Aliyah (US: , UK: ; Hebrew: עֲלִיָּה‬
aliyah, "ascent") is the immigration of Jews
from the diaspora to the Land of Israel (Eretz
Israel in Hebrew).
Also defined as "the act of going up"—that
is, towards Jerusalem—"making Aliyah" by
moving to the Land of Israel is one of the
most basic tenets of Zionism.
The opposite action, emigration from the Land
of Israel, is referred to in Hebrew as yerida
("descent").
The State of Israel's Law of Return gives
Jews and their descendants automatic rights
regarding residency and Israeli citizenship.
For much of Jewish history, most Jews have
lived in the diaspora where aliyah was developed
as a national aspiration for the Jewish people,
although it was not usually fulfilled until
the development of the Zionist movement in
the late nineteenth century.
The large-scale immigration of Jews to Palestine
began in 1882.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel
in 1948, more than 3 million Jews have moved
to Israel.
As of 2014, Israel and adjacent territories
contain 42.9% of the world's Jewish population.
== Historical overview ==
Throughout the 2,000 years of dispersion,
a small-scale return migration of Diaspora
Jews to the Land of Israel is characterized
as the Pre-Modern Aliyah.
Successive waves of Jewish settlement are
an important aspect of the history of Jewish
life in Israel.
The 'Land of Israel' (Eretz Yisrael) is the
Hebrew name for the region known in English
as Israel.
This traditional Hebrew toponym, in turn,
has lent its name to the modern State of Israel.
Since the birth of Zionism in the late 19th
century, the advocates of Aliyah have striven
to facilitate the settlement of Jewish refugees
in Ottoman Palestine, Mandatory Palestine,
and the sovereign State of Israel.
The following waves of migration have been
identified: the First Aliyah and the Second
Aliyah to Ottoman Palestine; the Third, Fourth,
and Fifth Aliyah to Mandatory Palestine including
Aliyah Bet between 1934 and 1948 and the Bericha
of the Holocaust survivors; the Aliyah from
elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa
as well as the Aliyah from western and Communist
countries following the Six-Day War with the
1968 Polish political crisis, as well as the
Aliyah from post-Soviet states to the State
of Israel in the 1990s.
Today, most aliyah consists of voluntary migration
for ideological, economic, or family reunification
purposes.
== Etymology ==
Aliyah in Hebrew means "ascent" or "going
up".
Jewish tradition views traveling to the land
of Israel as an ascent, both geographically
and metaphysically.
Anyone traveling to Eretz Israel from Egypt,
Babylonia or the Mediterranean basin, where
many Jews lived in early rabbinic times, climbed
to a higher altitude.
Visiting Jerusalem, situated 2,700 feet above
sea level, also involved an "ascent".
== Religious, ideological and cultural concept
==
Aliyah is an important Jewish cultural concept
and a fundamental component of Zionism.
It is enshrined in Israel's Law of Return,
which accords any Jew (deemed as such by halakha
and/or Israeli secular law) and eligible non-Jews
(a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse
of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and
the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew), the
legal right to assisted immigration and settlement
in Israel, as well as Israeli citizenship.
Someone who "makes aliyah" is called an oleh
(m.; pl. olim) or olah (f.; pl. olot).
Many religious Jews espouse aliyah as a return
to the Promised land, and regard it as the
fulfillment of God's biblical promise to the
descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.
Nachmanides (the Ramban) includes making aliyah
in his enumeration of the 613 commandments.In
the Talmud, at the end of tractate Ketubot,
the Mishnah says: "A man may compel his entire
household to go up with him to the land of
Israel, but may not compel one to leave."
The discussion on this passage in the Mishnah
emphasizes the importance of living in Israel:
"One should always live in the Land of Israel,
even in a town most of whose inhabitants are
idolaters, but let no one live outside the
Land, even in a town most of whose inhabitants
are Israelites; for whoever lives in the Land
of Israel may be considered to have a God,
but whoever lives outside the Land may be
regarded as one who has no God."
Sifre says that the mitzvah (commandment)
of living in Eretz Yisrael is as important
as all the other mitzvot put together.
There are many mitzvot such as shmita, the
sabbatical year for farming, which can only
be performed in Israel.In Zionist discourse,
the term aliyah (plural aliyot) includes both
voluntary immigration for ideological, emotional,
or practical reasons and, on the other hand,
mass flight of persecuted populations of Jews.
The vast majority of Israeli Jews today trace
their family's recent roots to outside the
country.
While many have actively chosen to settle
in Israel rather than some other country,
many had little or no choice about leaving
their previous home countries.
While Israel is commonly recognized as "a
country of immigrants", it is also, in large
measure, a country of refugees, including
internal refugees.
