July 22, 2008 / 19 Tammuz 5768

For the first time in Israel's history, a special flight for new immigrants from South Africa landed at Ben Gurion airport. 

Late last night (Monday July 20th) the first special aliyah plane from South Africa, organized by the Jewish Agency and South African Zionist Federation, landed at Ben Gurion airport with 100 new immigrants on board.

Since the middle of 2007, there has been a growing interest in aliyah to Israel among South African Jews, partially because of the current political turbulence and the rising crime and violence and partly as a result of the Jewish Agency's activities in encouraging aliyah to Israel. According to Jewish Agency data, the number of South African Jews interested in aliyah has doubled in 2008. The Jewish Agency's emissary in South Africa, Ofer Dahan, reports that the number of people contacting Jewish Agency representatives with requests to open aliyah files or with questions about aliyah has doubled.  In the first half of 2008, 119 people made aliyah, as opposed to 74 during the same period last year. It is expected that more than 300 people will have made aliyah from South Africa by the end of this year, as opposed to a total of 178 last year.

The Jewish community of South Africa is a close-knit and Zionist community numbering approximately 65,000 Jews: 45,000 of them in Johannesburg and 15,000 in Cape Town. Since 1948, 21,000 South African Jews have moved to Israel. After the fall of apartheid in the 1990's, the Jewish community underwent upheaval that led to the emigration of many of its members to Australia, the United States, Britain and Israel. Following September 11th 2001, the United States instituted a stricter immigration policy and Israel became the number two destination of Jews from South Africa after Australia.

The Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Zeev Bielski, who recently returned from a visit to the South African Jewish community, noted that the Jewish Agency has prepared itself for the rise in aliyah from South Africa and has organized aliyah fairs and opened new absorption tracks in cooperation with the Absorption Ministry, the South African Zionist Federation and Telfed (the Israeli association of South African immigrants).

In parallel, three special plane-loads of new immigrants from France will land this Wednesday (July 23rd) with a total of 450 new immigrants. These flights were organized by the Jewish Agency and the AMI organization. A welcoming ceremony will be held at the absorption hall of Ben Gurion airport.