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It wasn't her only reason for moving to Israel, but Ayala Ron of East Brunswick will enjoy the luxury of no longer hearing her first and last name in the wrong order.

Ron, 25, was one of 240 passengers aboard the Nefesh B'Nefesh chartered aliyah flight that departed John F. Kennedy International Airport the afternoon of July 6.

In America, Ron refrained from using her name on restaurant reservations for fear of mix-ups. But when she traveled to Israel each summer, she looked forward to customs officials not even looking up when they saw her passport. By making aliyah, Ron gets to experience the equivalent of that "small bureaucratic moment" not just once a year, but every day.

"It's the same thing that if your name was John Smith here, no one would say anything," Ron, who took a break from packing to speak with The Jewish State the day before her flight, said.

Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN), which since 2002 has eased the aliyah process for more than 30,000 North American Jews, expects 3,000 olim this summer and a total of 5,000 for 2010 by the end of the year, both record numbers for the organization. Charley Levine, a spokesman for NBN, said that aliyah is becoming more "user-friendly" because NBN helps olim find jobs in their field of choice, nurturing communities to live in, and schools for those who have children.

"Aliyah from America has become more mainstream and doable," said Levine, speaking with The Jewish State about an hour before the July 6 flight departed from New York.

NBN is chartering three aliyah flights this summer and securing blocks of seats on about 10 other flights, Levine said, reflecting the organization's desire to give olim increased flexibility.

Levine said 80 percent of NBN olim already have "some sort of aliyah thought in their mind" before they approach the organization. That was true for Ron, who lived with her immediate family in East Brunswick but has many aunts, uncles, and cousins in Israel.

"I just always wanted to be closer to them," Ron, who will live with her aunt near Tel Aviv, said.

Formerly a 5th grade general studies teacher at South River Elementary School, Ron, who attended Tufts University as an undergraduate and Rutgers University for her master's, will participate in a re-training program to receive an Israeli certificate to teach English. She will get to skip ulpan because she is already fluent in Hebrew.

After spending each summer in Israel, Ron said Israel became her second home.

"It gets harder and harder to say goodbye at the end of the summer," she said.

Calling herself a "half-half" American and Israeli, Ron said she is making aliyah to "try a way of life that seems more fitting than the way of life here."

Levine explained that NBN has more than 100 people in Israel who deal with the challenges of olim, including 18 staffers who focus primarily on job searches by using their relationships with human resources managers and professionals in fields like healthcare and education. Due to NBN's efforts to find jobs for olim, very few of those olim end up leaving Israel.

"That's why we have a 98 percent retention rate so far," Levine said.