Israeli citizens who marry individuals of
Palestinian heritage, born within the Israeli-occupied
territories and carrying Palestinian IDs,
must renounce Israeli residency themselves
in order to live and travel together with
their spouses.According to the traditional
Jewish ordering of books of the Tanakh (Old
Testament), the very last word of the last
book in the original Hebrew (2 Chronicles
36:23) is veya‘al, a jussive verb form derived
from the same root as aliyah, meaning "and
let him go up" (to Jerusalem in Judah).
2 Chronicles 36:23 (KJV) Thus saith Cyrus
king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth
hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and
he hath charged me to build him an house in
Jerusalem, which [is] in Judah.
Who [is there] among you of all his people?
The LORD his God [be] with him, and let him
go up.
== Historical background ==
Return to the land of Israel is a recurring
theme in Jewish prayers recited every day,
three times a day, and holiday services on
Passover and Yom Kippur traditionally conclude
with the words "Next year in Jerusalem".
Because Jewish lineage can provide a right
to Israeli citizenship, aliyah (returning
to Israel) has both a secular and a religious
significance.
For generations of religious Jews, aliyah
was associated with the coming of the Jewish
Messiah.
Jews prayed for their Messiah to come, who
was to redeem the land of Israel from gentile
rule and return world Jewry to the land under
a Halachic theocracy.
== Pre-Zionist Aliyah ==
=== Biblical ===
The Hebrew Bible relates that the patriarch
Abraham came to the Land of Canaan with his
family and followers in approximately 1800
BC.
His grandson Jacob went down to Egypt with
his family, and after several centuries there,
the Israelites went back to Canaan under Moses
and Joshua, entering it in about 1300 BC.
A few decades after the fall of the Kingdom
of Judah and the Babylonian exile of the Jewish
people, approximately 50,000 Jews returned
to Zion following the Cyrus Declaration from
538 BC.
The Jewish priestly scribe Ezra led the Jewish
exiles living in Babylon to their home city
of Jerusalem in 459 BC.
=== Second Temple period ===
Jews returned to the Land of Israel throughout
the era of the Second Temple.
Herod the Great also encouraged aliyah and
often gave key posts, such as the position
of High Priest to returnees.
=== 200–500 AD ===
In late antiquity, the two hubs of rabbinic
learning were Babylonia and the land of Israel.
Throughout the Amoraic period, many Babylonian
Jews immigrated to the land of Israel and
left their mark on life there, as rabbis and
leaders.
=== 10th–11th century ===
In the 10th century, leaders of the Karaite
Jewish community, mostly living under Persian
rule, urged their followers to settle in Eretz
Yisrael.
The Karaites established their own quarter
in Jerusalem, on the western slope of the
Kidron Valley.
During this period, there is abundant evidence
of pilgrimages to Jerusalem by Jews from various
countries, mainly in the month of Tishrei,
around the time of the Sukkot holiday.
=== 1200–1882 ===
The 
number of Jews migrating to the land of Israel
rose significantly between the 13th and 19th
centuries, mainly due to a general decline
in the status of Jews across Europe and an
increase in religious persecution.
The expulsion of Jews from England (1290),
France (1391), Austria (1421), and Spain (the
Alhambra decree of 1492) were seen by many
as a sign of approaching redemption and contributed
greatly to the messianic spirit of the time.Aliyah
was also spurred during this period by the
resurgence of messianic fervor among the Jews
of France, Italy, the Germanic states, Poland,
Russia, and North Africa.
The belief in the imminent coming of the Jewish
Messiah, the ingathering of the exiles and
the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel
encouraged many who had few other options
to make the perilous journey to the land of
Israel.
Pre-Zionist resettlement in Palestine met
with various degrees of success.
For example, little is known of the fate of
the 1210 "aliyah of the three hundred rabbis"
and their descendants.
It is thought that few survived the bloody
upheavals caused by the Crusader invasion
in 1229 and their subsequent expulsion by
the Muslims in 1291.
After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in
1453 and the expulsion of Jews from Spain
(1492) and Portugal (1498), many Jews made
their way to the Holy Land.
Then the immigration in the 18th and early
19th centuries of thousands of followers of
various Kabbalist and Hassidic rabbis, as
well as the disciples of the Vilna Gaon and
the disciples of the Chattam Sofer, added
considerably to the Jewish populations in
Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron, and Safed.
The messianic dreams of the Gaon of Vilna
inspired one of the largest pre-Zionist waves
of immigration to Eretz Yisrael.
In 1808 hundreds of the Gaon's disciples,
known as Perushim, settled in Tiberias and
Safed, and later formed the core of the Old
Yishuv in Jerusalem.
This was part of a larger movement of thousands
of Jews from countries as widely spaced as
Persia and Morocco, Yemen and Russia, who
moved to Israel beginning in the first decade
of the nineteenth century—and in even larger
numbers after the conquest of the region by
Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1832—all drawn
by the expectation of the arrival of the Messiah
in the Jewish year 5600, Christian year 1840,
a movement documented in Arie Morgenstern's
Hastening Redemption.
