Homeward bound: 225 olim leave JFK on first post-pandemic Nefesh B’Nefesh flight

Nefesh B’Nefesh brought 225 olim back home to Israel on Tuesday, aboard its first post-pandemic El Al charter flight.

“I’ve missed this sight,” NBN co-founder Rabbi Yehoshua Fass told a joyous crowd gathered at JFK’s Terminal 4. “You are the best of our nation, the best of our people.”

He said 8,000 Americans made ailyah during the pandemic, and 2,000 North Americans will make the move this summer.

“Many talk about legacy — you are living it.”

Tuesday’s olim, ranging from 2 months to 75 years, included 31 families, 99 children, seven retirees and 40 lone soldiers.

Since its founding in 2002, NBN has helped more than 75,000 people make aliyah. This was the group’s 63rd charter flight.

Dahlia Apfelbaum, first in her family to make aliyah, was a student at SAR in Riverdale and at Central, YU’s yeshiva high school for girls. “SAR is one of the most Zionist places,” she said. “The goal was to get us there,” meaning back home, to Israel.

See next week’s Jewish Star for more coverage of this NBN flight.