This week Israel is celebrating Yom Aliyah. It’s wonderful that a country built by immigrants pauses to celebrate its immigrants. There will be ceremonies at the President’s House, events and speeches at the Knesset, and discussions in our schools.
But beyond the pomp and circumstance, Yom Aliyah should be an opportunity for our leaders to engage in a process of learning about the challenges that olim face and prospective olim today and commit to addressing them. I must begin by praising current Minister of Immigration and Absorption MK Penina Tamano Shata. She came into office in the Spring of 2020 and has been working hard to make significant changes for olim. But the system in Israel’s government doesn’t allow for just one minister – even the one in charge of the subject at hand – to make wholescale changes. Significant reform can only come when there is serious commitment from the prime minister to the finance minister, and throughout the cabinet.
While there are many challenges facing olim which the government can address I have chosen to focus on four which I believe can be addressed with relative ease.
The first item that must be changed is the aliyah process itself. I founded an organization to help olim post aliyah called Yad L’Olim just four months ago. It has been shocking to see the number of people who have reached out for pre-aliyah help in this short time span. Nefesh B’Nefesh, the preeminent outsourced arm for the Israeli government for aliyah from North America does remarkable work. I could not have made aliyah myself without them. But at the moment their mandate is limited to North America and even they can only function within the rules that the government makes. The hoops that prospective olim have to go through to prove that they are Jewish, and the impossibilities that are sometimes presented to them regarding documentation that they need to provide needs to be readdressed. There are passionate Zionists, who are definitely Jewish and have so much to contribute to Israel, who are being shut out because of technicalities. And that is unfair to them and to Israel.
The second challenge which the government must address is employment for new immigrants. When people move to Israel they know that there are economic challenges but far too many can’t make it because they simply cannot find jobs that enable them to support their families. While the government does have programs to help new immigrants with career training and to open new businesses, it is clear that more must be done. I don’t have a doubt that if this becomes a government priority then solutions can be found. Doing so will for sure increase the numbers of people who make aliyah as well.
The third difficulty which needs to be dealt with is ulpan. New olim across the board talk about the current ulpan system not working for them – whether it’s the curriculum, the teaching methodology or the schedule – something is broken. The current minister has made this issue a priority and with the help of other ministries the problem can be corrected.
The final issue that needs to be addressed relates specifically to English speaking olim. As I travel the country and meet with new olim to hear about their struggles and needs, there is a constant refrain. We need government and health agencies to have native English speakers to speak to. Senior olim, in particular, cannot get their medical needs taken care of because they have no way to communicate medical issues to their kuppat cholim in Hebrew and none of them provide them with the opportunity to speak to a native English speaker. Moving to a new country with a new language and culture is difficult enough, but we should be doing whatever we can to make things easier for our new immigrants. Providing actual English speakers in all the critical offices that new olim must visit would be an important step toward making that happen.
As the homeland of the Jewish people, Israel must make helping olim from around the world one of its top priorities. Yom Aliyah is a great opportunity to announce that aliyah and helping olim will become one of the top areas of focus for the current government and Knesset.
The author Dov Lipman served as a member of the 19th Knesset and is the founder of Yad L’Olim Dov lipman.