225 new immigrants en route to Israel from US on first Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight since Oct. 7

Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer is joining 225 new immigrants moving to Israel on the first Nefesh B’Nefesh Aliyah charter flight since Hamas launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023.

“Usually, during a war, people leave their country, but you are here coming,” Sofer says at a ceremony at JFK Airport in New York right before the immigrants board the plane.

More than 1,000 North American Jewish immigrants are expected to arrive in Israel in August, the highest monthly total since NBN was founded in 2002 to promote Aliyah, the organization says.

Included on the flight are 45 families with 125 children, as well as 10 single people. The youngest new immigrant is nine months old, and the oldest is 72 years old. The group includes five physicians and 19 other medical professionals.

NBN says it has brought a total of 2,358 immigrants since the beginning of 2025, and more than 7,000 since the October 7 attacks.

Overall, immigration to Israel has been on the decline since the war. Immigration numbers dropped by 30% in 2024 to 32,161, according to Immigration and Absorption Ministry data.

Wednesday’s flight, NBN’s 65th since it was founded, is the organization’s only group charter flight of 2025. Some 90,000 immigrants have made Aliyah with NBN in the past 23 years.

The flight is organized in cooperation with Israel’s immigration and Absorption Ministry, The Jewish Agency, and KKL-JNF.