December 24, 2008 / 27 Kislev 5769

500 immigrants arrive in final week of year

The Jewish Agency for Israel announced that 16,500 new immigrants will have moved to Israel in 2008, 3,150 of them from North America.

The number of total immigration reflects a drop compared with last year which saw 19,500 immigrants, mainly due to the slowing in the immigration of Falash Mura from Ethiopia and a decrease in the number of immigrants from France.

The number of new immigrants from North America increased slightly this year from 3,074 in 2007 to 3,150, of them, 2,750 of the new immigrants from the United States and 400 from Canada.

The number of immigrants to Israel from South Africa nearly doubled compared with last year to 300, and a second special flight from South Africa will arrive in Israel on December 31. South African Jews have expressed increased interest in aliyah, in part a result of growing political instability and rising levels of violence and crime in the country. 

A special flight from Moscow with nearly 100 new immigrants arrived Tuesday (Dec. 23) at Ben Gurion Airport, to be followed by flights from the UK, US (in a collaborative venture with Nefesh B’Nefesh), and South Africa – bringing, in all, nearly 500 new immigrants between now and year’s end.

Aliyah Department Director Eli Cohen estimates that immigration will increase next year, particularly from the West, where the economic downturn will spur potential immigrants to move to Israel in the coming year. Cohen noted that the Jewish Agency would work with the Ministry of Absorption as well as its partner organizations Nefesh B’Nefesh, in North America, and AMI, in France, to develop new employment and special absorption initiatives to attract more olim from North America and Western Europe in the coming year.

Photo credit: Courtesy Jewish Agency for Israel