September 3, 2008

By The Editors

The announcement this week of an agreement between the Jewish Agency for Israel and Nefesh B’Nefesh for increasing aliyah from North America is significant not only in administrative terms — streamlining the process of immigration to Israel — but as a potential harbinger of improved Israel-diaspora partnerships in the future.

The Jewish Agency, beset by financial and bureaucratic problems in recent years, has a proud history of rescuing Jews in peril around the world, from Arab countries to the former Soviet Union, and settling them in the Jewish State. Nefesh B’Nefesh was founded in 2002 with the goal of increasing North American aliyah by minimizing some of the financial, professional and social stumbling blocks that have plagued the process for decades. It has had much success, not so much in raising the numbers appreciably of people making aliyah – still a tiny percentage of American Jews – but of helping to ease the transition for those who do, especially through helping them find jobs. So far, Nefesh B’Nefesh has a retention rate of 98 percent, compared to about 50 percent of American Jews over the last six decades.

According to the new agreement, new olim (immigrants) from North America will be able to apply for Nefesh B’Nefesh services and the Jewish Agency eligibility process with one application. Nefesh B’Nefesh will deal primarily with marketing and promotion while the Jewish Agency will continue to pay for airfare to Israel and be responsible for eligibility.

This new “collaborative venture,” as it is being billed, should ease the tensions between the two organizations that had run high the last several years. John Ruskay, executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York and one of three mediators in the discussions, noted that “this strategic partnership is a win-win for both groups” and for the promotion of aliyah.

He noted that knowledge of Hebrew is not as necessary for finding work in Israel as it once was and that Nefesh B’Nefesh took advantage of the new realities of a global world where English has become the lingua franca for communication.

But the agreement signals more than improved job placement. It recognizes that there are efficiencies of American culture that Israel can learn from. As Jerusalem Post reporter Haviv Rettig noted, the Jewish Agency “has taken the first step of any organ of the Israeli establishment toward a real acceptance of the different character of American Jewish life,” appreciating individual needs rather than trying to process everyone the same way.

We’ll be curious to see if other elements of the government in Jerusalem can adapt new models to strengthen their connections with American Jewry.