Easy Aliyah, Dance Mobs, and Pilot Tours to Israel
February 28th 2011
So many people have moved to Israel in the past 63 years since its national birth. Every immigrant family to Israel has their own personal story and reason; some were airlifted to Israel in the miraculous Operation Solomon and Moses flights coming from Ethiopia. Others were able to arrive on Israeli soil after escaping communist Russia. And then there are the thousands who, as Rabbi Yehoshua Fass the creator of Nefesh B’Nefesh puts it, “are not running from something but running to something”. The people who, despite doing well financially in the Western World, are determined to relocate their lives to a place across the globe and far from everything familiar, to settle in the beautiful and exciting homeland of their ancestors. As they call it, “returning home.”
Nefesh B’Nefesh is an organization that is dedicated to making it as easy as possible for people to make aliyah from the US and the UK. It’s actually only 8 years old, and has already brought more than 25,000 people to Israel. Nefesh B’Nefesh offers all sorts of benefits to help ease the transition into Israeli life ( what other country in the world offers you money to move there?!). To watch an inspiring video about the NBN creator and those who are “living the dream”, go to http://inspire.nbn.org.il/aliyah-a-tradition/videos.html.
Nefesh B’Nefesh is hip, too. It decided to celebrate its 23,000 Israeli immigrants by hosting and planning Jerusalem’s first flash mob on November 23, 2009. You’re watching 150 participants in brightly colored shirts dance at 11 a.m. in the morning in the middle of downtown Jerusalem.
Ok, so it needs a little bit of work, but it’s cute ( and has over one million hits to date). Since then, Tel Aviv put on their own flash mob, to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The place where the first one was filmed is called Ben Yehuda, which is a long strip of shops, frozen yogurt joints (frozen yogurt is like gold in Israel), bars, restaurants, and lots of tourist fun. Keep on going down Ben Yehuda and up Yafo, and you’ll hit Japanika, the ultimate in kosher sushi.
Anyways, back to making aliyah. If you are seriously considering making the Holy Land your new stomping ground, you should look into a “pilot tour” to Israel. Why pilot? To network, research jobs in Israel, and check out the plethora of different communities to figure out where you would best fit. NBN offers group sessions to plan for these pilot trips to Israel: trips. http://www.nbn.org.il/aliyahpedia/getting-started/pilot-trip/1018-planning-a-pilot-trip.html, to help you tour in Israel, for life!
