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40 Great Neckers trade little Persia for big Zion August 14-20, 2026 • Shoftim • 1 Elul 5786 • Vol. 25, No. 24
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All aboard! Children holding outsized signs and luggage prepared to board the Mashadi aliyah flight at JFK on Monday. At right, Daniel and Daniella Livi and their three children were cheered on by grandparents Esther and Bernard Livi. Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star
By Ed Weintrob, The Jewish Star Forty members of seven Mashadi families left Great Neck on Monday enroute to Ra’anana, embarking on new lives as olim. Exchanging a tight-knit Persian community on Long Island’s North Shore for new lives in Israel, the group traveled together on an El Al flight and will reside near one another in the Promised Land. An eighth family that hoped to join Monday’s aliyah journey plans to follow soon. Adam Aziz, making aliyah with his wife Jennifer and their five children — ages 4, 6, 9, 11 and 13 — described how the large group resolved to take the journey together. “It’s the passion of our life to live strong Jewish lives filled with Torah values,” Aziz said. “That passion drove us to say we want to be where we belong, we want to raise our kids where they belong and where our descendants, G-d willing, should belong.” He described the Mashadi community, one of a number of Iranian groups in Great Neck, as “a very special close-knit community. We’re all literally cousins. There are thousands of people we’re so close with.” That’s why making aliyah one family at a time didn’t seem quite right, and how the idea of making aliyah as a community took hold, he said. Aziz said he was grateful to both Nefesh B’Nefesh and Golan Vach of Israela for helping the families work through the complicated aliyah process. Nefesh B’Nefesh arranged the El Al seats and its representatives were at JFK on Monday to cheer them on. Nefesh B’Nefesh Associate Director Avichai Ivgui said that while having such a large group making aliyah together has happened a few times before, “it hasn’t been all that often [and it’s] incredibly exciting to see them form when it happens.” See Iran to US on page 2
New Rochelle girl is 100,000th NBN oleh Nefesh B’Nefesh celebrated on Sunday the arrival of its 100,000th North American oleh, a landmark achievement since the organization’s founding in 2002. President Isaac Herzog welcomed the family, which made aliyah from New Rochelle, to the President’s Residence alongside Israel’s Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer, and Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-Founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart. The milestone was marked by the aliyah of Jeffrey and Atara Douglas, who arrived in Jerusalem with their three children, Nathaniel (10), Hallie (9), and Emilia (6). Emilia was Nefesh B’Nefesh’s Number 100,000. Since its founding, Nefesh B’Nefesh has transformed the aliyah experience for North American Jews by streamlining bureaucracy, providing comprehensive guidance before and
The Douglas family from New Rochelle are Israelis now: Jeffrey, Atara, Nathaniel, Hallie and Emilia. NBN
after arrival, and helping olim successfully integrate into Israeli society. “The Douglas family is setting a wonderful example for millions of Jews all over the world, and I wish them every success in their integration and new life here in Israel,” Herzog said. “Each person who made aliyah has contributed to Israel in ways both visible and unseen,” said Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-Founder and Chairman Tony Gelbart. “They have helped build stronger communities, strengthened the country’s economy, enriched its culture and ensured a vibrant future for generations to come.” Nefesh B’Nefesh Co-Founder and Executive Director Rabbi Yeshoshu Fass said the milestone is about what will follow, “about the sabra children born because their parents chose to build their future in Israel, and the grandchildren who know no other home. See 100,000 on page 2