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Peak year for Aliyah: 42,000 immigrants will celebrate first Independence Day in Israel

The countries from which most immigrants came are Russia followed by Ukraine.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

The 42,675 Olim (new immigrants) who immigrated to Israel in the past year will celebrate their first Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) on Thursday after making Aliyah to the Jewish state during 2022, a peak year for Aliyah in the past 20 years.

The countries from which most of the olim this year hail are Russia, with 33% of immigrants, Ukraine, with 27%, followed by 10% from the U.S., 8% from France, 3% Argentina, 3% from Belarus, and 2% from India, according to data from the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption

There are 18 countries from which only one immigrant came, including Madagascar, South Korea, Malta, and Macedonia.

About a third of the immigrants who came to Israel in the past year, counted from the previous Independence Day, were aged 18-35, 22% of immigrants from birth to age 17, 18% of immigrants aged 36-50, while 16% of immigrants aged 60 and over, 55% women and 45% men.

The oldest male immigrant, 102-year-old, emigrated from France in October, and the oldest female immigrant, 101 years old, just recently fled the war in Ukraine to Israel.

The cities with the highest percentage of immigrants were Netanya and Tel Aviv-Yafo, each of which absorbed 11% of the new immigrants. Jerusalem absorbed 10% of the new immigrants, Haifa absorbed 8% of the new immigrants, and Ashdod and Bat Yam absorbed 4% each.

Half of the immigrants are of working age, including 2,100 engineers, 1,500 economists, 1,100 teachers, 1,000 doctors, and 250 nurses.

488 Lone Soldiers immigrated to Israel this year without their families, mostly from the U.S. and Britain. Many of them are integrated into special programs for Lone Soldiers.

633 Holocaust survivors immigrated to Israel this year, and most of those who have just emigrated from Ukraine, are in the process of being recognized by the Holocaust Survivors Authority.

Minister of Immigration and Absorption Pnina Tamano Shata, herself an immigrant from Ethiopia, stated that Israel “concludes the year of a blessed Aliyah in numbers and intensive activity all over the world to promote Aliyah.”

“Tens of thousands of new immigrants have immigrated in the last year at all ages and from almost every country around the world. New immigrants who will contribute to the diversity and cultural richness of Israeli society. The new immigrants are a huge contribution to Israel and are a strengthening of national, social and economic resilience,” she added.

Since the establishment of the state 74 years ago, 3,372,035 Jews have immigrated to Israel. The most extensive year of immigration was 1949, when 239,954 Jews immigrated. The smallest year of immigration was 1986, when only 9,506 Jews immigrated.

During the peak years of immigration, between 1948 and 1957, 908,792 immigrants immigrated to Israel. Between 1957 and the Six-Day War, only about 300,060 Olim came.

In the 1990s, 953,800 immigrants came to Israel, with the vast majority, 85%, coming from the Former Soviet Union, followed by 4% who emigrated from Ethiopia, 2% who emigrated from France, and 2% who emigrated from the U.S.

In the last decade, since 2012 Independence Day, 289,000 have immigrated to Israel.

Most of them, 28%, immigrated from Russia, 20% immigrated from Ukraine, 14% from France, 11% from the U.S. and 3% from Ethiopia.