The Jewish Agency for Israel and the aliyah organization Nefesh B’Nefesh are ending a working relationship to help North Americans move to Israel. Amid tensions, the two organizations will let expire a three-year-old contract they had with the government of Israel to jointly finance new immigrants from North America, officials from both organizations acknowledged. Under the contract, each of the three parties paid $1,000 per new immigrant of administrative and travel expenses of aliyah. The pseudo-governmental Jewish Agency has been overseeing immigration to Israel since the state’s founding in 1948. Nefesh B’Nefesh, founded in 2001, charters planes to carry new immigrants, helps new Israelis deal with the bureaucracy of aliyah and gives them grants of up to $25,000to make aliyah.Both agencies told JTA the other did not live up to their contract.
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