More than 30,000 Jews migrated to Israel in 2015

More than 30,000 Jews from across the world immigrated to Israel in 2015, a record in the last decade.

Some experts say these increase is due to anti-semitism acts happening in several European countries.

The Immigration Ministry published the data, saying the number of inmigrants was a 10% higher than in the previous year, and a record since 2003.

The Israeli legislation stipulates that any person with at least one Jewish grandparent can find shelter under the ‘Law of Return’ (approved in 1950), which gives Israeli citizenship and the right to live in the country.

BY COUNTRIES

France was the country from which most immigrants arrived to Israel this year: 7.900. Experts in Israel said the reason was the wave of terrorist attacks, some of them against Jews, in the years. A school in Toulouse (2012) and the Kosher supermarket in Paris (January 2015), among them.

Ukraine, 7,000, is the second country from which most migrants went to Israel and Russia was the third, 6,600.

AUTHORITIES ENCOURAGE “MASSIVE IMMIGRATION”

In Februrary, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a “massive immigration” of European Jews to Israel following the shooting outside a Copenhagen synagogue that killed a Danish Jew.

The government discussed a $46M plan to encourage Jewish immigration from France, Belgium and Ukraine. “This wave of attacks is expected to continue”, Netanyahu said. “Jews deserve security in every country, but we say to our Jewish brothers and sisters, Israel is your home.”