World

The End Of Aliyah?

With nothing pushing Jews to Israel, can it lure olim?

Russians like these arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport were considered part of the immigration of necessity.

Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Tel AvivIJTA

F

ounded with the express purpose
of "ingathering of the exiles" — but
with no more large groups of Jews
to save — Israel is facing the end of the era
of mass aliyah.
Recent reports that the Jewish Agency for
Israel was considering shutting down its
flagship aliyah department have prompted
discussion about the future of immigration
to Israel even as agency officials quickly
denied the department was closing.
"Israel cannot throw away the idea of ali-
yah because it is one of the basics of the ide-
ology of having a Jewish state,' said David
Raz, a former Jewish Agency emissary
abroad. "You have to create a situation that
people will want to come, from the element
of being together with Jews.
"But it's not simple. There is a trickle, but
basically from the free world the majority
does not want to come."
The crux of the matter is that immigra-
tion of necessity — also called "push aliyah"
— is largely at its end, with few Jews left in
the diaspora who need the Jewish state as
a haven from persecution or dire economic
straits. The Jews of the Arab world fled to
Israel in the 1950s; Russian-speaking Jews
flocked to Israel in the 1990s and Ethiopians
came over the course of the past 25 years.
With nothing pushing mass immigra-
tion of Jews today, all that remains are the
few immigrants of choice — also known as
"pull" immigrants.

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April 3 • 2008

Officials involved with aliyah say they
cash grants and assistance, divide their time
expect no more than 15,000 or so new
between Israel and jobs abroad.
immigrants to Israel this year.
Other ideas being discussed to attract a
"You have Jews in the West who live very
new kind of aliyah include retirement com-
comfortably under pluralistic governments
munities near Eilat for American Jewish
that give them unprecedented social and
retirees to the creation of an all-French-
economic opportunities and let them live
speaking town.
Jewish lives:' said Uzi
Israel has experienced
Rebhun, a demographer
other periods of sluggish
at Hebrew University's
immigration, such as
4,21,
Institute of Contemporary
the 1970s and 1980s, but
Jewry. "In turn, aliyah to
in those eras there were
Israel at
Israel has gone down:'
large communities of Jews
unable to emigrate, such as
New Lures
those in the Soviet Union.
With the pool of potential push immigrants
Today, however, the Jews who remain in
drying up, officials like Oded Salomon, the
the former Soviet Union are either too old
director-general of aliyah and absorption
to immigrate or prefer to stay put in coun-
for the Jewish Agency, are thinking about
tries where improved economies and more
how to pull Jews to Israel in new and differ-
democratic freedoms have made life in the
ent ways.
diaspora more attractive.
Salomon says the focus now is on edu-
Mass immigration from Ethiopia
cational programs that bring young Jews
— where politics, economics and religious
to Israel in the hope of fostering lifelong
ideology sent tens of thousands of Jews
connections to the Jewish state and creating to Israel over the past quarter century
new immigrants.
— is expected to end some time this sum-
The Jewish Agency wants to create a spe-
mer. The Jewish Agency plans to shut its
cial visa for visiting diaspora Jews who want Ethiopian offices and bring home its staff
to explore the idea of aliyah by living in
when the last arrivals come.
Israel for a few months. Such arrivals would
be assisted with finding volunteer or work
Time To Retool
positions and Hebrew study.
Yuli Edelstein, the former Soviet refusenik
Aliyah officials also are embracing the
and prisoner of Zion who later served as
notion of "flexible aliyah" in which immi-
Israel's absorption minister, said Israel must
grants split their time between Israel and
make sure it can provide both meaningful
the diaspora. About 10 percent of immi-
professional opportunities and meaning-
grants who have made aliyah with the assis- ful Jewish life if it wants to see significant
tance of Nefesh B'Nefesh, which facilitates
immigration to the country.
aliyah from North America and Britain with
"This is a real period of rethinking;'

Edelstein said, noting the economic and
professional opportunities Jews have in
the West. "Without a Jewish motivation for
being here, it will be much more difficult to
attract people:'
Among Israelis, too, the ethos of aliyah
has dampened in recent years, a far cry
from when it was described by the drafters
of Israel's Declaration of Independence in
1948 as the part of the vision of "the proph-
ets of Israel:'
"I don't think aliyah is on the agenda of
Israeli society;' Hebrew U:s Rebhun said.
Despite the country's founding mission,
he said, "Sixty years after the State of Israel
was established, most Jews still live outside
of Israel!'
Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer
from Hebrew University who also is
associated with the Jewish People Policy
Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think tank,
says many potential immigrants are put
off by the bureaucracy and difficulties of
Israeli life, not to mention Israel's security
situation.
DellaPergola says major reforms are
needed to help ease the path of immigrants,
especially when it comes to accepting
degrees and professional credentials earned
abroad.
Despite plans for a new set of tax breaks
for new immigrants and other ideas to help
pave the way for potential immigrants, at
the end of the day immigrants will come
to Israel only if they see in the Jewish
state the promise of a fulfilling Jewish life,
DellaPergola said.
"If it's a country just like any other," he
said, "then why come here?

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