Aliyah Surges During COVID-19 Pandemic

 Video Of The Week - Covid Not Stopping Immigration to Israel. https://tinyurl.com/2p84ad53

For the full article from JNS by Eliana Rudee go to - https://tinyurl.com/2p8dd8pa

Valerie Greenfeld, 58, immigrated to Israel just before Passover 2021 from Washington D.C., amid widespread travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. She began her quarantine immediately after arriving in Israel, which coincided with the first night of Passover. She had her own one-woman Passover seder and though it was a different way to celebrate the holiday than most years, she told JNS that she “felt very connected.”

Beginning the aliyah process in 2019, Greenfeld’s immigration was delayed because of the pandemic. “It took two years before I had the approval to make aliyah. All the documents I had prepared early in the process expired because of COVID-related delays and I had to submit them all over again.”

Finally making it to Israel, Greenfeld was one of the 27,057 new immigrants to become Israeli citizens in 2021, an increase of 30% compared to the prior year. Despite travel restrictions, 2021 also saw a record-breaking year for American immigration to Israel.

The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, with The Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh, recently released this year’s official aliyah data — noting the rise in total immigrants compared to last year’s 21,120 new immigrants. In 2019, before the pandemic, 35,651 people immigrated to Israel.

The figures also showed a dramatic increase in aliyah from South Africa (a rise of 72%), Argentina (an increase of 55% and the highest number since 2003), Mexico (a 55% increase), France (a 40% jump and the highest number of arrivals in the last four years), and the continued trend of rising aliyah among younger generations. This year, 55% of olim were under 35 years old. Further, 16.5% of olim were ages 36-50; 13.6% were 51-64; and 14.7% were 65 and older.

Greenfeld believes that the rise in aliyah may be a result of both “people who care about Israel wanting to feel close to the country, as well as fear.”

“A terrible rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S. and all over the world, in synagogues, universities, schools, and social media, as well as its re-emergence in a different form called anti-Zionism… people who care about Israel feel close to the country and at the same time, they are realizing that history repeats itself,” she said.

“Regarding COVID-19, the fact that numerous workplaces are now virtual enabled individuals who had been wanting to make aliyah to maintain their careers while also living in the Jewish state. For others, our advanced healthcare system perhaps was an incentive.

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