Diaspora Report: Record Aliyah Applications Signal a New Wave
The Jewish Agency reports a 34% year-on-year rise in aliyah enquiries, led by French, American, and Ukrainian Jews — a shift demographers say may be generational.
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For the first time since the early 2000s, aliyah applications have risen for three consecutive years, according to data released by the Jewish Agency this week. The 34 percent year-on-year increase is the largest since the mass emigration from the former Soviet Union.
The surge is being driven by distinct and sometimes overlapping pressures in different communities. In France, a decade of antisemitic violence — including murders at a Jewish school, a kosher supermarket, and individual homes — has eroded the confidence of a community that has been in France for generations.
In the United States, the picture is more complex. While antisemitism has risen sharply on college campuses and in public discourse, most American Jews are not contemplating aliyah. But a segment — particularly younger, more traditionally observant Jews — are.
Ukrainian Jews
The most dramatic increase is among Ukrainian Jews, many of whom were displaced by the Russian invasion of 2022 and have been making their way to Israel in stages ever since. Some arrived first as refugees and later converted their status to olim.
"Israel was an option before the war," says Sophia Bernstein, 34, who made aliyah from Kyiv eighteen months ago. "After the war, it became the answer."
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