By: Anastasiya Gooding

Israel’s official ‘Aliyah Week’ is in full swing, and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem is actively involved in helping Jewish people reach their ancestral homeland, including our sponsoring of Aliyah flights this week for 105 SELA students from the former Soviet republics who are coming ahead of their parents to study in Israel. In addition, the ICEJ is funding flights for 50 Bnei Menashe who are part of a large group expected to arrive from India this Wednesday – the country’s official ‘Aliyah Day’.

In 2016, the Knesset established ‘Aliyah Day’ to celebrate each year the Jewish return to their ancient homeland in modern times. This annual holiday was set for the seventh day of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, which ties it to the weekly Torah portion of ‘Lech Lecha,’ where God commanded Abraham in Genesis 12:1 to “get thee up” from his own country and go to the Land of Israel. Aliyah today is seen as an act of obedience to that divine command and as a fulfillment of Bible passages which prophesy of the Ingathering of the Exiled Jews back to Israel in our day. As Christians, we have a special privilege to help the Jewish people to keep this commandment and fulfill Bible prophecy.

This year, a whole ‘Aliyah Week’ has been planned around Aliyah Day, with hundreds of immigrants arriving from all directions this week. The ICEJ started its involvement on Sunday by bringing 17 SELA students from Russian-speaking countries, followed by a flight with another 14 SELA students on Tuesday. These are Jewish youths who have completed high school, taken part in special pre-Aliyah programs, and now will settle in Israel, learn Hebrew, and attend university in anticipation of the rest of their families making Aliyah later.

We are covering the flight costs for two more groups of SELA students from the Russian-speaking regions by week’s end, bringing the total to 105 Jewish youths we are enabling to begin their lives and university studies in Israel.

At the same time, the Christian Embassy is sponsoring 50 members of the group of 275 Bnei Menashe immigrating to Israel from India this week. Most are expected to land at Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday, in fulfillment of their dream to finally reach Israel, but several families are having to lay over in India after some of the children came down with coronavirus. Thus, extra funds are now needed to help cover their room and board and medical expenses until they can complete the journey to Israel in coming days.

The Christian Embassy has been asked for help to cover these added expenses during their temporary layover and then arranging new flights to bring them home at last. Please consider a generous gift to help with this urgent need, as we do not want to leave these Jewish families in limbo so close to home.

Your donation towards the ICEJ’s many Aliyah efforts will be used to continue bringing more Jewish families home in the coming weeks and months. We are on pace to bring over 1,700 Jewish immigrants on Aliyah flights to Israel this year, including support for a large group of Ethiopian Jews expected to arrive in a few weeks. So please give your best gift today.