(IsraelNN.com) Some 210 Jews from North America made Aliyah on Tuesday, and were welcomed in a gala ceremony in Ben Gurion International Airport.  They arrived on the second Summer 2008 flight of Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that has been facilitating mass aliyah from North America for the past seven years. 

Greeting the Jewish state's newest citizens was ex-Soviet Prisoner of Zion MK Yuli Edelstein of the Likud, as well as hundreds of flag-waving family, friends, and supporters.  Edelstein presented the most senior new immigrant on the flight, Exodus-veteran Frances Greenberg, with her Aliyah certificate.

Accompanying the flight were IsraelNationalRadio show hosts Yishai and Malkah Fleisher.  Mrs. Greenberg, 88, formerly of Pittsburgh, told Yishai how she tried to make Aliyah once before - aboard the Exodus ship in 1947.  She survived the Holocaust by fleeing from Poland to Siberia, and later made a dramatic exit from a Displaced Persons camp and boarded the Exodus for Israel. The British army, however, paying no mind to the passengers' years of suffering, torpedoed and tear-gassed the ship, killing several would-be immigrants.

The others, including Frances, were forced to return to Europe.  In Germany, she met and married her husband Isaac. She survived a nearly fatal illness, and the couple moved to Pittsburgh in 1949.  After her daughter moved to Israel 36 years ago, and after her husband died a year ago, she finally decided it was time to try Aliyah again - and this time, she has succeeded.  She will be living in a retirement community near her daughter's home in Raanana.

Click above to see video - or click here.

Another Nefesh B'Nefesh flight, earlier this month, brought 220 new immigrants from North America to Israel. Eleven additional flights are scheduled this summer, bringing the total number of Nefesh B'Nefesh new immigrants to approximately 17,000.

Click here for more coverage of the most recent flight.

The Nefesh B'Nefesh new immigrants received special privileges, including Passport Control processing aboard the flight.  From the specially-chartered El Al plane, named Kiryat Shmonah after an Israeli city in the Galilee, the new Israelis were bussed to the gala welcoming ceremony, then were taken upstairs to receive their official government Aliyah cards, and then to get their luggage. 

Photos by Yishai Fleisher