There were also those who like the British
mystic Laurence Oliphant tried to lease Northern
Palestine to settle the Jews there (1879).
== Zionist Aliyah (1882 on) ==
In Zionist history, the different waves of
aliyah, beginning with the arrival of the
Biluim from Russia in 1882, are categorized
by date and the country of origin of the immigrants.
The first modern period of immigration to
receive a number in common speech was the
Third Aliya, which in the World War I period
was referred to as the successor to the First
and Second Aliyot from Babylonia in the Biblical
period.
Reference to earlier modern periods as the
First and Second Aliyot appeared first in
1919 and took a while to catch on.
=== First Aliyah (1882–1903) ===
Between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000
Jews immigrated to the southwestern area of
Syria, then a province of the Ottoman Empire.
The Jews immigrating arrived in groups that
had been assembled, or recruited.
Most of these groups had been arranged in
the areas of Romania and Russia in the 1880s.
The migration of Jews from Russia correlates
with the end of the Russian pogroms, with
about 3 percent of Jews emigrating from Europe
to Palestine.
The groups who arrived in Palestine around
this time were called Hibbat Tysion, which
is a Hebrew word meaning "fondness for Zion."
they were also called Hovevei Tysion or "enthusiasts
for Zion" by the members of the groups themselves.
While these groups expressed interest and
"fondness" for Palestine, they were not strong
enough in number to encompass an entire mass
movement as would appear later on in other
waves of migration.
The majority, belonging to the Hovevei Zion
and Bilu movements, came from the Russian
Empire with a smaller number arriving from
Yemen.
The migration of Jews from Russia correlates
with the end of the Russian pogroms, with
about 3 percent of Jews emigrating from Europe
to Palestine.
Many established agricultural communities.
Among the towns that these individuals established
are Petah Tikva (already in 1878), Rishon
LeZion, Rosh Pinna, and Zikhron Ya'akov.
In 1882 the Yemenite Jews settled in the Arab
village of Silwan located south-east of the
walls of the Old City of Jerusalem on the
slopes of the Mount of Olives.
=== Second Aliyah (1904–1914) ===
Between 1904 and 1914, 40,000 Jews immigrated
mainly from Russia to southwestern Syria following
pogroms and outbreaks of anti-Semitism in
that country.
This group, greatly influenced by socialist
ideals, established the first kibbutz, Degania
Alef, in 1909 and formed self-defense organizations,
such as Hashomer, to counter increasing Arab
hostility and to help Jews to protect their
communities from Arab marauders.
Ahuzat Bayit, a new suburb of Jaffa established
in 1909, eventually grew to become the city
of Tel Aviv.
During this period, some of the underpinnings
of an independent nation-state arose: Hebrew,
the ancient national language, was revived
as a spoken language; newspapers and literature
written in Hebrew were published; political
parties and workers organizations were established.
The First World War effectively ended the
period of the Second Aliyah.
=== Third Aliyah (1919–1923) ===
Between 1919 and 1923, 40,000 Jews, mainly
from Eastern Europe arrived in the wake of
World War I.
The British occupation of Palestine and the
establishment of the British Mandate created
the conditions for the implementation of the
promises contained in the Balfour Declaration
of 1917.
Many of the Jewish immigrants were ideologically
driven pioneers, known as halutzim, trained
in agriculture and capable of establishing
self-sustaining economies.
In spite of immigration quotas established
by the British administration, the Jewish
population reached 90,000 by the end of this
period.
The Jezreel Valley and the Hefer Plain marshes
were drained and converted to agricultural
use.
Additional national institutions arose such
as the Histadrut (General Labor Federation);
an elected assembly; national council; and
the Haganah, the forerunner of the Israel
Defense Forces.
=== Fourth Aliyah (1924–1929) ===
Between 1924 and 1929, 82,000 Jews arrived,
many as a result of increasing Anti-Semitism
in Poland and throughout Europe.
The immigration quotas of the United States
kept Jews out.
This group contained many middle-class families
that moved to the growing towns, establishing
small businesses, and light industry.
Of these approximately 23,000 left the country.
=== Fifth Aliyah (1929–1939) ===
Between 1929 and 1939, with the rise of Nazism
in Germany, a new wave of 250,000 immigrants
arrived; the majority of these, 174,000, arrived
between 1933 and 1936, after which increasing
restrictions on immigration by the British
made immigration clandestine and illegal,
called Aliyah Bet.
The Fifth Aliyah was again driven almost entirely
from Europe, mostly from Central Europe (particularly
from Poland, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia),
but also from Greece.
A small number of Jewish immigrants also came
from Yemen.
The Fifth Aliyah contained large numbers of
professionals, doctors, lawyers, and professors,
from Germany.
Refugee architects and musicians introduced
the Bauhaus style (the White City of Tel Aviv
has the highest concentration of International
Style architecture in the world with a strong
element of Bauhaus) and founded the Palestine
Philharmonic Orchestra.
