Hyper Aliyah or Aliyah Hype?

Everyone enjoys the self-promotion videos that Nefesh B’Nefesh has been pushing on the Internet in an expensive publicity campaign heralding the 2000 new olim which the organization has helped to bring to Israel from North America during the summer of 2024. Very nice. Baruch haba! But how many new olim arrived in the winter and spring of 2024, and how many are arriving this fall? I would guess that the annual total won’t exceed the approximately 3,000 figure which arrived last year. Apparently, NBN books their Aliyah flights for the summer because kids have finished the school year and the stream of summer arrivals gives the impression that NBN is succeeding in the mission of bringing Jews to Israel.  

Let’s say that there are 5 million actual Jews in North America. The 3000 new arrivals amount to .06 percent of the total. This means that 99.94 of the Jews in North America are still there. What kind of success is this? 

Admittedly, the task of inspiring the Jews of North America to come on Aliyah is an extremely difficult challenge. By and large, they simply don’t want to come. The majority are not attached to Judaism and have almost no Jewish Identity outside of bagels and lox. The “Ultra-Orthodox” are no less estranged from the State of Israel, blindly living out their hermetic lives in the modern-day ghettos of Lakewood, Brooklyn, and Monsey. And while the Religious Zionist community in America are firm supporters of their Israeli brothers and sisters, they are in no rush to have their children join the IDF and actually fight in the defense of the Jewish Homeland. So Nefesh B’Nefesh faces an almost mission-impossible task.     

Furthermore, it must be noted that the Nefesh B’Nefesh organization has the most noble intentions in the world. It is run by very dedicated people whose efforts are worthy of appreciation and praise. In addition, the people at NBN would probably like to create new approaches to Aliyah but they are handcuffed by partner organizations which have governing boards controlled by reform and liberal Jews. Still the question has to be asked – who gave Nefesh B’Nefesh the monopoly on Aliyah from North America? 

I worked at the Jewish Agency Israel Aliyah Center in New York City in 1982 through 1984, twenty years before NBN was established. Back then, the Jewish Agency was in charge of Aliyah from North America. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, in the year 1983 we sent some 3,800 new immigrants to Israel. NBN only topped that figure some 40 years later in 2021 in wake of the Corona scare. For the past decade the organization has helped a yearly average of 2,500 new olim in their journey to the Promised Land. 

Nefesh B’Nefesh works in conjunction with the Israel Ministry of Aliyah, the Israel Jewish Agency, the JNF-USA, and Karen Kayemeth LeIsrael. These groups have a combined budget of many billions of shekels. How is the money spent which is allocated to Aliyah and which brings only 3000 Jews from North America each year? Does Nefesh B’Nefesh have a controller which oversees their operations? Are elections held every few years to refresh its directorship? Who determines the people who are running the show? Who determines its strategies and its ideological campaigns?  

Having written about Aliyah for the past 40 years, and having co-organized several recent Emergency Aliyah Conferences attended by independent grassroots activists who have worked for many years in the field, I can only say that a large number of them express their belief that Israel’s official Aliyah organizations could be doing a far better job of attracting more Jewish immigrants to our beautiful, dynamic, and embattled country. Perhaps new and different strategies are needed? Perhaps the official government agencies and quasi-official organizations like NBN could do more to work side-by-side with the grassroots activists?  Perhaps a more aggressive approach is needed? Perhaps bureaucratic snares need to be lessened? Perhaps we need to organize another Emergency Aliyah Conference to make this urgent need more clear.  

Aliyah is always important. It is one of the foundations of Medinat Yisrael. Today, when Israel is embroiled in a crucial war, and when many more soldiers are needed to combat enemies who threaten the country from all directions, Aliyah must be a top priority. The official Aliyah agencies are doing their best, but it isn’t enough. Much more needs to be done.   

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