In six months time, the Jewish Agency will introduce a flexible new "trial immigration" program to Jews from abroad, making them eligible for financial benefits not available to tourists, and enabling the quasi-olim (immigrants) to search for jobs and explore living options before committing to citizenship.

Jewish Agency officials say they hope to set up living quarters in Tel Aviv and Haifa for trial immigrants, and will assist with travel and living expenses.  Officials also hope to create a "partial immigration" status specifically geared to those who hope to live in Israel for part of the year and remain in their countries of origin for the remainder of the year.

According to the Agency, changes and upgrades in the organization will be enabled in part through partnership with the International Fellowship for Christians and Jews, which recently pledged approximately $45 million to the Jewish Agency over three years.