Why do People Emigrate (yored, go down) From Israel?

“Israelis love aliya (immigration), but hate olim (immigrants).” Popular cultural aphorism in Israel.

Israel is a society built on immigration. There aren’t many holy cows in Israel, immigration is one of them. The vast majority of Israelis alive today are no more than three generations removed from immigrant ancestors: Approximately 19% of Israelis are foreign-born, 32% are the Israeli-born children of immigrant parents and 47% are Israeli-born to Israeli-born parents. Since the State’s establishment, over 3.5 million immigrants have arrived in Israel.

The ingathering of the exiles (Kibbutz Galuyot) is both the biblical promise and the ongoing modern process of the Jewish people returning to the Land of Israel. It centers on core ideas from scripture, historical migrations, religious and cultural practices, and deeply rooted national identity. Israel has made immigration, aliya, or going up, a core value of the state. It’s not just random immigration, but is almost solely limited to people who can either prove they are Jewish to the Orthodox rabbinate or are descended from a parent or one grandparent who can satisfy the Orthodox rabbinate that they are Jewish. Recent court decisions now include other streams of Judaism. 

Once a prospective oleh, one who goes up, can satisfy the state as to his or her Jewishness they can take up residence in Israel, be the beneficiary of state largesse, tax and other financial benefits designed to ease their integration, and receive citizenship and a passport in short order. If a male oleh arrives at a young enough age then he will be liable for military service. So too for females, but they will be exempt if they are married, religious, or aged 21 or older.

Integral to the values and spirit of immigration is the concept of a Safe Haven: The foundational ethos that Israel must exist as a secure, sovereign refuge for Jews worldwide is an unshakeable axiom across most of the Israeli political spectrum in the shadow of the Holocaust and Jewish persecution through the ages. Israel has historically, and currently, either devoted a ministerial seat to Immigration and Absorption, or made it a defined portfolio for the responsibility of a cabinet minister. ​The government body responsible for immigration and integration in Israel is the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, which works alongside the non-profit The Jewish Agency for Israel to help Jews move to Israel and settle into society. They are further aided by many NGOs operating in different Jewish communities worldwide whose task is to promote and aid in Aliyah, immigration to Israel.

Somewhat infamously in 1976, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin referred to Israeli emigrants (yordim) using the infamous Hebrew phrase “nefolet shel nemushot” (נפולת של נמושות), which translates roughly to “the fallout/scum of the weaklings” in reaction to newspaper reports of growing numbers of emigrants/yordim. To this day there are Israelis who classify people who decide to emigrate from Israel as “failures” despite other life accomplishments or achievements. There is still a consensus of attempting to shame people who decide to emigrate from Israel, labeling them as failures who should leave quietly, who should not advertise their leaving, and who should not try to influence others to leave Israel. Somewhat coincidentally there was a similar wave of emigration three years after the Yom Kippur War, just as today’s wave of emigration is nearly three years after the latest Gaza War. Haaretz’s editorial at the time came to the defense of the Israelis abroad. “The fact is, it’s untrue that the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who emigrated from Israel are wimps. Many of them are renowned scientists and artists, and quite a few have prospered in their occupations and businesses,” according to the newspaper. “This painful fact makes the emigration problem even worse, but it certainly cannot be hidden by mere insults”.

There are, however, leading Israeli expatriates who have made very successful lives for themselves outside of Israel and are highly regarded across many diverse fields. Israeli captains of industry in the United States largely operate within technology, cybersecurity, medical research, venture capital, and media. Hundreds of successful U.S. businesses are founded or led by Israeli expatriates, with major hubs concentrated in New York City, Silicon Valley, and leading tech metros. There is a substantial number of Nobel Laureate Israeli American academics and researchers. There are also an estimated one million Israeli expatriates who have made very successful lives for themselves in growing Israeli communities in locations as far-flung as Sydney – Australia, Limassol – Cyprus, Los Angeles – California, Berlin – Germany, London – UK, Argentina, Brazil, and Thailand to name a few.

Historically, except for a few short instances, the number of immigrants, returning Israelis, and new olim has always exceeded the number of emigrants or yordim. This has not been the case since 2023. A total of 269,000 Israelis left Israel in the three years 2023-2025. They are predominantly members of the secular elites: PhDs, academics, physicians, high-tech entrepreneurs and engineers.  Member of Knesset, Gilad Kariv, the chairman of ​The Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs  has described it as “Tsunami of Israelis choosing to leave the country” accompanied by many reports on TV and newspaper articles describing the phenomenon.

One would think that the least likely people to emigrate from Israel, yordim, would be the secular elite who are relatively secure, have a comfortable lifestyle, and can endure temporary difficulties. However, data from Israel’s Tax Authority states just the opposite: The top decile of emigrants now accounts for approximately 67% of the departing group’s income and 86% of the income tax they paid. Among Israelis in their twenties, the departure rate has remained steady at around 1% for the past decade. However, among those aged 40 to 50, the departure rate has risen by roughly 60%, increasing that group’s share of all emigrants over the age of 20 from 13% to 20%. This is the country’s peak-earning cohort, and its combined pre-departure annual income has tripled to NIS 2.7 billion. In other words, it’s the elites who dominate the emigrant rush. The occupational data point in the same direction. Departures from the high-tech sector increased by about 150%, while departures from healthcare more than doubled. Further analysis showed a marked increase in departures among doctors, PhDs, and engineers, with physicians who leave tending to be over 40 and already well established in their professional careers. There is one additional data point that gives more weight to the increased emigration trend: The number of Israelis reporting transfers of more than half a million shekels abroad doubled across the population in 2023 and 2024, and increased fourfold among those who emigrated. The researchers suggest this may reflect a growing tendency to hold a larger share of assets abroad reflecting both a lack of trust in Israel and possibly preparation for an exit from Israel.

