1,000 New Immigrants in One Week as ingathering Increases

from Israel National News:

1,000 olim (new immigrants) from France, Britain, South Africa, and various countries in South America will arrive in Israel this week to build their lives in the Jewish state. The new arrivals will come in on 23 flights.

Of the 1,000 arrivals, 550 will come from France, 170 from various countries in South America, 100 from Britain, and 60 from South Africa.

Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky said, “At a time when Israel is dealing with de-legitimization around the world, it is important to see that our brothers throughout the Jewish world not only support us, but even choose to join us and make aliyah to Israel.”

One of the flights will be the first-ever direct aliyah flight from Los Angeles to Israel. The flight is expected to arrive on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. Bearing 62 new olim from the West Coast of the United States. 48 of the 62 are young adults and children.

The Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, which works with the Jewish Agency to encourage aliyah from English-speaking countries, reports that aliyah from North America is expected to hit a new record high in 2010. In total, 4,500 Jews from the United States and Canada plan to make Israel their home this year.

Nefesh B'Nefesh was established in 2002, and in the years since has brought 25,000 new olim to Israel from the US, Canada and Britain.