With the completion of the port at Haifa and
its oil refineries, significant industry was
added to the predominantly agricultural economy.
The Jewish population reached 450,000 by 1940.
At the same time, tensions between Arabs and
Jews grew during this period, leading to a
series of Arab riots against the Jews in 1929
that left many dead and resulted in the depopulation
of the Jewish community in Hebron.
This was followed by more violence during
the "Great Uprising" of 1936–1939.
In response to the ever-increasing tension
between the Arabic and Jewish communities
married with the various commitments the British
faced at the dawn of World War II, the British
issued the White Paper of 1939, which severely
restricted Jewish immigration to 75,000 people
for five years.
This served to create a relatively peaceful
eight years in Palestine while the Holocaust
unfolded in Europe.
Shortly after their rise to power, the Nazis
negotiated the Ha'avara or "Transfer" Agreement
with the Jewish Agency under which 50,000
German Jews and $100 million worth of their
assets would be moved to Palestine.
=== Aliyah Bet: Illegal immigration (1933–1948)
===
The 
British government limited Jewish immigration
to Mandatory Palestine with quotas, and following
the rise of Nazism to power in Germany, illegal
immigration to Mandatory Palestine commenced.
The illegal immigration was known as Aliyah
Bet ("secondary immigration"), or Ha'apalah,
and was organized by the Mossad Le'aliyah
Bet, as well as by the Irgun.
Immigration was done mainly by sea, and to
a lesser extent overland through Iraq and
Syria.
During World War II and the years that followed
until independence, Aliyah Bet became the
main form of Jewish immigration to Mandatory
Palestine.
Following the war, Berihah ("escape"), an
organization of former partisans and ghetto
fighters was primarily responsible for smuggling
Jews from Eastern Europe through Poland.
In 1946 Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country
to allow free Jewish Aliyah to Mandate Palestine
without visas or exit permits.
By contrast, Stalin forcibly brought Soviet
Jews back to USSR, as agreed by the Allies
during the Yalta Conference.
The refugees were sent to the Italian ports
from which they traveled to Mandatory Palestine.
More than 4,500 survivors left the French
port of Sète aboard President Warfield (renamed
Exodus).
The British turned them back to France from
Haifa, and forced them ashore in Hamburg.
Despite British efforts to curb the illegal
immigration, during the 14 years of its operation,
110,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine.
In 1945 reports of the Holocaust with its
6 million Jewish killed, caused many Jews
in Palestine to turn openly against the British
Mandate, and illegal immigration escalated
rapidly as many Holocaust survivors joined
the Aliyah.
=== Early statehood (1948–1960) ===
After Aliyah Bet, the process of numbering
or naming individual aliyot ceased, but immigration
did not.
A major wave of Jewish immigration, mainly
from post-Holocaust Europe and the Arab and
Muslim world took place from 1948 to 1951.
In three and a half years, the Jewish population
of Israel, which was 650,000 at the state's
founding, was more than doubled by an influx
of about 688,000 immigrants.
In 1949, the largest-ever number of Jewish
immigrants in a single year - 249,954 - arrived
in Israel.
This period of immigration is often termed
kibbutz galuyot (literally, ingathering of
exiles), due to the large number of Jewish
diaspora communities that made aliyah.
However, kibbutz galuyot can also refer to
aliyah in general.
The data below shows the immigration to Israel
in the years following the May 1948 Israeli
Declaration of Independence.
At the beginning of the immigration wave,
most of the immigrants to reach Israel were
Holocaust survivors from Europe, including
many from displaced persons camps in Germany,
Austria, and Italy, and from British detention
camps on Cyprus.
Large sections of shattered Jewish communities
throughout Europe, such as those from Poland
and Romania also immigrated to Israel, with
some communities, such as those from Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia, being almost entirely transferred.
At the same time, the number of immigrants
from Arab and Muslim countries increased.
Special operations were undertaken to evacuate
Jewish communities perceived to be in serious
danger, such as Operation Magic Carpet, which
evacuated almost the entire Jewish population
of Yemen, and Operation Ezra and Nehemiah,
which airlifted most of the Jews of Iraq to
Israel.
Nearly the entire Jewish population of Libya
left for Israel around this time.
This resulted in a period of austerity.
To ensure that Israel, which at that time
had a small economy and scant foreign currency
reserves, could provide for the immigrants,
a strict regime of rationing was put in place.
Measures were enacted to ensure that all Israeli
citizens had access to adequate food, housing,
and clothing.
Austerity was very restrictive until 1953;
the previous year, Israel had signed a reparations
agreement with West Germany, in which the
West German government would pay Israel as
compensation for the Holocaust, due to Israel's
taking in a large number of Holocaust survivors.
The resulting influx of foreign capital boosted
the Israeli economy and allowed for the relaxing
of most restrictions.
