Well, the latest round in the Nefesh b’Nefesh vs. Jewish Agency feud has ended in favor of NBN: Jewish Agency Signs Pact: Nefesh B’Nefesh Takes Over Aliyah:
The Jewish Agency has ended a long-standing dispute with the highly successful Nefesh B’Nefesh (NBN) organization and has agreed to allow it to manage the immigration of Jews (aliyah) from North America. The Jewish Agency officially retains responsibility for moving new immigrants to Israel and will pay for a one-way air ticket to Israel, but in practice NBN will manage the actual aliyah files.
It is about time!. This has been coming for a while – ever since its launch, NBN has had a much larger and positive impact on North American aliyah than the Jewish Agency has. (Perhaps this is because NBN is proactive in marketing to potential olim and helping them through the process, both before and after aliyah, while the JA just kind of sits back and lets people come to them). I am glad that they were able to agree to this rebalancing of official positions (if only all peace negotiations could go so well).
January 13th, 2009 at 23:56
my husband and I will make Aliyah this summer. I’m Jewish and have lived in Israel as a child and college student. Though he’s not Jewish, he has a great love for Israel and wants to make Aliyah. We’ll be living in Jerusalem so as to be near my sister who has lived there most of her life.