co-founded Kumah-American Return to Zion, coining both the name and the term Neo-Zionism. Born on Mount Carmel, in Haifa to Russian refuseniks, he moved to New Jersey at the age of eight. At 17, Yishai returned to Israel as part of the hesder yeshiva/army program, completing a course of Torah study at the Yeshiva of Maaleh Adumim and serving as a paratrooper in the IDF. Yishai was injured by shrapnel when a roadside bomb was detonated near his unit in Lebanon.

Yishai went on to study Political Science at Yeshiva College, and received his J.D. at YU's Cardozo Law School. Yishai and his wife Malkah were married at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron, and moved to the Binyamin-region town of Beit El in 2003. Yishai is the Director of Programming and a broadcaster for Arutz Sheva's Israel National Radio.

Yishai was asked by the Ethiopian Jewish political party Atid Echad (One Future) to fill the seventh slot on its Knesset list for the 2006 elections.

was born in Manhattan and grew in up in the small town of Sherman, Texas. She graduated from George Washington University with a degree in Political Communication, with a concentration in International Affairs.  She received her J.D. from Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University in 2003. She and her husband Yishai live on the outskirts of Beit El. 

Malkah hosts a regular show on Arutz-7’s Israel National Radio.

co-founded Kumah-Americans Return to Zion, touring campuses across the northeast from 2001-2002. He developed the Exodus Shabbat Program, a model for grassroots Aliyah revolutionaries on North American campuses. Ezra organized and ran the First Annual Students’ General Assembly in Canaan, New York – known today as the Canaan Conference.

Ezra arrived at Aliyah activism via a long road as a student activist on behalf of Jewish rights. He was a core-member of PLO out of NYC and was arrested after storming the United Nations General Assembly during a packed session that had just passed an anti-Israel resolution belting out ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ and leading the PLO representative to demand an investigation by UN security and the Syrian Ambassador to term the non-violent protest “a terrorist act.”

After his own Aliyah in 2002, Ezra served in the IDF’s Search and Rescue unit, which is sent overseas on disaster relief missions as well as maintaining preparedness for missile attacks at home. Ezra is News Editor at Arutz 7’s IsraelNationalNews.com –  reporting from the front lines from the pre-Disengagement civil disobedience movement (when he was detained for documenting police violence) to the eviction from Gaza and northern Samaria, to the clashes at Amona. Ezra lives in Sde Boaz.

made Aliyah in the summer of 2002 and is Director of Programming at Yeshivat Reishit Yerushalayim in Beit Shemesh, where he lives. Reb Judah was a graduate fellow at The Coexistence Center at CUNY’s School of Public Affairs and has an MA in Jewish education.Judah’s passion for truth in the classroom and education by example outside of it has left its mark on several institutions, including The Frisch School and Camp HASC.

was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in New Market Minnesota. He attended the University of Arizona in Tucson where he earned a double B.A. in Psychology and Judaic Studies. Currently, Uriah is learning at Yeshivat Darche Noam/Shapell's where he remains an avid chassid of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.

was born and raised in Queens, New York. He learned at Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Queens and received his degree at Queens College.

Pinchas is a veteran Aliyah activist with both Kumah and Tehilla Tzeira, and worked during the day as a computer security specialist on Wall Street until his Aliyah in July, 2005.

SingOlim, the only social networking site dedicated to olim and future-olim, was founded by Pinchas, who now works at a high profile Aliyah organization based in Israel.

is a frequent columnist in several Jewish publications, a veteran blogger and hosts a show on Israel National Radio dealing with campus activism. Prior to his Aliyah in 2003, Ze’ev was the North American Director of Student Affairs for the Jewish Agency. He established a precedent by scheduling a Shaliach Aliyah to provide Aliyah counseling for students at Yeshiva University.

Following Aliyah, Ze’ev lived in Merkaz HaMagshimim, a pluralistic absorption center in Jerusalem, where he was active in the center’s social activism programs. Ze’ev is now the International Director of Yavneh Olami.

made Aliyah in the early 80s – before it was cool. He has intimate knowledge of Israel’s media, serving in the IDF as Army Radio’s Knesset and Territories correspondent and later reporting for Koteret Rasheet and Ha’ir and serving as Editor at Haaretz and Yediot Aharonot.

In 1987, Gil founded the Or Adom (Red Light) action group against police brutality, which succeeded in bringing about the establishment of the Department for Investigation of Police Officers in the Ministry of Justice. Gil was subsequently sent on a speaking tour by the New Israel Fund to lecture regarding his work. As a master Flash animation designer, Gil has created several successful viral advertisement Flash films, including a film about the bombing of the Iraqi reactor which has been viewed by over half a million people and Kumah's Free Your Mind KuMatrix film.

In 2005, Gil founded The Familists, a lobby group for the promotion of family values in Israel. He has appeared on Channels 1, 2 and 10 and written numerous op-eds on the subject for Israel’s leading news dailies. Gil lives in the community of Katzir-Harish, in the Wadi Ara region of the Galilee.

grew up behind the lens of a camera in Queens, NY. He studied photography at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and his photos have appeared in the New York Jewish Week, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and Arutz-7. Yechiel is finishing a degree in computer science at the Machon Lev Institute of Technology and recently launched a weekly pamphlet on the Land of Israel and the weekly Torah portion.

started his foray into journalism and mass media at Yeshiva University, serving as Editor-in-Chief of The Commentator and Station Manager of WYUR, calling play-by-play at all YU basketball games. He later worked as an Associate Editor of the Manhattan Sentinel.

Alex is a master of graphic design and marketing, popularizing many of the Jewish Agency’s short-term Israel programs as part of the organizations Aliyah-in-stages strategy. He doubled participation in those programs and came on Aliyah in 2004.

Alex is now Director of Marketing and Arutz 7 and hosts a newstalk show on Israel National Radio.

Orit Arfa is a writer and painter who made the jump from Los Angeles to Jerusalem, to Tel Aviv – from there to Gaza, back to Tel Aviv and now back to Jerusalem, where she works as a journalist. Orit holds an MA in Jewish studies from the Schechter Institute of Judaic Studies in Jerusalem. She is currently working on a series of Biblical portraits and on a novel following the aftermath of the Disengagement.

Baruch Brenner was forcibly evicted from the Gush Katif community of Gadid. He runs Binyan Olam, one of Israel’s few Avoda Ivrit (Jewish Labor) construction companies. Baruch made Aliyah in 1992, served in the IDF’s Orev Givati Brigade, just finished a law degree and today lives in Neve Daniel, Gush Etzion.

Shulamis Druin was born in Jerusalem but exiled at three to Miami, then Monsey, then Binghamton. She fell back in love with Israel while on her second free Birthright Israel trip (yes, it is possible) and worked for a Wall Street accounting firm until recently, as she winds down her extended US vacation. Shulamis is now studying Health Counseling at Columbia University’s Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Josh Fleisher .

Aaron Fox .

Shmuel Goldman fell in love with the Judea Desert and made Aliyah to Jerusalem, where he raised his first Sabra. He then moved to the Galilee and found his permanent home in the Golan Heights, where he lives now.