The remaining austerity measures were gradually
phased out throughout the following years.
When new immigrants arrived in Israel, they
were sprayed with DDT, underwent a medical
examination, were inoculated against diseases,
and were given food.
The earliest immigrants received desirable
homes in established urban areas, but most
of the immigrants were then sent to transit
camps, known initially as immigrant camps,
and later as Ma'abarot.
Many were also initially housed in reception
centers in military barracks.
By the end of 1950, some 93,000 immigrants
were housed in 62 transit camps.
The Israeli government's goal was to get the
immigrants out of refugee housing and into
society as speedily as possible.
Immigrants who left the camps received a ration
card, an identity card, a mattress, a pair
of blankets, and $21 to $36 in cash.
They settled either in established cities
and towns, or in kibbutzim and moshavim.
Many others stayed in the Ma'abarot as they
were gradually turned into permanent cities
and towns, which became known as development
towns, or were absorbed as neighborhoods of
the towns they were attached to, and the tin
dwellings were replaced with permanent housing.
In the early 1950s, the immigration wave subsided,
and emigration increased; ultimately, some
10% of the immigrants would leave Israel for
other countries in the following years.
In 1953, immigration to Israel averaged 1,200
a month, while emigration averaged 700 a month.
The end of the period of mass immigration
gave Israel a critical opportunity to more
rapidly absorb the immigrants still living
in transit camps.
The Israeli government built 260 new settlements
and 78,000 housing units to accommodate the
immigrants, and by the mid-1950s, almost all
were in permanent housing.
The last ma'abarot closed in 1963.
In the mid-1950s, a smaller wave of immigration
began from North African countries such as
Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt, many
of which were in the midst of nationalist
struggles.
Between 1952 and 1964, some 240,000 North
African Jews came to Israel.
During this period, smaller but significant
numbers arrived from other places such as
Europe, Iran, India, and Latin America.
In particular, a small immigration wave from
then communist Poland, known as the "Gomulka
Aliyah", took place during this period.
From 1956 to 1960, Poland permitted free Jewish
emigration, and some 50,000 Polish Jews immigrated
to Israel.Since the founding of the State
of Israel, the Jewish Agency for Israel was
mandated as the organization responsible for
aliyah in the diaspora.
=== Aliyah from Arab countries ===
From 1948 until the early 1970s, around 900,000
Jews from Arab lands left, fled, or were expelled
from various Arab nations.
In the course of Operation Magic Carpet (1949–1950),
nearly the entire community of Yemenite Jews
(about 49,000) immigrated to Israel.
Its other name, Operation On Wings of Eagles
(Hebrew: כנפי נשרים, Kanfei Nesharim),
was inspired by
Exodus 19:4 - Ye have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles'
wings, and brought you unto myself.
and
Isaiah 40:31 - But they that wait upon the
LORD shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint.
Some 120,000 Iraqi Jews were airlifted to
Israel in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah.
=== Aliyah from Iran ===
Following the establishment of Israel, about
one-third of Iranian Jews, most of them poor,
immigrated to Israel.
Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979,
most of the Iranian Jewish community left,
with some 30,000 Iranian Jews immigrating
to Israel.
Many Iranian Jews also settled in the United
States (especially in New York City and Los
Angeles).
=== Aliyah from Ethiopia ===
The first major wave of aliyah from Ethiopia
took place in the mid-1970s.
The massive airlift known as Operation Moses
began to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel on
November 18, 1984, and ended on January 5,
1985.
During those six weeks, some 6,500–8,000
Ethiopian Jews were flown from Sudan to Israel.
An estimated 2,000–4,000 Jews died en route
to Sudan or in Sudanese refugee camps.
In 1991 Operation Solomon was launched to
bring the Beta Israel Jews of Ethiopia.
In one day, May 24, 34 aircraft landed at
Addis Ababa and brought 14,325 Jews from Ethiopia
to Israel.
Since that time, Ethiopian Jews have continued
to immigrate to Israel bringing the number
of Ethiopian-Israelis today to over 100,000.
=== Aliyah from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet
states ===
A mass emigration was politically undesirable
for the Soviet regime.
The only acceptable ground was family reunification,
and a formal petition ("вызов", vyzov)
from a relative from abroad was required for
the processing to begin.
Often, the result was a formal refusal.
The risks to apply for an exit visa compounded
because the entire family had to quit their
jobs, which in turn would make them vulnerable
to charges of social parasitism, a criminal
offense.
Because of these hardships, Israel set up
the group Lishkat Hakesher in the early 1950s
to maintain contact and promote aliyah with
Jews behind the Iron Curtain.
From Israel's establishment in 1948 to the
Six-Day War in 1967, Soviet aliyah remained
minimal.
Those who made aliyah during this period were
mainly elderly people granted clearance to
leave for family reunification purposes.
Only about 22,000 Soviet Jews managed to reach
Israel.
