Leaving Russia: a surge in the number of new immigrants Israel today

A jump has been registered in recent months in the Jewish immigration from Russia - from a few hundreds to thousands.

With in the background the sharp confrontation with the Jewish Agency, which works for aliyah to Israel, it turns out that in recent months there has been an increase of tens of percent in the volumes. 

From data provided by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption at the request of Israel Hayom, it appears that since the beginning of 2022 no less than 19,168 Jews immigrated to Israel from Russia, this compared to 7,824 in the whole of 2021.

While last year the record recorded was 1,248 immigrants in the month of October, since last February more than 3,000 new immigrants have arrived every month.

Thus, while in February of this year, before the war in Ukraine, 743 new immigrants from Russia were registered, the number jumped in March to 3,361 immigrants and a record of 4,433 last May.

As of this writing, 2,205 Jews immigrated to Israel in July.

These are disproportionate numbers compared to the increase from any other country.

For the sake of comparison, since the beginning of the year, 12,358 Jews immigrated from Ukraine, numbers that soared into the thousands after the start of the conflict, but have since decreased almost to their usual order of magnitude (only 384 Jews immigrated from Ukraine to Israel in July, compared to 549 in July last year).

1,192 Jews immigrated from the USA this year and 1,098 Jews immigrated from France. A total of 39,585 Jews immigrated to Israel so far, 48 percent of them from Russia.

"The concern is growing"

Political sources say that there is a real fear that Putin will close the skies and prevent continued flights to Israel.

"There is definitely a fear that there will be a closure. We are not sure what exactly they want, because they have not submitted any demands. It may be that they are afraid of an influx, it cannot be ruled out outright."

The sources stated that "among the activists, the concern is increasing greatly."

A rabbi who lives in Russia said that in his opinion there is a direct connection between the Kremlin's announcement and the massive immigration from Russia.

"The rhetoric of the aliyah organizations is that we are in a situation of the end of the world and must flee from Russia. They made a big campaign in the last six months, for people to flee from Russia, so they asked them to stop the campaign."

However, he added that there is no reason to panic when it comes to the closure of flights to Israel.

"It is not something terrible and far-fetched for a state to act to stop an organization that encourages citizens to flee from it in the middle of an emergency."

Another rabbi who works in Russia said that panic is excessive.

"Obviously they are trying to take revenge on Israel now. We should have been excited a long time ago that there are Jews in Russia, since it is not our home, it is not our place, but there have always been ups and downs in anti-Semitism."

Desire to preserve the crisis

In the emergency discussion held between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jewish Agency on the issue, the ministry's personnel claimed that the agency did not report in real time the legal harassment suffered by the organization's branches in the field cities in Russia, and therefore an opportunity was denied to resolve the matter before it turned into a deep political crisis.

On the other hand, the agency rejected the accusations and claimed that they forwarded information about each case in real time to the Israeli embassy in Moscow, and that if the report did not reach headquarters, then it was an internal matter under the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Jewish Agency in Moscow,

They also added that the embassy may not have found it appropriate to pass on the information to the senior ranks, since no one expected that the incidents would turn into a political crisis between Moscow and Jerusalem.

In the meantime, the visas have not yet been issued to the members of the legal-diplomatic delegation that is supposed to go to Russia to deal with the crisis.

In Jerusalem it is estimated that the delay is a worrisome sign regarding the decision that will be made in the preliminary hearing on the issue that will be held on Thursday in the court in Moscow.

The working assumption is that the real decision will be made by a senior official in Moscow.

A political official who spoke with "Israel Today" said that it is likely that the delegation will go to Russia even if the approval is received at the last minute, but there is no doubt that the Russian behavior is not accidental and it indicates a desire to preserve the crisis with Israel.

He also said that if the timetable set for the legal process is quick, this will indicate that the Russians wish to close the agency's activities, and on the other hand, an extended timetable will be an indication that they wish to conduct negotiations and receive some kind of return without banning its activities.

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