More than 69,000 Israelis left the country in 2025 under the shadow of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, leading the country to record a negative migration balance for the second straight year, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday in a year-end report.
According to the CBS, about 24,600 new immigrants arrived in 2025, 8,000 fewer than in 2024. (That’s more than the 21,900 the Immigration and Absorption Ministry announced Monday.) Most of the decline was attributable to a sharp drop in immigrants from Russia, after numbers from that country spiked following the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine in 2022.
Meanwhile, some 19,000 Israelis returned to Israel after an extended time living abroad, and 5,500 people arrived for family reunification purposes, the CBS said. That brought the total migration balance to a net loss of about 20,000 people.
Some thoughts
ReplyDelete1) When I see this story, I think about Nefesh B'Nefesh and how it needs to start a branch to convince Israelis to stay. It's like the bank that gives you a bonus if you switch your account to it but offers you nothing if you're a loyal customer. How do we encourage Israelis to stay? Because frankly, they think they're heading to safety or getting away from the "nutty religious" by leaving but are going to find out that Israel=Nazi will ruin their new lives wherever they wind up.
2) It's an interesting demographic trend. The secular Ashkenazi left complains about the results of elections because they can't win them anymore since they're now a minority. But along with not having lots of children, they are also most likely to leave so their percentage drops even further and then they complain even more about how they can't run things anymore.
Where does the article say what ethnicity and political leaning was dominant in the yordim?
DeleteThere is always a yerida, and in times of war it can rise. It could also be new olim who have difficulty dealing with tense security situation
From other articles I've read, it seems that the majority of yordim are young, secular professionals worried about the seemingly never-ending war and the increased power of the religious part of society in running the country. They want to live in a peaceful, secular environment and don't see that happening in Israel.
DeleteOddly, despite their threats, there is no mass Chareidi yeridah.
There's a large Israeli diaspora in LA, mainly secular. I've heard that assimilation becomes a massive problem for their kids or grandchildren
DeleteNot just the children but them too. Israelis are different from Golus Jews. It's a fascinating different mentality. They don't see themselves as Jewish. They see themselves as Israeli and therefore just another ethnic group like Italians, Chinese or Indians. Few care about giving their children more than a rudimentary "Sunday school" Jewish education because just like they were Israeli in Israel, now they want to be American in America.
DeleteWhen I was in medical school, the Israelis didn't even belong to the Jewish Students Association. They had their own (which used the JSA facility, of course) with their own social events. For most of them, Jews are just American.
Further proof of Zionism. Had the seculars stayed where they were, they would have assimilated 70 years ago. In the "incubator" in Israel, at least they do some basic mitzvot, and at some point may have some inspiration from Torah.
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