Olim want the Israel they were promised
In the Israeli discourse, the word “Aliyah” (immigration) always comes alongside the word “Klita” (absorption). The Sal Klita – the benefits new immigrants get. The Ministry of Aliyah and you guessed it, Klita – absorption.
This reflects a common Israeli mindset toward Aliyah and Olim: that newcomers are expected to simply jump aboard a train already in motion, adapting themselves to an existing society rather than be part of shaping it in any way. Successful absorption is often understood as leaving behind much of the identity and experience of the countries they came from. This approach also tends to reduce Aliyah to a bureaucratic process that can be streamlined and fine-tuned, rather than recognizing it as a major, multifaceted life transition that requires a more comprehensive and understanding approach.
That isn’t to say there aren’t bureaucratic issues. Olim often encounter the most unappealing side of an Israeli state bureaucracy – often without required language and cultural familiarity – that we must fix for every citizen. This government’s continued attacks on the public service and prioritizing political rather than merit-based appointments have only exacerbated these problems.
I am proud that in the last Knesset, we in the B’Yachad/Yesh Atid party managed to make progress on promoting the accessibility of the healthcare system for Olim, making our schools more accepting for new immigrants, and making it easier to obtain state recognition of certain foreign degrees. This is something I’ve experienced personally: like many Olim from the former Soviet Union, while I arrived with a degree in Economics and Engineering, my first job in Israel was as a parking lot attendant. As laid out in the Aliyah and Olim plans that I’ve shaped with B’Yachad, the next government must expand on this progress by implementing a genuine “just ask once” approach in which immigrants don’t have to fill out the same forms over and over with different agencies to receive benefits. We must prioritize further slashing wait times for recognition of foreign degrees particularly in high-demand fields and better matching Hebrew education to immigrants’ professional needs.
But as someone who actually made Aliyah, I know these bureaucratic building blocks are only the beginning. Overnight, I remember going from being one sort of “other” – Jewish in Russia – to another type of “other” – Russian in Israel. Today, in my travels across Israel, I hear about young lone soldiers who fought in the longest war in our history – but after their service are leaving because they don’t feel they have a future here. The ultimately unsuccessful attempt by coalition parties to remove polling places from nursing homes, many of them housing immigrants from the former Soviet Union, is reflective of a government that thinks it’ll be easy to silence the voices of Olim.
Everytime I hear coalition politicians pontificate about bringing a million new Olim to Israel, I chuckle. It’s a worthy aspiration that I do share, don’t get me wrong. But the stories I shared above show a country – a country they run – that often struggles to show basic respect to Olim and to even keep here the ones that have already come. Similarly, while Israel must remain a safe haven for Jews fleeing rising antisemitism, I never quite understand some of my coalition colleagues that seem a little too excited that we may gain more Israelis because Jews are fleeing hate.
Actually attracting, keeping and empowering more Olim – and in parallel, returning home the 250,000+ Israelis who have left the country in recent years – will require more than better marketing or, however vital they may be, bureaucratic fixes. They require two paradigm shifts. One is moving from a model of absorption to one of integration.
The other is understanding and acting on what will actually make the vast majority of the world’s Jews choose to live here. This means among other things, being more accepting of the fact that there is more than one way to be Jewish and understanding that the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly on matters of religion and state, like conversion, sadly drives Olim away from Israel to begin with. Just like it unfortunately drives Israelis away from Judaism. It also means putting serving the public first: putting aside the absurdity that thousands of Jews from thousands of miles away have chosen to enlist during this war while tens of thousands of Jews in Bnei Brak are exempt, how can we seriously discuss attracting huge numbers of young Olim when we are struggling to keep here those who’ve chosen to come and even serve? These are areas in which we must invest more thought and resources.
But above all else, my experience as an immigrant from the former Soviet Union shaped much of the way I thought about this government’s judicial overhaul in 2023 and much of what they’ve tried to achieve since. Much is made of the differences between Olim from the former Soviet Union and those from the West, but one thing is surely shared. The same remains relevant for the tens of thousands of new immigrants who have come to Israel since the beginning of the War in Ukraine in 2022. None of us want to live in an Israel which is no longer a fair, liberal and democratic society.
What will ultimately make Aliyah an easier and more attractive endeavor for the vast majority of Jews from around the world and what will ultimately make life easier and more successful for the Olim already here are one and the same. An Israel that rewards those who work and pay taxes rather than those who don’t. An Israel with a world-class education system that brings every Israeli from every background and sector into one shared Israeli story. An Israel with a lower cost of living, real economic opportunity in every part of the country and a vibrant democracy with robust checks and balances and freedom of the press. Because Olim are an indispensable part of Israeli society, the first thing we need to do to make Israel better for Olim is to stop relating to them like they’re just “others” – and to fix what this government has broken here and make Israel the country they were raised on and promised. B’Yachad, that is what we will do.
