In a time of darkness, a time of pandemic, pandemonium and power struggles, a thin ray of light can be seen in the Jewish world.
The results are in: In May, the number of North Americans applying to make aliyah was double what it was last year at this time (814 vs. 424). In fact, last month was the biggest ever in the 19-year history of Nefesh B’Nefesh, the nonprofit that with the help of Israel’s government and the Jewish Agency for Israel has already shepherded some 60,000 North American Jews to new homes in Israel.
“We’ve seen small bumps, but nothing like this,” says Marc Rosenberg, Nefesh vice president for Diaspora partnerships. “What we saw this past month is absolutely remarkable. And while they may not be major numbers, they are major increases.”
With New York, California and New Jersey leading the way, this spring’s uptick in new immigrants isn’t limited to North Americans. Though no hard numbers were available as of press time, Jewish Agency officials say they’re seeing a “definite rise in the number of aliyah applications around the world,” especially in North America, France (where unrest, economic woes and anti-Semitism are increasingly the norm) and Mexico (now carrying one of the world’s highest COVID-19 rates). Folks seem ready to make the move, even though it means spending their first two weeks as newly minted Israeli citizens in badood (Hebrew for “quarantine”).
The jump of interest in the number of individuals and families begs the question: “Why now?”
For Jay and Michal Brown of Los Angeles, this time in history was the push they needed to realize a long-deferred dream. “COVID-19 gave us an opportunity to slow down our lives and find out what’s really important to us,” says Brown. “My wife is Israeli and was ready to go home, but it’s only these last few months that I’ve been asking myself, what am I holding onto here?
“I realized I’ve been chasing money like a chicken without a head,” he adds. “So I said, ‘No, our kids are not going to grow up like this. They’re 7 and 10, and need to be raised with Jewish values. It was during COVID-19 that I surrendered to all that. At 53, I realized I had to change, and that doing what’s best for my family was going to be best for me, too.”