ICEJ opens new year with Aliyah camp for Jewish youth
Published on: 9.1.2024
By Howard Flower, ICEJ Aliyah Director
The war thrust upon Israel over recent months has left many Israelis traumatized, even while scores of Jews abroad are considering a move to the Jewish homeland to escape the rampant wave of antisemitism now spreading worldwide. As we start the new year, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem stands committed not only to helping with war relief efforts here in the Land of Israel, but just as importantly to bringing home as many Jewish immigrants as possible. In fact, our Aliyah efforts for 2024 are already underway in the form of winter Aliyah camps for Jewish youths which we sponsored last week in the Baltic states.
As antisemitism continues to rise across the globe, more and more Jews are considering returning to their ancestral homeland of Israel. Already since that dark day last October 7th, more than 4,000 Jewish olim (newcomers) have arrived in Israel on Aliyah.
Although Jewish immigration to Israel has slowed down somewhat since the beginning of the Gaza war in early October, it stems from many prospective immigrants simply decided to delay their Aliyah for a few months. The Jewish Agency For Israel reports that, in fact, many more people have opened Aliyah application files since October than over the same period the year before – and no one has canceled yet. The slowdown so far is less than what occurred during the first months of the Coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, after which Aliyah rebounded dramatically .
Following a series of Aliyah fairs in France in late December, the Jewish Agency announced that more than 1,200 French Jews have opened Aliyah files in the last three months, compared with only 220 in the same period the previous year – an increase of 450%.
The Israeli daily Israel Hayom also reported that in the last quarter of 2023, nearly 4,200 American Jews submitted immigration requests – an increase of 122% over the same period in 2022.
Recently, Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog boldly forecast that Israel could see as many as one million new Jewish immigrants in the next few years due to the mounting wave of antisemitism around the globe. At a special Aliyah conference in Florida last week, JAFI official Danielle Mor assured that the Agency could handle such a mass influx and were ready to do just that.
In the new year of 2024, the ICEJ is committed to bringing as many Jewish immigrants home to Israel as possible and assisting them with fully integrating into Israeli society. Our Aliyah work first began in Vienna in 1980, and since then we have assisted more than 175,000 Jews in coming home to Israel, including more than 5,000 in 2023, while helping many more throughout the integration phase.
Our Aliyah activities for 2024 are already underway, as we just started the year by sponsoring winter Aliyah camps for 73 Jewish youth aged between 12 to17 who eagerly packed their warmest clothes and came together last week for a life-changing adventure in chilly Latvia!
There was a jovial atmosphere as the youth arrived and began mingle with each other. The Jewish teens, including Ukrainian refugee children now living in Poland, Germany and the Baltic countries, as well as Israeli youth temporarily out of Israel, all gathered at an ICEJ -sponsored Aliyah winter camp on the shores of the Baltic Sea in Latvia between 3-7 January. This winter camp, mostly conducted in the Russian language, was made possible through the generous support of Christian friends giving through our Finnish, German and USA branches .
Despite the freezing Latvian temperatures which dipped as low as -20 degrees Celsius, the young people participated in a variety of fun activities. They had an awesome pajama party, navigated through a web of strings, made new friends, played in the snow, and, and most importantly, learned about Israel while embracing their Jewish identity. These Aliyah camps play a crucial role in planting the seeds for eventually making Aliyah to Israel deep within these Jewish youngsters.
The Christian Embassy has a long history of assisting with Aliyah summer and winter camps. More than ten years prior to the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014, the ICEJ was approached by the Jewish Agency to help with Aliyah preparations in areas that were away from the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Since then, the ICEJ has assisted with dozens of these types of Aliyah camps and other preparatory gatherings in many countries, including Ukraine, Finland, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Thank you for supporting the prophetic call of the Jewish people to return to their biblical homeland. Please continue to give generously to our Aliyah efforts.
