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July 19, 2002/Av 10 5762, Vol. 54, No. 44
Americans make aliyah to fight back
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A new immigrant with her baby disembarks together with other North Americans at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on July 9.
Photo by Brian Hendler/JTA
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NEW YORK - Howard and Dora Green were inside Jerusalem's packed Sbarro pizzeria last August when a suicide bomber blew himself and more than a dozen others to bits.
The Greens suffered personally from the terrorist attack - their niece still rests in a coma in Tel Aviv - but it prompted the couple to emerge stronger and more dedicated to preserving the Jewish people.
The "best way to fight back" said Howard Green, is to make aliyah.
Nearly one year later, the Orthodox couple from New York has moved to Israel.
They were among nearly 400 North American Jews - 150 under the age of 12 - who made aliyah in what is believed to be the largest group of North Americans to immigrate at one time to Israel.
Israel was "always a dream we could never fulfill" for financial or other reasons, Dora Green, 51, said as she prepared for her departure from JFK International Airport on July 8.
But now, with her husband's retirement benefits and a financial boost from a new organization dedicated to easing the financial burden of aliyah, the Greens are officially new immigrants.
In fact, the group that helped the Greens, Nefesh B'Nefesh, which means from soul to soul in Hebrew, was founded by someone dedicated to replacing lives lost to terror with new Jewish immigrants.
After his cousin was killed in a 2000 terrorist attack in Israel, Rabbi Joshua Fass of Boca Raton, Fla., wanted to "come stand in his stead."
Describing his inspiration to others, the 29-year-old Orthodox rabbi found a burgeoning group of like-minded prospective immigrants whose only impediment was finances.
In November, he resigned from his congregation and joined local businessman and congregant Tony Gelbart to launch the group.
They placed ads in Jewish papers across the country and urged the North American offices of the Israel Aliyah Center to direct prospective immigrants their way.
Nefesh B'Nefesh raised $3 million to send and integrate its first planeload of new immigrants, which arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport to great fanfare on July 9.
Of the total, $2 million came as a grant from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which raises money primarily from Christian donors.
Nefesh B'Nefesh offered the new immigrants from $5,000 to $25,000 in grants, averaging $20,000, to ease their move to Israel.
The group includes Jews from 23 states and Canada.
Two-thirds of the group are Orthodox, according to Fass.
North American aliyah has steadily decreased by 15 percent every year for the last five years, with slightly fewer than 1,200 North Americans making aliyah last year.
But this year, Dan Biron, executive director of the Israel Aliyah Center, which handles immigration to Israel by North American Jews, expects an increase of 20 percent due to the work of Nefesh B'Nefesh.
Nefesh B'Nefesh arranged for 130 more to depart later this summer, and another 1,200 immigrants next year.
Unlike immigrants from other countries who come to Israel fleeing danger or persecution, the beauty of this group is that they are choosing Israel purely for ideology, said Biron.
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