Paula Burg has dreamed of moving to Israel for three decades, since she was 16. Last night, finally, the Woodmere resident boarded an airplane at Kennedy Airport and headed overseas.

She was among 250 North American Jews moving to Israel en masse, capping a year in which the largest number of Jews from the United States and Canada immigrated to Israel since 1984 - some 3,200 strong, according to the group Nefesh B'Nefesh.

For Burg, a first-grade teacher who has visited Israel several times, the decision was spurred largely by her religious beliefs.

"The modern state of Israel is a gift from God, and we want to accept this gift," she said. "It's an idealistic thing to do. It's from the heart."

She dismissed any fears she might become a victim of terrorism. "Living in Israel is no different from walking through the streets of Manhattan," she said. "Terrorism can strike anywhere, so we might as well be where we think is right to be."

Burg, her husband, Eli, and their daughter, Becca, 8, traveled on a jumbo jet chartered by Nefesh B'Nefesh, an Israel-based organization with an office in Manhattan that promotes immigration by North American Jews to Israel by assisting with paperwork and locating housing, jobs and schools. The group chartered one jet in 2002, the year it was founded, three in 2003, four in 2004 and seven this year, organizer Charles Levine said. It hopes to charter between 10 and 12 jets next year.

"There's an impulse here for Jewish people to reconnect with Israel," he said. "Israel is the center of the world for the Jewish people."

The group held a send-off ceremony last night at the airport, with leaders offering speeches as tearful relatives hugged those who were leaving. It was followed by a candlelit ceremony. In Israel, they were to be greeted by the country's deputy consul general, among others.

"There is nothing more important to us" than encouraging immigration to Israel, said Benjamin Krasna, deputy consul general at the Israeli consulate in Manhattan. "There is nothing we are more committed to."

Levine said nearly all the North American Jews who have immigrated since 2002 through his group and its quasi-governmental partner, the Jewish Agency for Israel, still live in Israel. Half have come from the greater New York area.

Nava Yasgur, 23, of Woodmere, said she is making the move because she wants to help build Israel. "It's a young country and it's just getting set up. It really needs support from all over," Yasgur said. "I care too much to just watch from the sidelines and visit once a year."

Burg said that beyond the religious motivations there is no logical reason for her to leave Long Island. "We have a beautiful home. My husband has a great job," she said. "It goes beyond rationality."

She has only one regret: "We should have done it sooner."

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.