Coming Home: "aliya" versus "yerida"

Israel wants citizens abroad back home

Excerpt:

Israel is trying to persuade hundreds of thousands of its citizens living overseas to return home in a project to coincide with the state's 60th anniversary next year, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry said Sunday.

The project, dubbed "Coming Home," will try to lure Israelis living abroad to come back with tax breaks, employment and small business loans.

About 650,000 Israelis live abroad, 450,000 of them in North America, the ministry said. The ministry began contacting them last month with direct phone calls, an Internet site and a "hot line" phone connection.

Comment: "aliya" is the Hebrew word for ascent. Interestingly Psalms 120 to 134 are the Psalms of Ascent - the Psalms that the Hebrew people sang whenever they journeyed up to Jerusalem for any of the feasts or festivals.