Preparing Israel for an Oncoming Western Aliyah

A year ago I made aliyah to Israel with my husband and our teenaged children. We left New York City, where my family has lived for 120 years, in search of a place where our children could complete their studies without being called genocidal baby-killers, and where my husband and I could work to build the one country that will never expel Jews, spending our time creating something exciting and new rather than fighting to keep our place in a fading empire.

In the year since, conditions have worsened for the 6.5 million Jews in the United States and Canada, where to remain in their fields and neighborhoods, Jews often must declare themselves to be anti-Zionist and state that “Israel is committing genocide.”

In Ontario, one-third of Jewish doctors say they are considering leaving Canada, according to the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario. In the United States, Jews have been forced out of universities and creative fields, with publishing houses refusing to publish Jewish books, Jewish artists facing a wave of cancellations, and Jewish students exiting Ivy League institutions. The doors are closing, and Conservative, Reform and secular Jews are looking to re-establish themselves and rebuild their lives. But as grim as this sounds, there is a gleaming ray of hope: the decline of Jewish tolerance in the West presents a historic opportunity for Israel.

Israel has long treated olim as a burden to be managed, despite being a nation built on aliyah. Thirty years of Ethiopian aliyah, culminating in the 1991 Operation Solomon airlift, brought 95,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Today, Israel’s defense forces rely heavily on the descendants of Ethiopian olim, who enlist in the IDF in higher numbers than the national average, with 50% serving in combat roles.

Beginning in 1992, nearly 1 million Russian Jews made aliyah over 10 years. These olim came with advanced degrees but no money – it wasn’t uncommon for Russian olim with doctorates to take jobs sweeping the streets. Thirty years later, the descendants of Russian olim have been an essential part of building Israel’s tech and medical sectors, galvanizing the economy and allowing the small nation to punch well above its weight.

Now, rising antisemitism and polarization in North America means American Jews are searching for a place they can live free from exclusion, persecution, and violence. Over the past three years, Israel has already seen an increase of  3-5% in Americans making aliyah, despite ongoing wars and internal polarization.

In 2025, the Immigration and Absorption Ministry reported a 25% increase in immigrants from the United States, Canada, France and Britain. Critically, these new olim tend to be young people and families who look at their options in the West and choose Israel.

The coming North American aliyah will not mirror the Ethiopian or Russian aliyahs. For North American olim, Israel is a choice, rather than a place of last resort. Jews in the West live in fraying societies where medical care is unaffordable, rage is the unifying sentiment, and young working families will never reach the standard of living their parents and grandparents enjoyed. But they are not in imminent danger.

Additionally, North American Jews haven’t spent much time in Israel and don’t speak Hebrew. Many descend from the massive wave of Jewish immigration to New York at the turn of the 20th Century, which means North American Jews have been an integral part of building the United States and Canada for well over a century.

At the same time, Israel is not the place it was when Russian and Ethiopian Jews settled here, but instead a global powerhouse in higher education, technology and medical research. The Technion and Tel Aviv University rank among the world’s top 30 institutions for AI.  Hebrew University recently received $250 million to invest in engineering, biomedicine, and trauma research.

The country ranks 5th in patents per capita worldwide, is home to the 3rd largest global startup ecosystem, and according to the Israel Innovation Authority, draws more venture capital in Deep Tech (AI, quantum computing, cybersecurity) and Life Sciences funding than anywhere outside of the United States.

But for a nation built on aliyah, Israel is surprisingly lacking in the social, governmental and physical infrastructure to effectively and rapidly absorb olim. In my experience – echoed by many other Anglo olim I’ve met in Israel – Nefesh b’Nefesh guided us smoothly to citizenship, paid for our taxi from Ben Gurion to our new apartment, and then largely left us to fend for ourselves.

Instead of a smooth handoff to an in-country agency or organization that could help us navigate myriad bureaucratic processes like opening a bank account, finding doctors, getting a cell phone plan, establishing a community and getting jobs, we flailed around helplessly for nearly a year, sometimes in tears. It doesn’t have to be like this. For this aliyah to achieve its full potential, it is necessary to rethink the entire absorption process.

Israeli society loves olim – countless Israelis have gone out of their way to help us in everything from scheduling dentist appointments to locating a hard-to-find computer cable. But you’d never know it from the way the government flings olim to the wolves. What is called for is an olim-focused organization to handle – and encourage – the oncoming North American aliyah.

To this end, I, along with a handful of colleagues from the White House, US State and Federal agencies, and the American tech and finance sectors, have been working to redesign the absorption and integration process, with the goal of bringing 1 million North American olim to Israel over the next 10 years.

As we’ve looked at aliyah from a pure process perspective, we’ve discovered endless possibilities for small tools to support and encourage aliyah and absorption. From an AI assistant that supports olim through their first five years, to matching olim with a “sponsor” in their demographic who they can call day or night when they have an olim crisis, there are myriad low-cost ways to bring American Jews into both Israeli society and the Israeli economy. In turn, these new olim bring with them an eagerness to build new businesses and products, and contribute to building this young nation.

Unlike previous waves of aliyah, the coming aliyah brings olim with skills and money. If the current trends hold, one-third of the oncoming aliyah will consist of young families looking to establish a home where their children can thrive.

At the moment, Jews are leaving New York City in unprecedented numbers. However, only a small percentage consider Israel. Imagine the possibilities if, instead of treating olim like an influx of tired, huddled masses needing to be housed, Israel overhauled the aliyah and integration process, reshaping the perception of Israel from a place of last resort to a destination where Jews of all stripes can thrive, and contribute to the safety, security and prosperity of the nation for generations to come.

Whether Israel rethinks the aliyah process or not, there is undeniably a new wave of aliyah percolating. How wonderful it would be for Israel to grab this historic opportunity to completely rethink and redesign aliyah – to stoke the economy by building needed olim-focused businesses, absorb the influx of English-speaking students rapidly by providing on-ramps to existing fields or the tools to build their own businesses, and provide olim with not only a refuge, but a world of possibilities in their homeland.

With an unresolved election and amidst three years of war, the nation is anxious, but I believe no matter the outcome, the future looks bright. Never before has Israel had the opportunity to welcome such a massive number of educated, financially solvent immigrants who understand how to build a nation. There is much work to be done to create this reality, but if Israel is able to meet the challenge, the world will look very different in ten years time.