Episode 1.3 — The Jewish Agency and NBN: Your New Best Friends (Whether You Like It or Not)

At some point in your aliyah process, you will realise that you are not doing this alone. There is an infrastructure. A whole ecosystem of organisations, government agencies, and non-profits whose entire purpose is to help you get to Israel and settle there successfully. This is genuinely one of the most remarkable things about aliyah — the support structure that exists for people going through it is extraordinary. I did not fully appreciate this until I was in the middle of the process and realised that I had not one but several dedicated human beings whose job it was to help me specifically.

Today I want to introduce you to the two main players: the Jewish Agency for Israel, known in Hebrew as HaSochnut HaYehudit, and Nefesh B'Nefesh.

Let us start with the Jewish Agency.

The Jewish Agency for Israel is one of the oldest and largest Jewish organisations in the world. It was founded in 1929 — nearly twenty years before the State of Israel even existed — and its original purpose was to support Jewish immigration to what was then British Mandatory Palestine. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Jewish Agency became the official body responsible for facilitating aliyah, and it has remained in that role ever since. Over the course of its history, it has helped more than three million Jews immigrate to Israel. Three million. That number includes the mass immigration waves from Eastern Europe, from North Africa, from Ethiopia, from the former Soviet Union, and from every corner of the Jewish world.

Today, the Jewish Agency is the gatekeeper of the aliyah process. When you apply to make aliyah, your application ultimately goes to the Jewish Agency. They are the ones who review your documents, determine your eligibility under the Law of Return, and issue the formal approval — sometimes called, delightfully, the "Mazal Tov letter" — that clears you to proceed to the final stages. They also organise group aliyah flights, coordinate with the Israeli government, and provide initial absorption support.

The Jewish Agency has representatives and offices around the world, called shlichim — singular: shaliach, which means "emissary." Your shaliach is the Jewish Agency representative who will be assigned to your case. They will conduct your eligibility interview. They will review your documents in person. They will, at some point, look you in the eye and ask you questions about your life, your plans, and your Jewish background. This is not an interrogation. It is a conversation, and most people find it a positive and even moving experience. But it is a formal step, and you should prepare for it properly.

If you are making aliyah from anywhere in the world other than North America or the UK, the Jewish Agency is your primary contact and the organisation you will work with most closely throughout the process. You can begin by visiting the Jewish Agency website and completing their online questionnaire, which will open your file and get you assigned to an account manager. The process from initial application to formal eligibility approval typically takes between three and six months, though this depends significantly on how quickly you are able to gather and submit your documents. The documents, as we will see across the next eighteen episodes, are the rate-limiting step in most cases.

Now let us talk about Nefesh B'Nefesh.

Nefesh B'Nefesh — which means "soul to soul" in Hebrew — is a non-profit organisation founded in 2002, specifically to support aliyah from North America and the United Kingdom. It was created by two men, Rabbi Joshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, who believed that the number of North American and British Jews making aliyah was far lower than it should be, and that the reason was not lack of desire but lack of practical support and information. They were right. Since 2002, Nefesh B'Nefesh has helped over seventy thousand people make aliyah from North America and the UK, and the numbers from these communities increased dramatically after the organisation was established.

Here is the key thing to understand about the relationship between Nefesh B'Nefesh and the Jewish Agency: they operate a joint application. If you are making aliyah from North America or the UK, you apply through the Nefesh B'Nefesh website — nbn.org.il — and your application is processed jointly with the Jewish Agency through a single portal. You do not need to submit two separate applications. The two organisations share information and coordinate with each other throughout the process.

So what does Nefesh B'Nefesh actually do beyond the joint application? Quite a lot.

You will be assigned a personal Aliyah Advisor — a real human being who will contact you, answer your questions, review your documents, and guide you through each stage of the process. In my experience, these advisors are remarkably knowledgeable and remarkably patient. My own Aliyah Advisor answered emails from me at what I can only assume were very unreasonable hours, and never once made me feel that my questions were foolish, even the time I asked whether I needed to bring my own toilet paper on the aliyah flight. I did not. But it was a reasonable question given the circumstances.

NBN also runs a very robust programme of workshops, seminars, and information sessions — both in person in various North American and UK cities and online. They have departments dedicated to specific topics: employment, housing, education, healthcare. They have a school database, a community guide, a salary calculator, an absorption rights guide. They run group aliyah flights — where an entire plane is full of new olim and the experience is, I am told by people who have done it, quite unlike any flight you have ever taken in your life. They greet you at the departure airport. They process your paperwork on the plane. They welcome you when you land. They have staff at Ben Gurion. They do not simply hand you a brochure and wish you luck.

After you land, NBN continues to support you. They have an Answers and Advocacy team in Israel that helps you navigate the bureaucratic steps of early absorption — getting your Teudat Zehut, registering with Bituach Leumi, finding your ulpan, and so on. They run regular events for new olim. They maintain an online community. They are, genuinely, present throughout the process in a way that I found enormously reassuring.

There is also a non-refundable application fee. It is modest, and in the context of what you are spending on this process, it is not worth thinking about. Pay it and move on.

One important practical note: the Jewish Agency and Nefesh B'Nefesh each send their own approval letters separately. If you are going through the joint NBN-Jewish Agency process, you will eventually receive two communications — the "Mazal Tov letter" from the Jewish Agency confirming your eligibility for aliyah, and a separate communication from NBN regarding your absorption plan and flight eligibility. Do not panic when the first one arrives without the second, or vice versa. They are separate systems. Both matter. Both will come.

Where should you start right now, today, if you are seriously considering aliyah? If you are in North America or the UK, go to nbn.org.il and complete the initial questionnaire. If you are elsewhere in the world, go to jewishagency.org. Both organisations recommend beginning the formal process eight to ten months before your intended aliyah date. I know that sounds like a long time. It is, in fact, not quite enough time for some people, depending on how quickly the documents cooperate.

Which is exactly what Episodes 2.1 through 2.18 are about.

Take a breath. Get a second cup of coffee. We are just getting started.