Israel Immigration Marks First Jump Since Uprising.
By Reuters
Immigration to Israel rose in 2005 for the first time since the start of a five-year-old Palestinian uprising, the Jewish Agency that encourages new immigrants said on Wednesday.
Immigration, "aliyah" in Hebrew, has long been a policy priority for Israeli governments that want to keep a big Jewish majority in a country where Arabs make up a fifth of the population and have a higher birth rate.
The numbers of Jews wanting to move to Israel plunged after the start of the Palestinian uprising brought bloodshed to the streets and helped drive the economy into recession.
But attacks in Israel had begun to decline even before a truce was agreed in February, while economic reforms had helped return the economy to strong growth.
"We believe that the improvement in the security and economic situation will increase the feeling of security and ... aliyah will be on the rise in 2006 as well," said Zeev Bielski, chairman of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.
The agency welcomed a planeload of 220 U.S. and Canadians immigrants arriving at the Ben-Gurion International Airport on Wednesday. Israel Faxx editor Don Canaan's son, Golan, was among those Americans that arrived on the chartered flight.
About 23,000 people immigrated in 2005, up from a 15-year low of 21,000 in 2004 and compared to 61,000 in 2000. No figures for emigration were immediately available (see next story).
It is not only the situation in the Middle East that has made it harder to encourage immigration. Fewer Jews than before are fleeing persecution, war and poverty abroad. Groups trying to encourage immigration have turned to North America. The United States alone has more Jews than in Israel. Canada also has a large Jewish population.
"Most aliyah until now was people running away from something -- Russians from Communism, Ethiopians from hunger," said Tony Gelbart of the Nefesh B'Nefesh (Soul to Soul) group. "Aliyah from North America is by choice," he said.
Since its inception in 2001, Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization dedicated to the revitalization of North American Aliyah, working closely with the Jewish Agency, has brought more than 7,000 new immigrants to Israel. Today's flight will bring this year's total to more than 3,100.
A total of 3,052 North Americans immigrated in 2005 -- the highest number since 1983. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stated goal is to bring 1 million North American immigrants over the next decade.
But it has been difficult to convince U.S. and Canadian Jews to leave high-paying jobs for Israel, which has far lower wages, higher taxes and an unemployment rate of close to 9 percent, despite some financial incentives.
"It might be easier financially to live in America but it's more difficult to live there as a fulfilled Jew," said Josh Coder, 31, an accountant from Indianapolis who arrived in Israel on Wednesday with his wife, Jackie, and three children. He decided to emigrate after losing his job.
Possibly in celebration of the rise in Aliyah, the Aliyah organization Kumah has released a short provocative film via the Internet. Viewable at www.AliyahRevolution.com, the animated film draws upon the allegory constructed by the popular Matrix trilogy, and calls upon the individual Jew living outside Israel to reach a heightened awareness of his/her role in Jewish destiny at this time.
