Leading countries in the number of immigrants: Russia, Ukraine, USA and France • According to estimates by the Jewish Agency, about a quarter of a million are expected to arrive in Israel in the next three to five years
Herzog alongside the children of the immigrants
Photography:
David Salem
The flow of immigration to Israel continued in 2020 despite the corona crisis:
according to data from the Jewish Agency for the year 2020, during the year ending these days, more than 20,000 new immigrants from about 70 countries around the world immigrated to Israel.
The leading countries in the number of immigrants are Russia, Ukraine, the United States and France.
The main trends in 2020 indicate a sharp jump in the number of people interested in immigration to Israel, along with the continued flow of immigration throughout the Corona period.
Herzog with immigrant children // Archive photo: Eli Mandelbaum, The Jewish Agency
According to estimates by the Jewish Agency, with the end of the corona crisis, the influx of immigrants to Israel is expected to increase to about a quarter of a million new immigrants in the next three to five years.
A breakdown of the data by the end of November shows that about 10,200 immigrants came from the FSU.
About 3,120 immigrants came from Western Europe, of whom about 2,220 came from France.
About 2,850 immigrants arrived from North America by the end of November, of whom about 2,550 came from the United States.
Since the beginning of the year, the Jewish Agency's Immigration Service has received about 160,000 inquiries about immigration, and about 41,000 new immigration files have been opened.
The chairman of the Jewish Agency, Yitzhak (Buzi) Herzog, said in a meeting with the children of immigrants: "A wonderful thing happened to us - 20,000 Jews immigrated to Israel in the year of the Corona.
"20,000 people who were willing to leave everything behind in a challenging period of a global epidemic to reach Israel."