The Jewish Agency reports that 16,500 people immigrated to Israel in 2008, including 3,150 from North America, and 500 immigrants arrived in the final week of the year despite rocket attacks in the south and a weak economy.
The number of new immigrants from North America increased slightly this year from 3,074 in 2007 to 3,150. of these, 2,750 were from the United States, and the rest from Canada.
The number of immigrants to Israel from South Africa nearly doubled compared with last year, to 370, and a second special flight from South Africa arrived in Israel on Wednesday with 80 new immigrants. South African Jews have expressed increased interest in aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel), in part a result of growing political instability and rising levels of violence and crime in the country.
One hundred new immigrants arrived Tuesday on a special flight from Moscow. Together with British and American immigrants, and South African immigrants, nearly 500 new immigrants will have arrived the last eight days of the Gregorian year.
Total immigration of 19,700 olim dropped from last year, mainly due to the slowing in the immigration of Falashmura from Ethiopia and a decrease in the number of immigrants from France.
Aliyah Department Director Eli Cohen estimates that immigration will increase next year, particularly from the West, where the economic crisis will spur potential immigrants to move to Israel in the coming year. Cohen noted that the Jewish Agency would work with the Ministry of Absorption as well as its partner organizations Nefesh B'Nefesh, in North America, and AMI, in France, to develop new employment and special absorption initiatives to attract more olim from North America and Western Europe.