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Nearly 70 years before the rebirth of the modern State of Israel, the Jewish people began to return to their ancient homeland, as the prophets foretold. And they’re still coming.

It’s called ‘aliyah’ – literally ‘going up.’ Taken from biblical times, the term describes the Israelites going up to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple. Today, it means immigrating or returning to Israel.

They come from all over the world to a place many have never been. Yet the Jewish people have longed to return to this land for thousands of years.

Sarah, 32, emigrated from France with her husband and baby. Dilan said he emigrated from because “I love Israel!”  Debbie, 29, is a psychologist who emigrated from Cordova, Argentina. Nikita emigrated from Russia. He studied nuclear physics and loves Israel.

Gadi emigrated from Brooklyn, NY.  “I’m a lawyer in New York and I’m here because it’s the only Jewish state there is and I love it here.”

Why They Come

CBN’S Scott Ross spoke to some of the new immigrants at a center where many live when they first arrive.

“You’re American. Why did you come?” Ross asked Katharine, 26, from Arizona, USA.

“It’s a beautiful country. I love it here.  Arizona’s beautiful, but it’s not Israel,” she said.

“Because it’s a country for Jewish (people),” said David Rujinsky, 21, from the Ukraine.  “It’s my dream to live here. It’s hard to live (the) Jewish religion in Ukraine. I think it’s my country, my home.”

“Rio de Janeiro is a dangerous city. And the economy there is not so good,” Ilan, 29, from Brazil told Ross.

“You said it’s a dangerous city there, but Israel’s surrounded by people who would like to destroy this land and would like to see the Jews pushed into the sea. You don’t feel any fear here, any anxiety?” Ross asked him.

“No, not like in Brazil. I have five friends in Brazil who got (shot) – one died, another one (lost) movement in her left arm. So for sure I feel safer here than in Brazil,” Ilan said.

Gathering of the Exiles

Last year, 27,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel, including more than 3,600 from the US.

Ross spoke with Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency, which oversees bringing the Jewish people home.

“For almost 3,000 years we were disconnected, but we were praying for Jerusalem. So it’s really the gathering of the exiles and it continues every day,” Sharansky told CBN News.

“I’m very proud to be head of the organization now which brought 3.5 million Jews from the creation of the State of Israel and 700,000 from Arab countries; a few hundred thousand Jews from concentration camps from Europe; one million from (the) Soviet Union. We reached Ethiopia and brought more than 100,000 Jews, (and also) the Lost Tribes,” Sharansky said.

“What is it that inspires people to do this – (to be) uprooted from their culture, their country, everything they know to come to an unknown land?” Ross asked.

“I lived a life of an absolute assimilated person, without roots and I know how shallow, how decadent is life without identity — when you can’t really connect yourself to anything, when you don’t have any heritage to give to your children,” Sharansky said. “And then, I also discovered a different life, life with identity, life inside history.”

Sharansky made headlines in the 80s as a political prisoner in the former Soviet Union.  International pressure led to his release and he immigrated to Israel in 1986.

“I meet with a lot of new immigrants and I love to be in the airport to see the moment of going down from the airplane because you think that after each of these people, there are at least 50 generations of Jews who were praying and dreaming about coming to Jerusalem,” Sharansky told us.  “And here each of them (is) closing a huge circle of thousands of years of exile.”…

“So it’s a very good place, but it’s a very personal decision. And I want to help the people to make this decision, not by giving orders, not by pushing them, even not by shaming them. But simply, by giving them the feeling how good it is,” he said.  (Excerpts from Julie Stahl and Scott Ross’s article on CBN News)