Immigration To Israel Breaks Records. Largest Number Ever From France.

Historic Year for Aliyah to Israel

By Raphael Poch January 1, 2015 , 

“And there is hope for your future says the Lord, that your children shall come home again, to their own border.” (Jeremiah 31:16)

108 future IDF Lone Soldiers were greeted upon their arrival in Israel by President Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin and Minister of Interior, Gideon Saar (center). (Photo: Shahar Azran/ Nefesh B’Nefesh)

The year 2014 had some very newsworthy occurrences. Civil war took place in Ukraine and continued in Syria; the Palestinians tried to proclaim a state via the UN and failed; a plane went missing; the world played soccer; Hamas used tunnels in order to attack Israel; allied combat operations in Afghanistan ended; Scotland decided not to change the English flag; Ebola spread across the world; Boko Haram kidnapped young girls and forced them to convert to Islam in order to marry them; a new terrorist country was declared and the US began airstrikes against it; and best of all, over 26,500 Jews returned to their homeland in Israel.

2014 was the largest influx of Jews to Israel in over 10 years. For the first time ever, France had the highest number of ex-patriots move to the Holy Land. Nathan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, said that “This is a year of record-breaking Aliyah. I very much hope the next government continues to invest in Aliyah.”

Following France, the next largest population of Jews came from the Ukraine, where immigration to Israel rose by 190 percent following the violence that is continuing to take place in that country.

MK Rabbi Dov Lipman and Israel Retruns Founder Michael Freund at Ben Gurion Airport together with the Bnei Menashe children who made Aliyah in 2014. (Photo: Nir Kafri)

One of the more unique group of Jews to make aliyah were members of the Bnei Menashe from India who hail from the lost tribe on Menashe. Laura Ben-David, spokesman for the Israel Returns organization responsible for bringing the Bnei Menashe to Israel, told Breaking Israel News that in 2014, over 650 members of the lost tribe returned to their homeland of Israel.

“2014 was a record year for Bnei Menashe aliyah and truly, it is nothing short of a modern-day miracle,” she said. “The determination of these people to return to Israel after 2,700 years in exile is inspiring and it is an honor and privilege to help them make their way home”

The Jewish Agency announced the historic numbers as part of their year end summation on Wednesday. They reported that the country saw a rise of some 32 percent in immigration over the previous year’s tally. Sharansky proudly exclaimed the news for all to hear.

“For the first time in Israel’s history, the number of immigrants who came to Israel from the free world is greater than that of immigrants fleeing countries in distress,” Sharansky said, predicting “further increases in Aliya from around the world” and calling on the government to maintain “Aliya encouragement and immigrant absorption as top priorities.”

The spike in immigration to Israel came in spite of Operation Protective Edge, where majority of the country come under threat of rocket attacks from Gaza for the first time. One undaunted French immigrant told reporters over the summer, “Even if Israel is burning, we will be there.”

Over half of the new immigrants were under the age of 35. including some 5,300 children and some 8,200 young adults between the ages of 18 and 34. The eldest immigrant this year was born in 1910 and made Aliyah from France at the age of 104. The youngest came from the United States and was only several weeks old.

Some 2,500 of the immigrants work in engineering and technological fields, and thousands hold degrees in the humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and exact sciences. More than 1,000 doctors and health professionals made Aliyah, as did some 600 artists and athletes. In November, the Government of Israel approved a series of recommendations aimed at breaking down barriers to employment for immigrants and ease their integration into the workforce.

Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofia Landver said; “We expect that some 10,000 new immigrants will come from France alone next year, and we will surpass 30,000 immigrants from around the world – and even more.”

LISTEN BELOW: Ukrainian Aliya Up a Whopping 190% in 2014: What Does the Future Hold?

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/26800/historic-year-for-aliyah-to-israel-aliyah/#Hzg3jwH01VTgAtSv.99

Indian Jews Returning To Israel--A Remarkable Story.

A Story of Faith That Spans the Centuries

Posted by: Raphael Poch May 29, 2014 , 12:55 pm

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Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
-ISAIAH (49:22)

Pictured (left-right) Israel365 Director, Rabbi Tuly Weisz, Ruth Hawkip, and “Israel Returns” Director Michael Freund.

“A number of years ago when I was working in the Prime Minister’s Office under Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term in office, I noticed a little orange letter that was unopened and seemed to have come from India. It was addressed to the Prime Minister. As often happens with private letters to politicians, it went unanswered. I decided to open it, and to my surprise it was a letter from a community in India that claimed it was Jewish, was part of the Ten Lost Tribes and wished to return home to Israel. I thought to myself, “if someone is crazy enough to want to join the Jewish people in the state of Israel from India, then why not help them, so I went to meet with the community.”

