opening event, “is vital for the story of aliyah from all over the world and the story of aliyah from the United States.”
“All the times we were here as tourists were a lot of fun, but you don’t know what it’s like until you put your skin in here. Once you do that jump of hope, you start seeing life in a new way, through Israeli glasses,” says Shira Denise Kilemnic Mac.
Once enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, the new olim become part of the Friends of the IDF Lone Soldiers Program, which cares for some 3,500 soldiers from around the world currently in active service.
Designed to identify and promote policy changes related to the absorption and integration of new immigrants, it will rely on two decades of data and feedback from the nearly 70,000 people the organization has helped bring to Israel over the years.
“Despite the significant travel restrictions during the pandemic, we’ve succeeded in bringing tens of thousands of Jews home to Israel,” says Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog.
In the past year, 811 families chose to make aliyah, along with 1,032 singles and 332 retirees.
