A new initiative by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry seeks to remove one of the most significant barriers to aliyah by working with Israeli companies to provide employment for immigrants as soon as they arrive in the country.
As Israel looks to increase immigration in the coming years, and as the country’s economy prepares to grow following the potential conclusion of the two-year war with Hamas in Gaza, ministry representatives and industry leaders called the plan a “win-win” that will encourage growth on both fronts.
“For the first time, we’re approaching the private sector in Israel directly and saying to them, ‘we have a very big opportunity,’” Immigration and Absorption Ministry Director General Avichai Kahana told The Times of Israel. “We now have people around the world who are considering making aliyah, but the biggest obstacle for many of them is getting a job. What we are doing now is bringing the leaders from the private sector to approach the new olim themselves to find the talent they need.”
Since the beginning of the war with Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, Kahana said, 53,680 new immigrants have arrived in Israel. Meanwhile, he noted, industry and high-tech leaders say companies lack about 35,000 skilled workers for various positions.
“So it’s a win-win situation, because the olim and the economy both have a lot to gain,” Kahana said.
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At a summit in Tel Aviv launching the new initiative, dozens of companies — including high-tech companies, medical centers and retailers — signed the ministry’s new “Leap to Aliyah” charter, in which they committed to take steps to integrate more immigrants into their workforces. Steps include providing specialized professional training for immigrants in numerous languages, hiring immigrants before they arrive in Israel, and appointing managers to supervise and promote the programs within their companies.
“Immigrants bring with them professional experience, entrepreneurship and innovation that improve the Israeli labor market and strengthen the national economy,” said Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer. “This is an investment not only in immigrants, but in the growth of all of us.”
New immigrants arrive in Israel after a Nefesh B’Nefesh charter flight, August 20, 2025 (Zev Stub/Times of Israel)
The new plan follows a series of similar programs that Sofer has initiated over the past year.
In February, the ministry announced a NIS 170 million ($46.4 million) program to improve integration, along with a reform designed to speed up the licensing process for new immigrants to work in their professional fields. More recently, it launched a new government program offering incentives to attract successful Jews with in-demand skills to immigrate to Israel. Other initiatives, including expanding tax exemptions for immigrants who own businesses and offering personal assistance to potential olim throughout Europe, are also underway.
Immigration from Western countries has been rising over the past year, driven in large part by rising antisemitism abroad and a resurgence in Zionist fervor since the start of the war, aliyah advocates have noted.
Total immigration numbers have declined in recent years, from over 74,000 in 2022 to 46,000 in 2023 to nearly 33,000 in 2024. However, immigration from France rose by 235 percent in 2024-2025 compared to the comparable period a year earlier, while that from the US rose by 154% and from Canada by 130%. However, immigration levels from the US, France, UK, Canada and other countries are still low compared to a decade ago, numbers from the Central Bureau of Statistics show.
Meanwhile, as many as 125,000 Israelis moved away from the country between early 2022 and mid-2024, the country’s largest-ever loss of human capital in such a short period, according to a report presented on Monday to the Knesset’s Immigration and Absorption Committee.
Aliyah advocates are hopeful that further aliyah initiatives can help Israel absorb as many as one million new immigrants over the coming decade, an ambitious target for a country of 10 million total population.
(L-R) Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer, World Jewish Congress in Israel president Sylvan Adams, and Immigration and Absorption Ministry Director General Avichai Kahana at a summit for boosting Aliyah in Tel Aviv, October 22, 2025 (GPO)
“If we want to do that, though, we need to create the conditions first,” Sylvan Adams, an Israeli-Canadian businessman and philanthropist who serves as the president of the World Jewish Congress in Israel, told The Times of Israel. “People won’t simply get on a plane and come because there’s antisemitism in their backyard. They have to have a very solid set of circumstances to be able to comfortably make this dramatic move. That’s what we are trying to do.”
Adams said he was involved in the initiative tangentially, serving as a bridge between the Israel and diaspora communities.
Institutional heads attending the event said they were excited about the initiative.
“It’s not easy moving to Israel, so if you can help people find jobs, it takes away a lot of the work,” said Erel Hershko, head of the Physiotherapy Department at the Bet Hadar Medical Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Ashdod. “We need a lot of workers, not just at my facility but around the country. There is a huge gap between the needs of medical centers and the number of workers available, so we are ready and happy to do whatever it takes to help. There are grants available for new immigrants in certain professions, like doctors, and salaries can be very attractive.”
Erel Hershko, head of the Physiotherapy Department at the Bet Hadar Medical Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Ashdod, at a summit for boosting Aliyah in Tel Aviv, October 22, 2025 (Zev Stub/Times of Israel)
Kahana, meanwhile, said he sees the initiative as part of a historical process of developing the modern state of Israel.
“New immigrants built this country,” Kahana said. “The wave of aliyah from the Soviet Union in the 1990s helped build the Israeli economy, and we’ve enjoyed the benefits for almost 35 years. But now, that generation is retiring, and we need to fill their places with trained engineers and physicians and with high-tech and universities.”
“Aliyah is the next chapter of Israel, and I believe that in two or three years, we will see a major wave of new Olim,” Kahana said. “It may take time, but they will come.”
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