That is how Michael Freund Director of ‘Israel Returns’ began the story of the Bnei Menashe when addressing the Israel365 Summit and other guests.

“The Bnei Menashe have struggled tremendously to hold on to their values, traditions and identity. We are happy to have brought over 2,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community home to Israel and in the next month we are bringing 250 more.”

The Bnei Menashe attribute their heritage to the first exile from Zion in the days of the Assyrian exile back in the 8th Century B.C.E. Israel Returns this month has brought 80 members of Bnei Menashe home so far, and has approximately another 140 to come. Many of the new immigrants are friends, relatives and loved ones of the immigrants who have already come with Israel Returns during the immigration waves seven years ago and last year. Having been separated from their loved ones sometimes for years, the Bnei Menashe have never lost their faith and their hope of one day returning to Israel and being reunited with those who were already here. This faith stood the test of time in the face of bureaucratic red tape that prevented them from migrating. After the first wave of immigration back in 2007 the government of Ehud Olmert closed the door to further immigration stranding many of the Bnei Menashe in India, while being separated from their families, and sometimes even separating fiancees.

“We are extremely thankful to MK Lipman and his party of Yesh Atid for their support in getting this current government to reopen the doors to the Bnei Menashe some of whom can now come home again,” said Freund.

The surprise of the evening was the speech of Ruth Hawkip one of the Bnei Menashe who had come on an earlier wave of immigration from India.

Ruth who had worked for a high-tech company in Bangalore (India’s Silicon Valley) and was studying for her Master’s degree in New Delhi, addressed the mixed Christian and Jewish audience and told them how she had first heard of Israel. “Ever since I was a little girl, my father always used to tell me that India was not our real home. One day we would move to our real home in the land of Israel. He repeated this so often that I thought it was a lie.”

Ruth told the crowd of her own redemption story, from a sense of disbelief to the fulfillment of 2,700 year old dream.

“I never believed that I would actually go and move there. We were the only Jewish family in our village and we had no connection with Israel at all. The Bnei Menashe have many songs of yearning for Zion, one such song tells of messengers from Judah that will come and take us home. One day a few Israeli tourists passed through our village, which was very odd as there wasn’t much to see and no Jewish community. Through the tourists we were put in touch with Israel Returns and suddenly the dream had a semblance of reality,” she said.

“Then, just after my first semester of my Master’s the call came from my father. I couldn’t believe it. I had just made the payment for that semester and I got the call that we had the opportunity to go to Israel. I was torn, because I was in the middle of my degree and it was a lot of money, but my father said that this opportunity may not come again, so I picked up and left, and came home.”

Ruth’s story would not have been possible without the help and intervention of Israel Returns, the organization that takes upon itself the financing of all of the Bnei Menashe immigrants for the flights as well as supporting them for the first three months of their new lives in Israel. Freund said that this is only possible because of the financial backing of international donors and supporters from all over the world.

Members of the Israel365 Summit and other Christian guests who came to the airport to show their support for the immigration of the Bnei Menashe and greet new immigrants from the tribe were overjoyed to see the fulfillment of this biblical prophecy. “I’m waiting here to see this story reach it’s completion and I have got goosebumps,” said John Sommerville a well renowned Christian Zionist.

Freund told Breaking Israel News; “The prophet Isaiah told us that the nations of the world will have a part to play in the return of Jews to their homeland. We see Christian involvement in bringing the Bnei Menashe, as well as other lost Jews, back to Zion as being biblically ordained.”

When asked about the success rate of the Bnei Menashe immigrants and how they handle their new home Freund responded and said: “They have a very successful absorption. There are a large number of Bnei Menashe pursuing higher education degrees, almost all serve in the IDF and many become officers, some have even been Rabbinically ordained. They are a people of strong faith and deep zionist commitment. We invest a great deal of resources in making sure that their absorption goes as smoothly as possible.”

The cost incurred for absorbing a new immigrant for a month is $600 while for the entire three month process costs $1800. A fee that seems trivial when keeping in mind that the result is the fulfillment of a 2,700 year old dream, yet when multiplied by the 7,000 Bnei Menashe who are still awaiting confirmation that they too can come home to Israel, the cost can be prohibitive.

