Nefesh B’Nefesh cancels flagship event
Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that supports aliyah to Israel from North America and the UK, has canceled its upcoming flagship event in New Jersey and a series of smaller events as the coronavirus crisis intensifies and with some cases reported in the New York-area Jewish community.
The organizers felt not holding the March 15 Mega Aliyah event, which was expected to draw some 1,500 participants plus staff from all over the US and Israel, was the right choice, Yael Katsman, NBN vice president of public relations and communications, told The Jerusalem Post. Instead, they decided to focus on the opportunity to make the resources gathered available online to a much vaster audience.
“We are going to take advantage of all the technological advancements of the 21st century in transforming the fair into a virtual event, with ‘webinars’ covering a vast variety of aliyah topics and a call center fully operational to answer questions.” Katsman said. “This way, our sessions will be open to potential olim from all over the world and not just the countries we work with. Everyone is welcome to join.”
The Mega Aliyah event is a large convention organized every year to offer people interested in immigrating to Israel the opportunity to speak with experts, in order to be better prepared for Israeli bureaucracy, the country’s job and real estate markets, its education system and so on, as well as to better understand the benefits and support offered by the state. Attending are people from all ages and backgrounds, with programs devoted to young professionals, retirees and families, alongside special tracks such as MedEx conceived for medical professionals.
Deciding to cancel the event for the first time in twelve years was not easy, but Katsman pointed out that they were in touch with health officials both in Israel and in the United States and that it was the responsible thing to do.
The decision came amid growing restrictions on traveling implemented by the Health Ministry, which on Wednesday announced a new wave of measures in an effort to contain a spread of coronavirus in the country. So far, 15 people have tested positive while many thousands are currently in home isolation.
The steps include the cancellation of international conferences in Israel and mandatory home quarantine for all those who attended such events abroad, as well as a prohibition for healthcare workers to travel.
While further restrictive procedures have been implemented for people entering Israel from numerous countries in the world, including several EU nations, Ministry officials included the US in the list of countries for which not enough information is available at present to make specific decisions.