In the wake of the Six-Day War, the USSR broke
off the diplomatic relations with the Jewish
state.
An Anti-Zionist propaganda campaign in the
state-controlled mass media and the rise of
Zionology were accompanied by harsher discrimination
of the Soviet Jews.
By the end of the 1960s, Jewish cultural and
religious life in the Soviet Union had become
practically impossible, and the majority of
Soviet Jews were assimilated and non-religious,
but this new wave of state-sponsored anti-Semitism
on one hand, and the sense of pride for victorious
Jewish nation over Soviet-armed Arab armies
on the other, stirred up Zionist feelings.
After the Dymshits-Kuznetsov hijacking affair
and the crackdown that followed, strong international
condemnations caused the Soviet authorities
to increase the emigration quota.
In the years 1960–1970, the USSR let only
4,000 people leave; in the following decade,
the number rose to 250,000.
The exodus of Soviet Jews began in 1968.
Between 1968 and 1973, almost all Soviet Jews
allowed to leave settled in Israel, and only
a small minority moved to other Western countries.
However, in the following years, the number
of those moving to other Western nations increased.
Soviet Jews granted permission to leave were
taken by train to Austria to be processed
and then flown to Israel.
There, the ones who chose not to go to Israel,
called "dropouts", exchanged their immigrant
invitations to Israel for refugee status in
a Western country, especially the United States.
Eventually, most Soviet Jews granted permission
to leave became dropouts.
In 1989 a record 71,000 Soviet Jews were granted
exodus from the USSR, of whom only 12,117
immigrated to Israel.
According to Israeli Immigrant Absorption
Minister Yaakov Zur, over half of Soviet Jewish
dropouts who immigrated to the United States
assimilated and ceased to live as Jews within
a short period of time.Israel was concerned
over the dropout rate, and suggested that
Soviet emigres be flown directly to Israel
from the Soviet Union or Romania.
Israel argued that it needed highly skilled
and well-educated Soviet Jewish immigrants
for its survival.
In addition to contributing to the country's
economic development, Soviet immigration was
also seen as a counterweight to the high fertility
rate among Israeli-Arabs.
In addition, Israel was concerned that the
dropout rate could result in immigration being
banned once again.
The Ministry of Immigrant Absorption's position
was that "it could jeopardize the whole program
if Jews supposedly going to Israel all wind
up in Brooklyn and Los Angeles.
How will the Soviets explain to their own
people that it's just Jews who are allowed
to emigrate to the U.S.?"In 1989 the United
States changed its immigration policy of unconditionally
granting Soviet Jews refugee status.
That same year, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev
ended restrictions on Jewish immigration,
and the Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991.
Since then, about a million Russians immigrated
to Israel, including approximately 240,000
who were not Jewish according to rabbinical
law, but were eligible for Israeli citizenship
under the Law of Return.
The number of immigrants counted as halachically
non-Jewish from the former USSR has been constantly
rising ever since 1989.
For example, in 1990 around 96% of the immigrants
were halachically Jewish and only 4% were
non-Jewish family members.
However, in 2000, the proportion was: Jews
(includes children from non-Jewish father
and Jewish mother) - 47%, Non-Jewish spouses
of Jews - 14%, children from Jewish father
and non-Jewish mother - 17%, Non-Jewish spouses
of children from Jewish father and non-Jewish
mother - 6%, non-Jews with a Jewish grandparent
- 14% & Non-Jewish spouses of non-Jews with
a Jewish grandparent - 2%.Following the Russian
invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Jews making
aliyah from the Ukraine reached 142% higher
during the first four months of 2014 compared
to the previous year.
In 2014, aliyah from the former Soviet Union
went up 50% from the previous year with some
11,430 people or approximately 43% of all
Jewish immigrants arrived from the former
Soviet Union, propelled from the increase
from Ukraine with some 5,840 new immigrants
have come from Ukraine over the course of
the year.
=== Aliyah from Latin America ===
In the 1999–2002 Argentine political and
economic crisis that caused a run on the banks,
wiped out billions of dollars in deposits
and decimated Argentina's middle class, most
of the country's estimated 200,000 Jews were
directly affected.
Some 4,400 chose to start over and move to
Israel, where they saw opportunity.
More than 10,000 Argentine Jews immigrated
to Israel since 2000, joining the thousands
of previous Argentine immigrants already there.
The crisis in Argentina also affected its
neighbour country Uruguay, from which about
half of its 40,000-strong Jewish community
left, mainly to Israel, in the same period.
During 2002 and 2003 the Jewish Agency for
Israel launched an intensive public campaign
to promote aliyah from the region, and offered
additional economic aid for immigrants from
Argentina.
Although the economy of Argentina improved,
and some who had immigrated to Israel from
Argentina moved back following South American
country's economic growth from 2003 onwards,
Argentine Jews continue to immigrate to Israel,
albeit in smaller numbers than before.
