"Nothing could be more encouraging and supportive to the State of Israel than
the close to 100,000 immigrants who have chosen to start a new life in the
Jewish homeland since the start of hostilities more than two years ago," states
Mike Rosenberg, Director-General of the Immigration and Absorption
Department. "Since the start of 2003, the threat of war has been having an impact
on aliyah. We are addressing the challenge of this reality with new strategic programs
and doing everything we can to continue the flow of immigration to Israel."
Seeds of Hope
As the Israeli economy continues in a downward
spin and the security situation remains at a stalemate,
glimmers of hope are rare. Yet, despite the glum prognosis,
immigrants continue to arrive in the tens of thousands
and their arrival plants seeds of hope in the hearts of Israelis.
Immigration from the West exceeded expectations and
the Immigration and Absorption Department's Western
Aliyah Section is one step ahead with structural modifications offering streamlined and more effective care of the
many newcomers. "We are enheartened by the numbers,"
explains Leah Golan, Director of the Western Aliyah Section.
"Immigration from Argentina reached an all-time high
of over 6000, we saw a 20% increase from North America,
and immigration from France doubled over the past year."
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The Kerzbergs from Buenos
Aires settle in.
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To create a more efficient delegation of responsibilities,
the Section launched the Division of Eligibility and Rights with Rhonda Kashriel at the helm.
"We would like to see local staff, who remain in the same office for many
years, deal with the more technical and often complicated
aspects of eligibility and aliyah rights." A computer program
was specially developed for verification, as well as to provide
direct interface between the offices around the world and
the operations base in Israel. With procedural technicalities
mitigated, emissaries and other professionals can focus on
counseling and aliyah promotion in the field.
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And in the East
With one million Jews from the Former Soviet Union
already settled in Israel, the trend in immigration has been contrary
to that of the West. "Seeing those trends at the beginning
of the year was a wake-up call," explains Stella Syrkin, Assistant
for Planning and Information of the Eastern Aliyah Section.
"We realized we would need to nurture ties with those
who already feel a connection to Israel, expand outreach and
offer a more varied selection of options." This prompted the
inauguration of the Aliyah Encouragement Program.
"We have added emissaries, particularly
in smaller towns where we had little
presence before. The existing options,
such as Selah, ulpanim, First Home in the
Homeland and Birthright have been reevaluated
and improved to attract more
participants, as well as a general tool to
market Israel."
"A particularly effective tactic has
been to send successful FSU immigrants
back to their communities as short-term
emissaries. Concommitant to all this, we
continue to expand aliyah clubs, fairs and
Aliyah 2000 outreach. This is a difficult
time, yet, there remains a large pool of
potential immigrants for whom we want
Israel to remain an option."
