The Media Line: ‘Why Not Go Right to the Heart of It?’: North American Immigrants Keep Choosing Jerusalem  

‘Why Not Go Right to the Heart of It?’: North American Immigrants Keep Choosing Jerusalem  

On Jerusalem Day, new Nefesh B’Nefesh figures show Jerusalem still attracting North American Olim, while one young immigrant’s story points to a less expected face of Aliyah to the capital 

By Gabriel Colodro/The Media Line  

When people tried to guess where Golda Katz would live in Israel, Jerusalem was not usually the answer. Tel Aviv was the city people kept mentioning. She understood why. Katz, 25, is from Monsey, New York, and does not describe herself as a typical Jerusalem immigrant. “I have a lot of tattoos and piercings, and I’m kind of alternative looking,” she said. She grew up in an ultra-Orthodox family, later went to public school, studied in Taiwan, and spent years in progressive political circles in the United States.  

Her thinking changed during a visit to Israel after October 7. Katz was in Jerusalem on Independence Day when she met another young woman from Monsey who had also lost friends and political spaces after the Hamas attack. The meeting stayed with her because it was the first time she saw someone with a story so close to her own. “I never met someone who looked like me, who was proud of being Jewish and a proud Zionist and who had the same experience,” Katz said.  

Then came the line she still remembers. “Goldie, you need to make Aliyah,” the woman told her. “You will find your people here.” Katz said that sentence made the idea of moving to Israel feel less abstract. “If I met her after just one day in Israel, I’ll definitely meet more people like her,” she said.  

Katz made Aliyah in July 2025 and settled in Jerusalem. The choice surprised some people around her. “A lot of people told me because of how I look that I would suit Tel Aviv,” she said. “I look like a very Tel Aviv type.” Jerusalem, she said, had something Tel Aviv did not. “There’s just something so special about Jerusalem,” Katz said. “The people there are authentic, and they’re real.”  

Jerusalem has continued to draw North American Olim through the war years. Nefesh B’Nefesh says more than 1,000 have moved to the city since last Jerusalem Day, a group that includes young singles, families, and retirees. The organization has assisted more than 100,000 North American Jews in making Aliyah since 2002, with nearly 30,000 choosing Jerusalem.  

The breakdown shows how broad the movement has become: 70 families, about 400 young singles, and around 180 retirees. The ages also tell their own story, from an 11-month-old baby to a 96-year-old new immigrant.  

Mayor Moshe Lion described the figures as evidence that Jerusalem is being chosen not only as a historic or religious symbol, but also as a place to live. “Jerusalem is much more than a historic symbol or Israel’s capital city. It is a vibrant, growing city filled with opportunity, a place where people choose to build their future,” Lion said. He pointed to “strong communities, excellent education, culture, employment opportunities, innovation, and a true sense of belonging unlike anywhere else.”  

Lion also gave the numbers a national meaning. “Making Aliyah to Jerusalem is a powerful Zionist statement,” he said, “and we are proud to open the doors of our city to everyone who chooses to build their lives and future in Israel’s capital.”  

Katz grew up with Israel and Judaism very much present in her life. Her family is ultra-Orthodox, and she remains close to them. She had relatives in Israel and visited for her bat mitzvah. But as she grew older, much of her identity was shaped in other spaces, especially leftist and progressive circles in America.  

“I became very entrenched in that subculture and very passionate about social justice and a lot of progressive causes,” Katz told The Media Line.  

Then came October 7. Katz said she expected people in those circles to recognize what had happened to Israelis. Instead, she said, she felt rejected almost immediately. One exchange with a college friend became the moment she understood that something had changed in a deeper way.  

The friend posted a video shortly after October 7, accusing Israelis of enjoying the suffering of Gaza. Katz said she wrote to her privately and tried to explain that Israelis were not celebrating violence. She thought the answer would be humane, maybe even apologetic.  

“I expected a reaction of, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that. Please, can you share with me more information or more resources to help me understand what’s actually going on?’” Katz recalled. That was not what happened.  

“Instead, what I got was antisemitism and hatred telling me that I’m wrong, that I’m evil for supporting Israel, that I don’t know what I’m talking about,” she said. Katz said the friend sent her accusations that Israel was stealing organs, that Israel was trying to take Gaza, and that October 7 was a hoax. “It really shocked me how someone who I thought was intelligent and had a nuanced view on the world could be so, so ignorant and so closed-minded and, honestly, so mean when I thought she was my friend.”  

The shock was not only personal. Katz saw protests spreading in New York and elsewhere and felt that the change was not temporary. “I realized like this time is different,” she said. “Talking to people on Instagram is not going to change it. And something bad is coming.”  

She returned to the idea of authenticity several times when explaining why Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, became the place she chose. For Katz, Jerusalem was not attractive because it was smooth or easy, but because the people who chose it seemed to do so with intention. “There’s an authenticity and a realness to the people who feel drawn to Jerusalem, where they feel it in their heart that that’s where they belong,” she said. “And I felt the same way, even though I don’t necessarily fit.”  

Katz is not trying to present herself as a typical Jerusalem immigrant. Her decision stands out because she does not look, politically or socially, like the profile many Israelis might imagine. She is not a young American simply continuing a familiar religious path in a more traditional setting. She arrived after discovering that some of the movements she trusted could not make room for her Jewish and Zionist identity after the massacre of October 7.  