To help allay that, Freund appealed to Christian supporters worldwide. “I call upon our Christian Brethren all over the world to help restore the lost tribe of Menashe back to Zion by supporting our work.” When hearing stories like that of Ruth, and some of the other immigrants from this past week, it is hard not to answer the call.

Indian Jews Come Home To Israel In Special Homecoming.

Sweethearts Separated for Seven Years Reunited in Zion

Posted by: Raphael Poch May 27, 2014 , 1:18 pm

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“In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord: ‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’ For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 33:10)

Gavriel and Leora, members of the Bnei Menashe, reunited. (Photo: Israel Returns)

They say that airports are places of broken hearts and fulfilled dreams. Of heart wrenching goodbyes and new beginnings. Having been in and out of many airports, nothing could have prepared me witnessing the fulfillment of prophecy or the reunification of loving couples separated by leagues of ocean and bureaucratic red tape.

Yesterday, together with members of the Israel365 summit to Israel, I witnessed the in-gathering of the exiles of Israel and the return of members of one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel – the Bnei Menashe from India.

This was the second flight over the last week of members of the lost tribe of Menashe coming home to Zion. On both flights were young women whose fiancés had already arrived to Israel in an earlier wave of immigration. One woman’s fiancé arrived to Israel last year and the other over seven years ago.

Gamliel and Edna had been separated for seven years since the first wave of Bnei Menashe immigrants arrived to Israel, sponsored by the Israel Returns organization which seeks to bring the lost tribes of Israel back to their homeland. Edna was unable to make the journey at the time, and when the government of then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert closed the door to Bnei Menashe immigration, the two were separated for seven years.

Gamliel and Edna have been unable to see each other and have only been able to communicate through phone calls and emails. Israel Returns had been working tirelessly on Edna’s behalf as well as on the behalf of the 7,200 other Bnei Menashe Jews in India who wait anxiously to make the journey.

Finally, last year, the doors were opened again to the Bnei Menashe and new waves of immigrants were able to come to Israel. Edna was on the first flight.

Another young couple, Gavriel and Leora, have not seen each other in a year and a half. Gavriel had immigrated to Israel ahead of his fiancé and is living together with other members of his community in Migdal Ha-Emek in the north of Israel. He currently works in a factory that produces chocolate.

As he was waiting for his intended to come off the plane, Gavriel told Breaking Israel News, “I can’t wait to see her. We’ve been in touch over the past year and a half via Whatsapp, SMS, phone calls, but nothing can compare to actually being with her.”

The young man was anxiously waiting for her for over four hours in the airport lounge and almost jumped out of his skin due to excitement once she came through the doors of the arrival lounge. His friends and family, as well as part of her extended family, all came to cheer him on and support them as well as the other immigrants in what quickly became a frenzy of hugging, crying, and thanking God.

Spectators began to wonder what all the hoopla was about and when they heard that the prophecy of the in-gathering of the exiles was happening right before their eyes, they immediately began to join in the celebration and greetings offered to the new immigrants.

After 2,700 years, these Bnei Menashe were finally home.

“This whole thing is surreal, I’ve never quite seen anything like it, and I’ve lived here all my life and seen many people immigrate to Israel,” said a passerby, who stopped her phone call and joined in the celebration.

Gamliel and Edna hug after seven years. (Photo: Israel Returns)

Gavriel, who had brought roses for Leora, dropped them in his excitement as he ran up and hugged her. His friend picked them up and carried them to the bus where they would be traveling together to Kfar Hassidim for the first few days of their new life.

The influx of the new immigrants brings with it brothers, sisters, parents, children and cousins of the Bnei Menashe, who currently reside in Israel. Many have not seen each other for several years.

Michael Freund, director of Israel Returns, the organization that facilitated the immigration, spoke to the newly arrived immigrants as they as they prepared themselves to set out in their ancestral homeland.

“You have been through a lot these past few days. But we are here to welcome you home. None of this would have been possible without the State of Israel. So, are you ready to begin your new life here in Israel?” he asked the crowd, in response to which the weary travelers all began clapping and cheering.

Freund led the group in singing Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem, before departing from the airport to the buses that would lead the new immigrants to their temporary new homes and to the reunification of their families.

The song took on a new meaning for all those present.

“As Long as in the heart within, a Jewish soul still burns, and onwards towards the ends of the east and eye still gazes upon Zion. We have not yet lost our hope, our hope of over 2000 years, to be a free people upon our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem”.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/15715/bnei-menashe-return-zion-fiances-separated-seven-years-reunited/#A6wR2jhRmLeDc0EI.99