The Argentine community in Israel is about
50,000-70,000 people, the largest Latin American
group in the country.
There has also been immigration from other
Latin American countries that have experienced
crises, though they have come in smaller numbers
and are not eligible for the same economic
benefits as immigrants to Israel from Argentina.
In Venezuela, growing antisemitism in the
country, including antisemitic violence, caused
an increasing number of Jews to move to Israel
during the 2000s.
For the first time in Venezuelan history,
Jews began leaving for Israel in the hundreds.
By November 2010, more than half of Venezuela's
20,000-strong Jewish community had left the
country.
=== Aliyah from France ===
From 2000 to 2009, more than 13,000 French
Jews immigrated to Israel, largely as a result
of growing anti-semitism in the country.
A peak was reached in 2005, with 2,951 immigrants.
However, between 20–30% eventually returned
to France.
After the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, French
aliyah dropped due to the Jewish community's
comfort with him.
In 2010 only 1,286 French Jews made aliyah.In
2012, some 200,000 French citizens lived in
Israel.
During the same year, following the election
of François Hollande and the Jewish school
shooting in Toulouse, as well as ongoing acts
of anti-semitism and the European economic
crisis, an increasing number of French Jews
began buying property in Israel.
In August 2012, it was reported that anti-semitic
attacks had risen by 40% in the five months
following the Toulouse shooting, and that
many French Jews were seriously considering
immigrating to Israel.
In 2013, 3,120 French Jews immigrated to Israel,
marking a 63% increase over the previous year.
In the first two months of 2014, French Jewish
aliyah increased precipitously by 312% with
854 French Jews making aliyah over the first
two months.
Immigration from France throughout 2014 has
been attributed to several factors, of which
includes increasing antisemitism, in which
many Jews have been harassed and attacked
by a fusillade of local thugs and gangs, a
stagnant European economy and concomitant
high youth unemployment rates.During the first
few months of 2014, The Jewish Agency of Israel
has continued to encourage an increase of
French aliyah through aliyah fairs, Hebrew-language
courses, sessions which help potential immigrants
to find jobs in Israel, and immigrant absorption
in Israel.
A May 2014 survey revealed that 74 percent
of French Jews consider leaving France for
Israel where of the 74 percent, 29.9 percent
cited anti-Semitism.
Another 24.4 cited their desire to “preserve
their Judaism,” while 12.4 percent said
they were attracted by other countries.
“Economic considerations” was cited by
7.5 percent of the respondents.
By June 2014, it was estimated by the end
of 2014 a full 1 percent of the French Jewish
community will have made aliyah to Israel,
the largest in a single year.
Many Jewish leaders stated the emigration
is being driven by a combination of factors,
including the cultural gravitation towards
Israel and France’s economic woes, especially
for the younger generation drawn by the possibility
of other socioeconomic opportunities in the
more vibrant Israeli economy.
During the Hebrew year 5774 (September 2013
- September 2014) for the first time ever,
more Jews made Aliyah from France than any
other country, with approximately 6,000 French
Jews making aliyah, mainly fleeing rampant
antisemitism, pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist
violence and economic malaise with France
becoming the top sending country for aliyah
as of late September 2014.In January 2015,
events such as the Charlie Hebdo shooting
and Porte de Vincennes hostage crisis created
a shock wave of fear across the French Jewish
community.
As a result of these events, the Jewish Agency
planned an aliyah plan for 120,000 French
Jews who wish to make aliyah.
In addition, with Europe's stagnant economy
as of early 2015, many affluent French Jewish
skilled professionals, businesspeople and
investors have sought Israel as a start-up
haven for international investments, as well
as job and new business opportunities.
In addition, Dov Maimon, a French Jewish émigré
who studies migration as a senior fellow at
the Jewish People Policy Institute, expects
as many as 250,000 French Jews to make aliyah
by the year 2030.Hours after an attack and
an ISIS flag was raised on a gas factory near
Lyon where the severed head of a local businessman
was pinned to the gates on June 26, 2015,
Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev
Elkin strongly urged the French Jewish community
to move to Israel and made it a national priority
for Israel to welcome the French Jewish community
with open arms.
Immigration from France is on the rise: in
the first half of 2015, approximately 5,100
French Jews made aliyah to Israel marking
25% more than in the same period during the
previous year when about 7,000 made aliyah
during all of 2014, indicating that about
10,000 should be expected for the full year
of 2015.Following the November 2015 Paris
attacks committed by suspected ISIS affiliates
in retaliation for Opération Chammal, one
source reported that 80 percent of French
Jews were considering making aliyah.
According to the Jewish Agency, nearly 6500
French Jews had made aliyah between January
and November 2015.
=== Aliyah from North America ===
More than 200,000 North American immigrants
live in Israel.
There has been a steady flow of immigration
from North America since Israel’s inception
in 1948.Several thousand American Jews moved
to Mandate Palestine before the State of Israel
was established.