The profile of the new arrivals is broader than the stereotype suggests. Nefesh B’Nefesh says nearly 60% of the North American Olim settling in Jerusalem are women. Many come from New York, New Jersey, California, and Florida, with Ontario, Canada, also among the main places of origin. The professions listed by the new Olim include doctors, educators, lawyers, social workers, business professionals, and engineers. Physicians top the list this year, with 35 doctors choosing Jerusalem.  

For Tony Gelbart, co-founder and chairman of Nefesh B’Nefesh, that variety is part of the point:  “Jerusalem is not only central to the Jewish people’s history, but also a vibrant center of life and community today.” Each new oleh becomes part of “the city’s evolving story.” He added that the organization is proud that so many Olim now call Jerusalem home.  

Nefesh B’ Nefesh’s presence in the city has also become part of the Aliyah infrastructure. Its Jerusalem Campus, opened in 2021 near many of Israel’s national institutions, has welcomed 150,000 visitors since opening. Over the past year alone, it welcomed more than 8,000 visitors and hosted more than 100 events, including professional networking programs, educational seminars, and initiatives for lone soldiers and young families.  

For Katz, however, the meaning of Jerusalem is not found first in formal programs. She speaks about buses, sidewalks, and the ordinary closeness of people who would not necessarily meet in the same spaces elsewhere. Even the morning commute, with its crowding and frustration, has become part of how she understands the city.  

“I always come back to the diversity,” she said. “Being able to get on my bus on the way to my office in the morning, and there’s so many different people just sitting on the bus together, just enjoying, well, I don’t know about enjoying their commute, but experiencing their commute, it reminds me of how all of the Jews in Israel are so different, but yet we’re all here.”  

That diversity changed the way she thought about Judaism itself. In America, she said, the Jewish worlds she knew were mostly the ones closest to her family and upbringing. “My family is ultra-Orthodox. Half of them are Chabad and half of them are Yeshivish,” she said. Alongside that, she knew Reform Judaism in America. Jerusalem showed her something wider.  

“Honestly, moving to Jerusalem showed me just how much diversity there is amongst the Jewish people,” Katz said. “When I arrived to Jerusalem, I saw the most Orthodox of the most Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox. And then I saw people who looked like me, with tattoos, piercings, and dyed hair. People who were secular, people anywhere along the spectrum in between.”  

She laughed at herself slightly for not having understood it earlier, but said the discovery was real. “I had no idea there was so much diversity amongst the Jewish people,” she said. “Jerusalem is very alive with all sorts of, I don’t know if contradictions is the right word, but we’re all part of the same people. We’re all Jewish people, but people are still so different from each other and have such different opinions and views.”  

That gives the official Aliyah numbers a more personal meaning. The city is not simply absorbing people. It is also reshaping what some of them understand Jewish belonging to mean. Katz said she feels “safe and at home” walking through the city because she is surrounded by her people, even when those people do not resemble one another.  

“When push comes to shove, Israelis, for the most part, I understand there are certainly a few exceptions, but for the most part, when it comes down to it, Israelis will have your back when you need them,” she said. “Jewish people will have your back when you need them.”  

This year’s Jerusalem Day also comes with the city again at the center of Israel’s diplomatic argument. Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who also holds the Jerusalem Affairs portfolio, used an official visit to Romania this week to call for the Romanian Embassy to be moved to Jerusalem. Speaking before a special joint session of the Romanian parliament marking the Day of Solidarity between Romania and Israel, Levin tied the city’s status to international recognition of Israel’s historical rights.  

“The heart of the Holy Land is our eternal capital, Jerusalem,” Levin said. “After many years of denial of our historical rights in our capital, President Trump moved the United States Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He was followed by other prominent leaders from a growing number of countries.”  

Levin then made a direct appeal to Romanian leaders. “I believe that the Romanian flag deserves to be raised in the city of the great kings, David and Solomon,” he said. He also cast Israel as defending democratic values and criticized those he said use international law against Israel while failing to stand beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the fight against terror.  

For Israeli officials, Jerusalem remains a diplomatic test. For municipal leaders and Aliyah organizations, it is a city of growth, services, communities, and future residents. For Katz, the issue is more personal and, in some ways, older. She speaks about the generations of Jews who wanted to return to Jerusalem and could not.  

“For thousands of years, there were Jewish people around the world in the diaspora who wanted nothing more than to be able to return to Jerusalem safely,” she said. “It’s a privilege that I, from my comfy life in America, I live in a period of time where I can choose to just go to Jerusalem and live in Jerusalem and live in the land of my people.”  

That privilege, she said, became impossible to ignore. “Who am I to not take this amazing opportunity?” Katz said.  

Asked why North American immigrants, including young people, would choose Jerusalem over places that may feel more familiar to an American lifestyle, Katz pointed to what she called a spiritual pull. “In the diaspora, obviously, we have synagogues, and we have Jewish community centers, but we’re very far removed from the center of Judaism,” she said. “When we have the chance to go to Israel, why not go right to the heart of it?”  

Katz knows that Jerusalem is political. She knows it is heavy with history and conflict. But when asked what the city means to her now, she did not begin with policy. She began with a feeling of being close to the center of something she had inherited long before she arrived.  

“Jerusalem is, I think, the beating heart of Israel,” she said. “You have everyone from everywhere. You’re in the center of it all. I mean, obviously, the political center of Israel, but like the cultural center and the spiritual center and just the authentic, like the center of authenticity, I feel is in Jerusalem.”  

Then she tried to explain what it feels like to live near the Old City, in a place where so much of Jewish memory is not in a book or a prayer but outside the door. Katz said she knows Israel is not literally the cradle of civilization, but Jerusalem feels that way to her.  

“It feels like the center of the world to me,” she said.