METAIRIE, La. Twelve-year-old Chaviva Sands of Metairie was shopping when her cell phone rang and the caller told her she had won a national contest - and a trip to Israel.
Chaviva left J-F-K airport this month on a jumbo jet bearing the colorful logo she designed for Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that helps Jews immigrate to Israel, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel.
More than 200 children in sixth through eighth grades entered the logo contest. Chaviva's design is a white, dove-like airplane over a blue ocean, heading for a centrally located airport in Israel, marked on the map as a heart.
Chaviva had a round trip -- but about 350 people who traveled with her are remaining in Israel, as immigrants from the United States and Canada.
Since it was founded in 2001, Nefesh B'Nefesh, which loosely translates as Jewish Souls United, has helped about seven-thousand Jews immigrate to Israel.
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