From Israel's establishment in 1948 to the
Six-Day War in 1967, aliyah from the United
States and Canada was minimal.
In 1959, a former President of the Association
of Americans and Canadians in Israel estimated
that out of the 35,000 American and Canadian
Jews who had made aliyah, only 6,000 remained.Following
the Six-Day War in 1967, and the subsequent
euphoria among world Jewry, significant numbers
arrived in the late 1960s and 1970s, whereas
it had been a mere trickle before.
Between 1967 and 1973, 60,000 North American
Jews immigrated to Israel.
However, many of them later returned to their
original countries.
An estimated 58% of American Jews who immigrated
to Israel between 1961 and 1972 ended up returning
to the United States.Like Western European
immigrants, North Americans tend to immigrate
to Israel more for religious, ideological,
and political purposes, and not financial
or security ones.
Many immigrants began arriving in Israel after
the First and Second Intifada, with a total
of 3,052 arriving in 2005 — the highest
number since 1983.Nefesh B'Nefesh, founded
in 2002 by Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart,
works to encourage Aliyah from North America
and the UK by providing financial assistance,
employment services and streamlined governmental
procedures.
Nefesh B’Nefesh works in cooperation with
the Jewish Agency and the Israeli Government
in increasing the numbers of North American
and British immigrants.
Following the Global Financial Crisis in the
late 2000s, American Jewish immigration to
Israel rose.
This wave of immigration was triggered by
Israel's lower unemployment rate, combined
with financial incentives offered to new Jewish
immigrants.
In 2009, aliyah was at its highest in 36 years,
with 3,324 North American Jews making aliyah.
=== Since the 1990s ===
Since the mid-1990s, there has been a steady
stream of South African Jews, American Jews,
and French Jews who have either made aliyah,
or purchased property in Israel for potential
future immigration.
Over 2,000 French Jews moved to Israel each
year between 2000 and 2004 due to anti-Semitism
in France.
The Bnei Menashe Jews from India, whose recent
discovery and recognition by mainstream Judaism
as descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes is subject
to some controversy, slowly started their
Aliyah in the early 1990s and continue arriving
in slow numbers.
Organizations such as Nefesh B'Nefesh and
Shavei Israel help with aliyah by supporting
financial aid and guidance on a variety of
topics such as finding work, learning Hebrew,
and assimilation into Israeli culture.
In early 2007 Haaretz reported that aliyah
for the year of 2006 was down approximately
9% from 2005, "the lowest number of immigrants
recorded since 1988".
The number of new immigrants in 2007 was 18,127,
the lowest since 1988.
Only 36% of these new immigrants came from
the former Soviet Union (close to 90% in the
1990s) while the number of immigrants from
countries like France and the United States
is stable.
Some 15,452 immigrants arrived in Israel in
2008 and 16,465 in 2009.
On October 20, 2009, the first group of Kaifeng
Jews arrived in Israel, in an aliyah operation
coordinated by Shavei Israel.
Shalom Life reported that over 19,000 new
immigrants arrived in Israel in 2010, an increase
of 16 percent over 2009.
=== Paternity testing ===
In 2013, the office of the Prime Minister
of Israel announced that some people born
out of wedlock, "wishing to immigrate to Israel
could be subjected to DNA testing" to prove
their paternity is as they claim.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the genetic
paternity testing idea is based on the recommendations
of Nativ, an Israeli government organization
that has helped Jews from Russia and rest
of the former Soviet Union with Aliyah since
the 1950s.
== Statistics ==
The 
number of immigrants since 1882 by period,
continent of birth, and country of birth is
given in the table below.
Continent of birth and country of birth data
is almost always unavailable or nonexistent
for before 1919.
== See also ==
== 
References ==
== 
Further reading ==
Morgenstern, Arie (2002).
"Dispersion and the Longing for Zion, 1240-1840".
Azure.
Shalem Center (12): 71–132.
Retrieved 7 October 2012.
Shuval, Judith T. (March 1998).
"Migration To Israel: The Mythology of "Uniqueness"".
International Migration.
International Organization for Migration.
36 (1): 3–26.
doi:10.1111/1468-2435.00031.
PMID 12293507.
Ben-Gurion, David (19 July 1967).
"Ben Gurion on the Pioneer Generations and
the Need for U.S. Immigration".
Shapell Manuscript Foundation.
Retrieved 6 November 2012.
Ben-David, Laura (2006).
Moving Up: An Aliyah Journal.
Mazo Publishers.
ISBN 978-965-7344-14-9.
== External links ==
Immigration to Israel at the Jewish Virtual
Library
Making Aliyah at the Israel Government Portal
Home page of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption
Official website of Nefesh B'Nefesh, organization
for Aliyah from North America and UK
Aliyah to Israel at Israel Science and Technology
Homepage
Aliyah at Curlie
The Jewish Agency
