Over 200 French Jews to Immigrate to Israel Wednesday Aboard Largest French
Aliyah Flight of the Summer
The Jewish Agency for Israel - Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption
17 July 2016

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – More than 200 French Jews will arrive in Israel this
Wednesday (July 20) aboard a special Aliyah (immigration) flight organized
by The Jewish Agency for Israel in partnership with the Ministry of Aliyah
and Immigrant Absorption and Keren Hayesod-UIA. Upon their arrival at
Ben-Gurion Airport, they will be greeted by Chairman of the Executive of The
Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky, Minister of Aliyah and Immigrant
Absorption Sofa Landver, Minister of the Interior Aryeh Machlouf Deri, and
Chairman of Keren Hayesod-UIA Eliezer (Moodi) Sandberg.

This is the largest Aliyah flight from France set to land in Israel this
summer. Half of the new immigrants are teenagers, children, and toddlers who
will join the Israeli education system at the end of the summer vacation.
The immigrants also include several families in which three
generations—grandparents, parents, and children—will be making Aliyah
together. The majority of the immigrants will make their homes in Netanya,
Raanana, Jerusalem, and Ashdod. The flight was planned months ago, without
any connection to recent events in France.

Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky
said: “French Jews who immigrate to Israel are coming out of choice: they
have a whole world of opportunities before them, and they are choosing to
come to Israel. Their choice is demonstrates that Israel affords a sense of
Jewish identity and attachment to those Jews who wish to take an active part
in the Jewish story. We must do everything we can to ease their
professional, educational, and personal integration into Israeli society and
ensure that they feel at home from the moment they first set foot on our
homeland’s soil.”

Minister of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver said: “In light of
the difficult weekend in Nice, I wish to welcome the immigrants from France
who chose to immigrate to Israel now. French Aliyah strengthens Israel, and
the Government of Israel works tirelessly to ease their absorption – the
Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption will continue to work to remove
obstacles to employment and create new opportunities for young immigrants
from France, to illustrate to them that Israel is their home.”

The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the second-largest
in the world outside of Israel, numbering just under half a million Jews.
French Jewish immigration to Israel has surged since the year 2012, breaking
records for Aliyah from France and from Western countries more generally.
2014 marked the first time in Israel’s history that over 1% of a Western
Jewish community made Aliyah in a single year, an achievement repeated in
2015, with the arrival of some 7,800 immigrants from France – the most ever.
In total, nearly 10% of the French Jewish community has immigrated to Israel
since the year 2000, half in the past five years alone. In response to this
unprecedented demand from French Jews, The Jewish Agency and the Ministry of
Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption have developed a special plan to facilitate
Aliyah from France and ease French Jewish immigrants’ integration into
Israeli society. The plan includes efforts to deepen young French Jews’
Jewish identity, bring them to experience Israel on a variety of programs,
provide French Jews with comprehensive Aliyah information and counseling,
remove barriers to employment, and increase the number of Jewish Agency
shlichim (representatives) in France.

French Aliyah statistics:
2012: 1,900
2013: 3,300
2014: 7,200
2015: 7,800