ICEJ 為猶太青年開設 Aliyah 營開啟新年
發佈於：2024 年 9 月 1 日
作者：Howard Flower，ICEJ Aliyah 主任
近幾個月來以色列遭受的戰爭給許多以色列人帶來了創傷，儘管許多海外猶太人正在考慮為了躲避目前在世界各地蔓延的反猶太主義浪潮，人們紛紛搬到猶太人的家園。 在新年伊始，耶路撒冷國際基督教大使館不僅致力於幫助以色列土地上的戰爭救援工作，而且同樣重要的是讓盡可能多的猶太移民回家。 事實上，我們為 2024 年回歸所做的努力已經開始，我們上週在波羅的海國家為猶太青年舉辦了冬季回歸營地。
隨著反猶太主義在全球範圍內持續抬頭，越來越多的猶太人正在考慮返回他們的祖籍以色列。 自去年 10 月 7 日那個黑暗的日子以來，已有 4,000 多名猶太新移民 (olim) 在回歸日抵達以色列。
儘管自10月初加薩戰爭爆發以來，以色列的猶太移民數量有所放緩，但這源於許多潛在移民只是決定推遲幾個月的回歸。 以色列猶太機構報告稱，事實上，自 10 月以來，提交回返申請文件的人數比去年同期多得多，而且還沒有人取消申請。 迄今為止的放緩幅度小於 2020 年初冠狀病毒大流行的頭幾個月，之後 Aliyah 大幅反彈。
繼12月下旬在法國舉辦一系列回歸活動後，猶太機構宣布，過去三個月內有超過1,200名法國猶太人開設了回歸檔案，而去年同期只有220人，增加了450%。
以色列日報 Israel Hayom 也報導稱，2023 年最後一個季度，近 4,200 名美國猶太人提交了移民申請，比 2022 年同期增加了 122%。
近日，猶太機構主席多倫·阿爾莫格大膽預測，由於全球反猶太主義浪潮不斷高漲，以色列未來幾年可能會出現多達100萬新猶太移民。 上週在佛羅裡達州舉行的一次特別的 Aliyah 會議上，JAFI 官員 Danielle Mor 保證，該機構能夠應對如此大規模的湧入，並做好了準備。
2024年新的一年，ICEJ致力於將盡可能多的猶太移民帶回以色列，並幫助他們充分融入以色列社會。 我們的回歸工作於 1980 年首次在維也納開始，從那時起，我們已幫助超過 175,000 名猶太人返回以色列，其中到 2023 年將超過 5,000 名，同時在整個融入階段幫助了更多人。
我們的2024 年回歸活動已經開始，因為我們剛開始為73 名12 至17 歲的猶太青年舉辦冬季回歸營地，他們急切地收拾好最溫暖的衣服，上週聚集在一起，在寒冷的拉脫維亞進行了一次改變人生的冒險！
當年輕人到來並開始相互互動時，現場充滿了歡樂的氣氛。 這些猶太青少年，包括現在居住在波蘭、德國和波羅的海國家的烏克蘭難民兒童，以及暫時離開以色列的以色列青少年，全部聚集在 ICEJ 資助的位於拉脫維亞波羅的海沿岸的阿利亞冬令營中。一月-7 日。 這次冬令營主要以俄語進行，是在我們芬蘭、德國和美國分支機構的基督徒朋友的慷慨支持下得以實現的。
儘管拉脫維亞氣溫低至攝氏-20度，年輕人仍然參與了各種有趣的活動。 他們舉辦了一場很棒的睡衣派對，穿過弦網，結識了新朋友，在雪地裡玩耍，最重要的是，在擁抱自己的猶太身份的同時了解了以色列。這些回歸營地在為這些猶太年輕人的內心深處播下最終回歸以色列的種子方面發揮著至關重要的作用。
基督徒大使館在協助阿利亞夏令營和冬令營方面有著悠久的歷史。2014年烏克蘭衝突爆發十多年前，猶太機構曾與 ICEJ 接洽，要求其協助在烏克蘭東部遠離戰火的地區進行回歸準備工作。 自那時起，ICEJ 已在烏克蘭、芬蘭、俄羅斯、拉脫維亞和立陶宛等許多國家協助舉辦了數十個此類回歸營和其他籌備集會。
感謝您支持猶太人民返回聖經家園的預言性呼籲。請繼續為我們的回歸活動慷慨解囊。