Nefesh B’Nefesh flight carries 231, including 106 kids

JERUSALEM, Israel — They came from across the United States and Canada — 231 of them, aged two months to 78 years and ranging across the Jewish spectrum from secular to charedi —united in one thought: We are going home.

This week’s Nefesh B’Nefesh flight, the group’s 49th such transport, carried NBN’s 35,000th oleh (immigrant) to Israel. The passengers, who came from thouoghout the United States and Canada — including West Hempstead, Great Neck, Queens and Brooklyn — personify the ideal of kibbutz galuyot (the ingathering of the exiles), moving to Israel to pursue their dreams of living in the Promised Land.

The Jewish Star joined them for the ride.

Near the synagogue in JFK International Airport before Monday morning’s departure, NBN co-founder and executive director Rabbi Yehoshua Fass told the group, “It doesn’t get any less emotional; you’ve been counting down to this day.”

The diverse olim about to board the NBN charter flight are “unified to build Israel,” he said. “It’s a miracle, to fulfill our promise as a people.”

Gilad Schalit, himself finally home after a long captivity, accompanied the olim on the flight that brought them home, posing for photos with the children.

Rabbi Fass blessed the 231 olim as he said he had blessed every NBN group, quoting from Shir Hamaalot (“when G-d returned the returnees of Zion we were as dreamers”), that “your life in reality surpasses all your hopes, dreams and aspirations — mazal tov!”

Gil Lainer, Israel’s consul for public affairs, said the olim were “a vital and welcome addition, a link in a chain.”

Jewish National Fund CEO Russell Robinson said that the olim are sending a message that “we won.”

He said that 115 years after JNF began repurchasing the land, “No message is stronger.” We are “part of the land of Israel today, tomorrow and forever,”

NBN partners with the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency, JNF and private funds to facilitate the aliyah of Jews from North America.

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