JERUSALEM (JTA) — A bill to create Aliyah Day has been submitted to the Knesset.

The bill would make the 10^th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan, five days before Passover, Yom HaAliyah, or Aliyah Day.

The national holiday would “affirm Jewish immigration to Israel, known as Aliyah, as a foundational core principle of the state, and will honor the continuing contribution of immigrants who have come to Israel over the years,” according to a statement issued by Jay Shultz, formerly of New York, founder of TLV Internationals, who wrote the original bill and lobbied for it. The bill also was written by Jonathan Javor, formerly of London.

The bill is sponsored by Robert Ilatov of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, Hilik Bar of the Labor Party, Gila Gamliel of the Likud Party, and Yoel Rozbozov of the Yesh Atid Party, who is chairman of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora.

According to the bill, Yom HaAliyah would “realize the value and supreme importance of aliyah in the past, present and future to the strengthening of Israel from within, and as the foundation of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and in the creation and development of a multicultural society that shares a common language, with a shared history and united future.”

The 10^th of Nissan is the day that the Children of Israel under Joshua’s leadership crossed the Jordan River into the land of Israel, the first mass Aliyah in history.

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