As of this week, families who immigrate to Israel from the U.S. will be eligible for a $25,000 grant, if they choose to settle in the Golan and Galilee.

The grant will come from the immigration-assistance organization Nefesh B'Nefesh and the Russell Berrie Foundation of Teaneck, New Jersey, which yesterday announced their new $10 million project, "Go North." The initiative seeks to bring more than 1,000 newcomers to the north over the next few years. According to the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, which is cosponsoring the project, the first stage of the plan is to bring a nucleus of 30 families to a new community in the Galilee.

"That community will form the basis for a much larger Anglo town or villages in the area," the ministry's director general, Orly Yechezkel, told Haaretz yesterday.

"We're not sure yet whether the first group will be housed in caravillas (mobile homes) or in rented apartments," Yechezkel added. "We are inclined to use the former housing solution."

The ministry does not have data on how many immigrants from the U.S. are currently living in the north, but Nefesh B'Nefesh's director of immigrant absorption, Danny Oberman, said that since the organization was founded six years ago, it has brought approximately 400 people to the north.

Asked whether the project is an attempt to bolster the Galilee's Jewish population - a minority of some 45 percent, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics - versus the 52-percent Arab majority, Yechezkel said: "I wouldn't call it that. We have an excellent Druze population which is very loyal."

She went on to say that the program "simply aims to bring more strong and capable individuals to the region, which will help all of its inhabitants, regardless of whether they are Jewish."

In addition to the $25,000 grant, the project will offer participants transportation subsidies, due to the large distances. "Nefesh B'Nefesh will be heavily subsidizing the purchase of a vehicle," the organization said in its announcement.

The organization will also appoint a professional to provide participants with employment services. The organization's regional coordinator will help participants with their social needs and any other assistance they may require, in order to create a social infrastructure.

Immigrant Absorption Minister Eli Aflalo praised the program and pledged to work toward developing "tailored absorption programs that will meet the needs of Western immigrants" in the north.