Israel's minister of immigrant absorption said Israel will guarantee the "success and integration into Israeli society" of its lone soldiers. Eighty new immigrants who made aliyah without family and will be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces next week were honored in Jerusalem on Wednesday. “These young men and women help guarantee the continued existence of the State of Israel," Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver said at the Friends of the IDF/Nefesh B'Nefesh Lone Soldiers Center, "and so …More

A collection of immigrant soldiers in Israel recently received a surprise visitor—Gilad Shalit. The ex-IDF soldier, who was famously held captive by Hamas for five years, visited 50 troops known as “lone soldiers” at the offices of Nefesh B’Nefesh. The term refers to young men and women who immigrate to Israel without their families and are therefore left without a close familial circuit in the Jewish state. “I admire each one of you for what you are doing for our country,” …More

A total of 127 new Israeli Defense Force soldiers landed at Ben Gurion Airport this morning, and not one of them was born in the Jewish state. The group of young men and women were émigrés to Israel, individuals born and raised in the Diaspora that have now made aliyah. The flight—arranged by Nefesh B’Nefesh and Friends of the IDF--carried 350 new Israeli citizens from the US and Canada, with more than one-third preparing to don the uniform of the IDF, a record-breaking number. Prime …More

The Free Compulsory Education Law in Israel applies to students up to the 10th grade, but like everything else in Israel - just because it's free doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything. Every Israeli parent is used to complain about the payments they are asked to pay every year – whether for the annual school trip, class party, cultural activities, parents' committee or anything else – with amounts reaching hundreds of shekels if not more. A significant number of American Jews, particularly …More