If you are an optimist about the future of Judaism, you’ll want to read about the swarms of Jews who are leaving the rest of the world and immigrating back to Israel. Immigrating to Israel is called aliyah, and signifies “going upward”; some people would call it an effort to get closer to God.

The numbers are impressive:

According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, which assists Jewish people worldwide in their aliyah journey including from war-torn Ukraine, more than 35,000 people have made aliyah from around 100 different countries around the world since October 7, 2023 including at least 4,000 from North America and more than 800 from France. That number has also included at least 52 Holocaust survivors, who moved to Israel from Ukraine, France, the US, Germany, Venezuela, Brazil, Italy and Canada, according to Israel’s Aliyah and Absorption Ministry.

The reasons for emigration from home nations are primarily to escape antisemitism, as well as making an effort to show their allegiance to Israel.

France has experienced an extreme number of Jews leaving the country. (France has the third largest Jewish population, after the United States and Israel.) France’s level of antisemitic acts has increased considerably:

In the last year, France alone has experienced an aliyah boom, recording a 400 per cent increase of people opening immigration case files against the yearly average. Part of the impulse to move is driven by a rise in antisemitism, with incidents of Jew-hatred near-quadrupling in France from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, according to a recent report published by Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League.

A larger wave of French Jewish immigration took place in late 2024 in the wake of the July 7 legislative elections, which saw a rise of the country’s left-wing bloc that harbours antisemitic voices. The threat posed to Jews in France is so severe that mere weeks after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was gang-raped in June, the chief rabbi of the Grande Synagogue in Paris lamented that, ‘It is clear today that there is no future for Jews in France.’

In other parts of the world, such as the UK and the U.S., Jews have provided a range of reasons for leaving, from a sense of alienation in their home country, to a connection to Israel’s history:

Equally skeptical about the future of Jews in Europe is Ilana Granditer, a 31-year-old lawyer from London, who made aliyah last September. 2023 was the worst year for antisemitism in the United Kingdom since records began in 1984, according to the Community Security Trust. ‘I moved because I’m a massive Zionist and wanted a change of lifestyle,’ she said. ‘After October 7, it became clear that the future of Jewish life in London would be somewhat limited both in time and in terms of expression – and I felt isolated at work as a result.’ 

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For Valerie Zundel, moving from Florida to Tel Aviv last June was an ordeal, one that involved leaving behind her family and long-term boyfriend, but it was also an ancestral calling too transformative to ignore. ‘My great-grandfather was a pioneer here,’ she said. ‘He helped build the streets and fought against the British for this land to be the Jewish state, and I feel like he’s a voice inside me welcoming me to the land he fought for.’

But explaining immigration to Israel doesn’t tell the whole story of the changing demographics. Many Israelis have chosen to leave Israel in the past two years as well, and the loss is deeply felt:

More than 125,000 Israeli citizens moved abroad between early 2022 and mid-2024, the country’s largest-ever loss of human capital in such a short period, according to a report presented on Monday to the Knesset’s Immigration and Absorption Committee.

The report, compiled by the Knesset Research and Information Center, said that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza may have been a factor causing the number of Israelis leaving the country permanently to skyrocket during those years.

The net result between immigration and emigration is a negative 145,000 people.

In a small country like Israel with just under 10 million people, the results will be devastating if this trend continues:

Committee chair MK Gilad Kariv [of the Knesset’s Research and Information Center] said, ‘This is no longer a trend of people leaving the country, it’s a tsunami. Many Israelis are choosing to build their future outside the State of Israel, and fewer and fewer choose to return. This phenomenon threatens the resilience of Israeli society and must be seen as a real strategic threat.’

The impact on the economy will be substantial, too, particularly as academics and intellectuals seek refuge in other countries:

Vladimir Beliak addressed the financial aspect and harm that the spike in Israelis leaving the country can cause to the panel.

‘Those who choose to emigrate have a tremendous impact on Israel’s economy, and their departure causes financial damage amounting to billions of shekels,’ he said.

‘A coherent policy must be developed to keep our best and brightest in Israel,’ Beliak added.

Israel is well-equipped to manage immigration to its country, with clear processes and procedures in place. As if Israel didn’t have enough grim issues to deal with, however, such as addressing phase two of the peace plan with Hamas, it now must face the huge exodus of Israelis. One outcome is possible from this emigration: Israelis will discover the consequences of living in an antisemitic country, for there is likely no place they can move to without that experience.

Will they decide it’s better to live with antisemitism than to live with Hamas?

Image: Free via Pexels.