Jewish Immigration to Israel Growing Ever More Urgent!
Published on: 4.7.2023
By: David Parsons, Vice President & Senior Spokesman

The recent surge in Aliyah to Israel is still gaining momentum due to lingering and newly developing threats to Jewish communities in numerous countries worldwide, such as Russia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, India and now France. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem is currently positioned to assist hundreds of Jewish families to reach safety in Israel, but we can do even more if additional Christians will respond generously to this urgent need.

So far in 2023, more than 30,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel, with about 75% of them coming from Russia alone. The ICEJ has sponsored Aliyah flights for over 1,000 Jews this year, including 180 from Ukraine, 200 from the Baltic states, and 270 from Russia and other former Soviet republics, plus another 375 from Ethiopia. The door is open for us to provide additional flights for many more Jews from these regions, along with the Bnei Menashe in India, while events in France portend a new wave of Aliyah from that nation as well.

The Russia/Ukraine Conflict
The Russian invasion of Ukraine last year continues to be the main driver of the current wave of Aliyah. It has brought war and destruction to Ukrainian cities, while Russians are facing serious political and economic uncertainties. Russia’s chief rabbi already had to flee Moscow for refusing to back the war, and the Jewish Agency has been facing a stiff legal challenge to its ability to operate in the country. And now the recent attempted mutiny by the Wagner private militia has only heightened concerns that Russia’s Jews may soon be scapegoated for the mired war effort.

Meanwhile, many of the Ukrainian Jewish families arriving in Israel come without their fathers, husbands and sons of military age as they must stay behind to help defend the country. The ICEJ recently sponsored flights for one such Ukrainian Jewish family that included three generations – grandparents Yuri and Valentina, their daughter Natalia, and grandson Ivan. They fled the heavily bombarded city of Zaporizhia, but Natalia’s husband had to stay and serve in the army.

“I had to leave Ukraine as a child. I never believed it would happen again”, said Yuri, an 85 year-old Holocaust survivor who lost his own grandfather in one of Stalin’s purges. “I really want to live a normal, quiet life, that everything will work out for the best in Israel for my large family.”

“We are all immigrating together, one big family. We want to live and develop in Israel”, added his daughter Natalia. “I hope that my husband will join us soon and that we will have a good future in Israel.”

The Baltic Route
Elsewhere, the ICEJ is sponsoring several Aliyah youth camps in the Baltic states this summer for Jews interested in making the move to Israel. There are currently hundreds of Jews from the Baltics as well as Ukrainian Jewish war refugees and even Russian Jewish emigres waiting to make Aliyah from this region.

Our Aliyah work in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia first started in 2010, and has expanded over the years with the able assistance of our Latvian national director Ilze Saulite, who has been involved in Aliyah efforts since soon after the Soviet Union fell in 1989. Last year, the Christian Embassy began sponsoring direct flights from the Baltic countries to Israel, and since then we have sponsored Aliyah flights for some 500 Jews coming via the Baltic route. And many more have been helped with transportation and accommodation for consular visits, testing for Youth Aliyah study programs, Aliyah seminars, Jewish holiday celebrations, and summer and winter Aliyah camps.

The Ethiopian Aliyah
Israel has resumed the latest phase of the “Operation Rock of Israel” airlift, with more flights bringing Ethiopian Jews home to the Promised Land. The situation there remains concerning, as violent Muslim clashes with Christian communities continue in the Gondar region, where many members of the last Jewish remnant in Ethiopia are located. The next ICEJ-sponsored flight is expected in mid-July, and we will have a team there to welcome them to the Land of Israel on your behalf. Hopes are that more flights will soon follow, and we want to remain part of the concluding chapter of this historic return of Ethiopian Jewry.

Bnei Menashe in India
The situation is only worsening for the Bnei Menashe community in the Manipur region of northeast India. This ancient tribe of Chinese Jews claim descent from the tribe of Manasseh, but they are now caught in the crossfire of a bitter ethnic conflict, as the predominant Hindu tribes in the area continue to riot and rampage against the Kuki minority – who are mostly Christian. Israel is hoping to bring a large group of Bnei Menashe to Israel in coming months, but the continuing unrest has made the planning process very difficult. Nonetheless, the ICEJ has been asked to help fund these Aliyah flights and we need your help to make it happen.