For a country where the top 20% of income earners are paying 92% of all income tax revenue, the change in the mix of Israelis leaving the country, whereby a disproportionate number of emigrants are highly educated and high-earning, represents a significant strategic risk to state revenues and growth in the economy. A recent Israel Tax Authority study found that emigrants’ incomes before leaving were about 50% higher than the national average, with doctors and engineers disproportionately represented.

What then are the reasons, pressures and pushes that cause Israelis to consider emigration?

Five major environmental factors cause Israelis to consider yeridah – going down or emigration from Israel. These, in no particular order are:

1. 1. 1. Political: the growing moves away from democracy and a government dictated to by the ultra-Orthodox 
      2. A desire to escape the “pressure cooker” of daily Israeli life.
      3. Economic opportunities abroad
      4. Career opportunities
      5. Academic/educational/research opportunities

Historically and anecdotally, much of Israel’s emigration has been framed around the pursuit of better economic opportunities abroad. However, the events of the past four years have provided added motivations beyond the search for better economic opportunities. The prolonged military conflicts of the last three years, overlaid with the boiling over of long-simmering political tensions, spiced with the religious ultra-Orthodox influences on society, have placed added incentives for those thinking of relocating abroad. 

Estimates of Israelis holding a second passport range from 10-27% with many more, some estimate up to 70%, holding the right to obtain a second passport through descent. It must be said that as 19% of Israelis are foreign-born, one could assume that at least 19% of Israelis hold a second passport through birth abroad. The possession of a second passport obviously makes it much easier for Israelis to relocate, especially if the second passport is from an EU state, or from North America. 

1. Political drives to emigrate 

While there were always internal schisms and splits in Israeli society, mainly between religious and secular, hawks and doves, “right and left” about the oconcerningories, and Jews and Arabs, during the past four years, the ongoing wars and “judicial reform” have surfaced, exacerbated, and deepened all the divisions, leading to further extremism, polarization, and deepening of the divides, leading some to label it as the disintegration of Israeli society from within. Whereas previously Israelis generally managed to paper over and ignore the deep differences, that has no longer been possible with the pressures generated by three years of continuous warfare.

2. The desire to escape the “pressure cooker”

Israel is a low-trust society, characterized by widespread wariness toward strangers and institutions. People rely heavily on close family circles rather than broader civic cooperation. This environment triggers high “transaction costs”—such as extra legal contracts, complex security measures, and heavy monitoring—which ultimately slow down economic and community development and create tension in everyday life. The foremost symptom of this is the “fryer” or sucker cultural norm. In Israel, everyone tries to avoid the label of “fryer”, a sucker who others take advantage of. The norm in every transaction is to attempt to gain the upper hand at the expense of the other party. There is rarely the expectation of win-win, it generally is seen as zero-sum, with a winner and loser in every transactional encounter. 

Added to this is the stress and tension of living in a constant state of war leading to sleepless nights and having to take shelter at very short notice. Israeli society is buckling under the stress and increased load of constant war which is perceived as pointless without any permanent resolution. Road accidents are up, mental health providers are overwhelmed with new requests, and emigration of secular elites is increasing, with as many as 250,000 emigrating over the past three years. Millions are grappling with extreme trauma, severe PTSD, depression, domestic violence, and generalized anxiety as a result of direct violence, mass displacement, and prolonged conflict. This is not a sustainable situation.

3. Economic, education, career, and academic opportunities 

These are all taken as similar drivers for emigration which have always been present to a lesser or greater extent, are not unique to smaller countries like Israel, and so will not be discussed further.

Migration is driven by multiple factors. But few who study it doubt that Israel’s polarised political climate and three years of unrelenting warfare — during which Israeli forces have laid waste to Gaza and southern Lebanon, and Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have fired thousands of missiles at Israel — have played an important role in the current wave of emigration. Even more so, the pressures and reasons prompting secular elites to emigrate seem to be increasing and compounding with the growing impact of religious and ultra-Orthodox communities, politicians and influences overwhelming the previous mainstream secular Israel, particularly in the school system where secular schools are disadvantaged and underfunded compared to Haredi and national-religious schools, in the army where the officer corps is more and more dominated by the national religious, and in the growing acceptance of messianism by the broader Israeli public.

This round of emigrants/yordim appears to be capable of having a far more permanent impact on Israel, the economy, and national morale than other past waves of emigrants due to the caliber of people leaving. This wave is marked by the departure of highly educated, high-earning Israelis. A separate Israel Tax Authority study found that emigrants’ incomes before leaving were about 50% higher than the national average, with doctors and engineers disproportionately represented. The danger of this wave of emigration is that it could lead to an ever-growing spiral of emigrants, creating an atmosphere where those who would have stayed feel pressure to join others who left, and will find a growing community of Israeli expatriates to aid and ease their integration into a foreign society.