JERUSALEM (JTA) — Immigration to Israel from North America rose 7 percent in 2014 over the previous year to 3,762 olim from the United States and Canada, according to Nefesh B’Nefesh.
The immigrants came on 17 flights from North America arranged by Nefesh B’Nefesh in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and JNF-USA.
The flights included 296 families with 813 children under the age of 18 and 1,703 singles. The immigrants came mostly from the New York metropolitan area, Florida, California, Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania in the United States, and from Quebec and Ontario in Canada.
Aliyah from Britain rose 6 percent to 525 olim in 2014 mostly from London and Manchester.
In 2014, the number of lone soldiers, young people who make aliyah without their immediate family, rose by 10 percent to 350. Some 3,000 lone soldiers are now serving in the Israel Defense Forces.
Erez Halfon, vice chairman of Nefesh B’Nefesh, noted in a statement that olim continued to come during the summer, the peak time for aliyah, despite Israel’s 50-day operation in Gaza operation and the hundreds of rockets that rained down on southern and central Israel.
“These olim, including hundreds of soldiers, left behind careers, families, and communities, and their sacrifice and courage was widely acknowledged by the Israeli public,” Halfon said.
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