Riots in France
Finally, there have been unprecedented riots in the streets of Paris and other major French cities over recent days, as mainly Muslim youths burn and pillage in protest of the death of a Muslim teenager blamed on police. The nightly carnage in France appears to be five times worse than the mass riots of 2005. Although they are not yet being specifically targeted, the French Jewish community – numbering some 500,000 – is concerned for their safety for several reasons.

First, there are many Sephardic Jews residing in the same neighbourhoods of Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other large French cities where Muslims from Algeria, Morocco and other North African countries live. Secondly, there is a troubling history of antisemitic attacks by these French Muslim immigrants against their Jewish neighbours, such as during the Charlie Hebdo riots of 2015. For these reasons, Israeli authorities fully expect a sharp rise in French Jews packing up and heading to Israel for their safety, and we need to be ready for that very real possibility.

Please Act Now!
Whether it is the Russia-Ukraine conflict, ethnic and religious clashes in Ethiopia and India, or the rioting in France, now is the time for Christians to stand with the Jewish people by bringing these endangered Jews home to Israel as soon as possible.

Over the coming weeks and months, the ICEJ will be engaged in pre-Aliyah activities, ground transportation, rescue flights and urgent integration of Jews from all these countries. We invite you to be a part of helping to regather these at-risk Jewish communities to Israel from all over the world. Please give towards the ICEJ’s urgent Aliyah efforts today!

猶太人移民以色列變得越來越迫切！
發佈於：2023 年 7 月 4 日
作者：大衛·帕森斯，副總裁兼高級發言人

由於俄羅斯、烏克蘭、埃塞俄比亞、印度和現在的法國等世界各地許多國家的猶太社區面臨揮之不去的威脅和新出現的威脅，最近以色列回歸的人數仍在增加。耶路撒冷國際基督徒大使館目前正在協助數百個猶太家庭抵達以色列的安全地帶，但如果更多的基督徒慷慨地回應這一迫切需要，我們可以做得更多。

截至2023年，已有超過3萬猶太人移民以色列，其中約75%來自俄羅斯。ICEJ今年為1,000多名猶太人贊助了回返航班，其中 180 名來自烏克蘭、200 名來自波羅的海國家、270 名來自俄羅斯和其他前蘇聯加盟共和國，另外還有 375 名來自埃塞俄比亞。 我們為來自這些地區以及印度的瑪拿西之子的更多猶太人提供更多航班的大門是敞開的，而法國發生的事件也預示著來自該國的新一波回歸浪潮。

俄羅斯/烏克蘭衝突
去年俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭仍然是當前阿利亞浪潮的主要推動力。它給烏克蘭城市帶來了戰爭和破壞，而俄羅斯則面臨著嚴重的政治和經濟不確定性。俄羅斯首席拉比已經因拒絕支持戰爭而不得不逃離莫斯科，而猶太機構在該國的運作能力也一直面臨著嚴峻的法律挑戰。現在，瓦格納私人民兵最近企圖叛變只會加劇人們的擔憂，即俄羅斯猶太人可能很快就會成為陷入困境的戰爭努力的代罪羔羊。

與此同時，許多抵達以色列的烏克蘭猶太家庭沒有他們的父親、丈夫和入伍年齡的兒子，因為他們必須留下來幫助保衛國家。 ICEJ 最近為這樣一個烏克蘭猶太家庭贊助了航班，該家庭包括三代人——祖父母尤里和瓦倫蒂娜、他們的女兒娜塔莉亞和孫伊萬。他們逃離了遭受嚴重轟炸的扎波羅熱市，但娜塔莉亞的丈夫不得不留下來在軍隊服役。

「我小時候不得不離開烏克蘭。 我從來不相信這種事會再次發生」，85 歲的大屠殺生還者尤里 (Yuri) 說道，他在斯大林的一次清洗中失去了自己的祖父。「我真的很想過上正常、安靜的生活，希望我的大家庭在以色列一切順利。」

