Israel – On Tuesday, over 200 new immigrants from North America touched down at Ben Gurion Airport aboard a Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight, including 59 young men and women who will enlist in the IDF as ‘lone soldiers’ under the Garin Tzabar program.
The arrival of the group, which included 29 families and 86 single men and women, was made possible through efforts by Nefesh B’Nefesh, the Immigration Absorption Ministry, the Jewish Agency, and the Jewish National Fund.
59 of the young adults are slated to join the already 850 ‘lone soldiers” (soldiers without families in Israel) currently serving from the U.S., among them 22 year-old New Yorker Aron Wander who said it has been his dream since the age of 11 to join the naval commando unit Shayetet 13.
“The events of last summer during Operation Protective Edge only reinforced my decision,” Wander said. “My family and friends are worried about me, but I want to be a true part of Israel and enlist in the IDF.”
As reported by Vos Iz Neias