A 90-year-old great-grandmother has become the oldest person to make aliyah from the UK, more than 30 years after completing her original application form.

Phyllis Lader will leave Finchley on Sunday for a new life in an English-speaking retirement village located between Netanya and Ra'anana.

Mrs Lader, who has more than 60 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, still has the application form from three decades ago. Her then change of heart was prompted by a desire to stay close to family.

A new poll shows that Israelis hold deeply conflicted views on immigration, considering new immigrants vital for the state, but also worrying they make Israel crime-ridden and boozy.

Some 73 per cent of Israeli Jews deem immigration important for Israel, the Geocartography Knowledge Group, a research company, found in a survey commissioned by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry.

A black Jewish family from South London who have been trying to make aliyah for more than two years have had their application rejected by Israel’s Interior Ministry.

Carl and Maleka Levy, who converted from Rastafarianism through the Reform movement six years ago, had planned to go out to Israel with their five daughters in August 2007.

But despite testimonials from British rabbis and intervention by Israeli lawyers on their behalf, they were notified last week that they would not be allowed to emigrate under the Law of Return.

Eighty-one immigrants from the Falash Mura community have touched down in Israel, the first to make aliyah since a controversial Israeli decision to ban further Ethopian immigration.

This is the first flight of the Falash Mura since the Israeli government decided to end Ethiopian immigration in August 2008, with another 63 due to arrive tomorrow.

The ruling was reversed in December 2009 after the Jewish Agency for Israel threw its support for bringing the Ethiopian immigrants to Israel.

Aliyah from the UK has increased by 34 per cent, the largest increase in new immigrants to Israel in 2009.

The Jewish Agency for Israel has announced a global increase of 17 per cent, after more than 16,200 new olim made their home in Israel.

The largest number of the new immigrants was 3,767 from the US and Canada with, but 835 British citizens also made aliyah, the largest increase in emigration volume.

Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky said: “Every new immigrant strengthens the country and is a strategic asset to Israel.”