「我們都是一起移民的，是一個大家庭。 我們希望在以色列生活和發展」，他的女兒娜塔莉亞補充道。「我希望我的丈夫很快就能加入我們，我們在以色列會有美好的未來。」

波羅的海航線
在其他地方，ICEJ 今年夏天在波羅的海國家贊助了幾個阿利亞青年營，為有興趣移居以色列的猶太人提供服務。 目前有數百名來自波羅的海地區的猶太人以及烏克蘭猶太戰爭難民，甚至俄羅斯猶太移民正在等待從該地區回歸。

我們在拉脫維亞、立陶宛和愛沙尼亞的回歸工作於 2010 年首次啟動，多年來在拉脫維亞國家主任伊爾澤·索利特 (Ilze Saulite) 的有力協助下不斷擴大，自 1989 年蘇聯解體後不久，他就一直參與回歸工作。 今年，基督徒大使館開始贊助從波羅的海國家飛往以色列的直飛航班，從那時起，我們為約 500 名經波羅的海航線抵達的猶太人贊助了阿利亞航班。 還有更多人在領事探訪、青年回歸研究項目測試、回歸研討會、猶太節日慶祝活動以及夏季和冬季回歸營地的交通和住宿方面得到了幫助。

埃塞俄比亞的回歸
以色列恢復了「以色列磐石行動」空運的最新階段，有更多航班將埃塞俄比亞猶太人帶回應許之地。 那裡的局勢仍然令人擔憂，因為貢德爾地區穆斯林與基督教社區的暴力衝突仍在繼續，埃塞俄比亞最後一批猶太殘餘成員的許多成員都居住在該地區。 ICEJ 贊助的下一次航班預計在 7 月中旬，我們將派出一支團隊代表您歡迎他們來到以色列土地。 希望很快會有更多航班，我們希望繼續成為埃塞俄比亞猶太人歷史性回歸的最後一章的一部分。

瑪拿西之子在印度
印度東北部曼尼普爾邦地區的瑪拿西之子社區的情況只會進一步惡化。 這個古老的中國猶太人部落聲稱是瑪拿西部落的後裔，但他們現在陷入了激烈的種族衝突的交火中，因為該地區的主要印度教部落繼續針對庫基少數民族（他們大多是基督徒）進行騷亂和橫衝直撞。以色列希望在未來幾個月內將大批瑪拿西之子帶到以色列，但持續的騷亂使計劃過程變得非常困難。 儘管如此，ICEJ 已被要求幫助資助這些 Aliyah 航班，我們需要您的幫助來實現它。

法國騷亂
最後，巴黎和法國其他主要城市的街頭最近幾天發生了前所未有的騷亂，主要是穆斯林青年焚燒和搶劫，以抗議一名被歸咎於警察的穆斯林青少年的死亡。法國夜間的屠殺似乎比2005年的大規模騷亂嚴重五倍。儘管尚未成為具體目標，但法國猶太社區（人數約500,000）出於多種原因擔心他們的安全。

首先，在巴黎、里昂、馬賽等法國大城市的鄰近地區，居住著許多塞法迪猶太人，而阿爾及利亞、摩洛哥和其他北非國家的穆斯林也居住在這些城市。 其次，這些法國穆斯林移民對其猶太鄰居進行反猶太主義襲擊的歷史令人不安，例如2015年《查理周刊》騷亂期間。出於這些原因，以色列當局完全預計執拾行李前往以色列的法國猶太人人數將急劇增加。為了他們的安全，我們需要為這種非常現實的可能性做好準備。

請立即行動！
無論是俄羅斯與烏克蘭的衝突，埃塞俄比亞和印度的民族和宗教衝突，還是法國的騷亂，現在是基督徒與猶太人民站在一起，盡快將這些面臨生存危機的猶太人帶回以色列的時候了。

在接下來的幾星期和幾個月裡，ICEJ 將參與回歸前的活動、地面運輸、救援飛行以及對來自所有這些國家的猶太人進行緊急融合。 我們邀請您參與幫助將這些處於危險之中的猶太社區從世界各地重新聚集到以色列。 願您一同參與ICEJ關於猶太人的緊急回歸！