This month Nefesh B’Nefesh brought 234 North American immigrants to Israel, among them several Canadians who plan to start new lives in Israel. NBN works with the Jewish Agency for Israel, its goal to assist North Americans who want to immigrate. The organization helps with forms and documents, financial support, employment agency assistant and checking up on new immigrants after they’ve arrived. Their first chartered flight was in 2002 but this year’s flight was the biggest ever, with a group of 85 young people who were moving to Israel specifically to enrol in the Israeli Defence Force.

Shimon Peres, President of Israel, welcoming new Olim (immigrants)

Tony Gelbart, chairman and co-founder of NBN, said the number of North American Jews moving to Israel has risen in the past eight years, and that the flight that left on August 2 was filled with future soldiers, families, toddlers, young adults and elderly people from all walks of life and levels of religious observance. “The trend of increasing numbers of people moving to Israel will increase,” he predicts.

Canadian Jewish News reporter Rita Poliakov accompanied the trip and said emotions ran high, particularly in the last hour of the flight. There were two Canadians out of the 85 group of new soldiers, she said: Shar Leyb from Calgary, and Jenna Greenbloom from Toronto.

The group of new immigrants was met at Ben Gurion airport by journalists and by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who addressed the crowd. “All of you made [aliyah] of your own choice. You decided to change your life in order to change the lives of Jewish people in the future,” he told the new arrivals. Addressing the future soldiers, he said: “We’re going to build peace for us, for our nation. You are coming to… an army with a human responsibility, an army that never wants to fight, but always fought what was imposed upon them. We are sincerely hoping for peace. In one word, when I look at you, I would say each of you is a hope for us.”