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Aliyah groups hold emergency meeting to prepare for expected wave of Jewish immigrants

Herzog said last week that Israel’s well-publicized relative success in battling the pandemic is one reason for the high-level interest.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Following the Jewish Agency’s estimation that the worldwide pandemic will lead to a large wave of Jewish immigration to Israel from the Diaspora, representatives of various aliyah groups met for an emergency meeting last week, Makor Rishon reports.

Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog reportedly expects that up to 100,000 people may leave their home countries for Israel, or make aliyah (literally “ascent”), once the current global health emergency is under control.

Groups participating in the meeting included the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization, Nefesh B’Nefesh, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Ofek Israeli and Nativ.

The meeting’s participants discussed the large number of applications from prospective immigrants that they’ve been receiving. A representative of Nativ, which is responsible for aliyah from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the post-Soviet republics, said that the group has received 20,000 applications. It received 6,000 before corona hit.

Zev Gershinsky, Nefesh B’Nefesh’s director of government advocacy, said the group has seen a 20-percent rise in requests for forms to open immigration files, Makor Rishon reports. Nefesh B’Nefesh deals with aliyah from North America.

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The French immigrant aid group Qualita says it received 2,000 requests from French people interested in making aliyah. Ariel Kandel, its director general, tells Makor Rishon that Qualita was fielding the requests because the Jewish Agency offices in France are closed due to the pandemic. As soon as the offices open, he says, he expects the Agency to see “a big wave” of applications from French citizens seeking aliyah.

Herzog said last week that Israel’s well-publicized relative success in battling the pandemic is one reason for the high-level interest.

“In parallel to the global crisis, they look at the way Israel is functioning in the fight against the virus and see a strong country that is functioning well, comparatively, and I am receiving many reactions about it from all over the world,” he said.

Over 100 new immigrants have landed in Israel in the past several weeks, in the midst of the health crisis, as a special exception to the general lockdown on travel. This number includes 72 Ethiopians who have been waiting for years for permission to reunite with family in the Jewish state as well as 44 Americans ranging in age from infants to retirees.