Tel Aviv – Largest French Aliya Flight Of Summer Lands In Israel

Tel Aviv – The largest French aliya flight of the summer landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport on Wednesday. More than 200 French Jews were aboard the flight, organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Aliya and Immigrant Absorption, and Keren Hayesod-UIA.

The arrival of the olim (new immigrants) comes days after a deadly terror attack rocked Nice, France. The Jewish Agency, however, emphasized that the flight was planned months ago without any connection to the recent events in France.

“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,” Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky stated ahead of the arrival of the new olim. “Their choice 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.”

Sharanksy was due to greet the newcomers at the airport, alongside Minister of Aliya and Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Keren Hayesod-UIA Chairman Eliezer Sandberg.

Half of the olim are teenagers, children, and toddlers who will join the Israeli education system at the end of the summer vacation. The olim also include several families in which three generations—grandparents, parents, and children—will be making aliya together. The majority of the olim will make their homes in Netanya, Raanana, Jerusalem, and Ashdod.

The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world outside of Israel, after the US, from which a flight carrying over 200 olim arrived Tuesday.

French Jewish immigration to Israel has surged since 2012, breaking aliya records from other Western countries.

According to the Jewish Agency, almost 10 percent of the French Jewish community has immigrated to Israel since the year 2000, half of those in the past five years.

More than 30,000 immigrants arrived in Israel in 2015, the highest number in over a decade. Nearly 8,000 came from France amid a wave of terror attacks.
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