Jewish immigration to Israel, or aliyah, from Western countries, meanwhile, more than doubled, jumping to 9,256 in the first 11 months of 2025 from 4,570 in last year’s corresponding period. Israel’s government has not yet published figures from December 2025. In previous years, about 2,000 newcomers came in December.

The drop in aliyah from Russia accounted for most of the difference between the periods, going from 18,313 in the first 11 months of 2024 to 7,993 during those months this year—a 56% decrease. Aliyah from Ukraine dropped by 14% to 805 newcomers, according to the records of Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration.

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering a war that has affected Ukrainian population centers and ravaged both countries’ economies amid a curtailment of civil liberties on both sides. Aliyah surged in 2022, with more than 60,000 moving to Israel from Russia and Ukraine out of 74,474 in total—a two-decade record high.

Aliyah from Ukraine subsided after that, partly because of emergency provisions preventing military-age men from leaving, and because European countries, as well as Russia, opened their borders to war refugees.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invaded Israel and murdered some 1,200 people, triggering an Israeli counterattack against Hamas in Gaza and a two-year regional war. Following the war, aliyah decreased drastically. In 2024, Israel received a total of 32,161 olim—a 30% decrease from the 2023 tally, and a 56% drop from 2022.

During the first 11 months of 2024, aliyah from Western countries totaled 6,986 arrivals. In the corresponding months of 2025, Western aliyah has increased by 35%.

Following the slump in aliyah from former Soviet countries, and the increase in Western aliyah, the two contingents—which account for most olim—were almost equal during the first 11 months of 2025, split 10,098 and 9,256, respectively.

“Aliyah from the West continues to rise, probably due to Zionism and antisemitism,” Howard Flower, director of aliyah for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told JNS about the data.

Among Western countries, France saw the highest increase in aliyah this year: A 45% jump to 3,030 over the corresponding period last year. Germany saw a 19% hike to 204, the United Kingdom had a 16% rise to 760. Aliyah from the United States and Canada rose only slightly, by 4% and 5%, to 3,257 and 388, respectively.

France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, estimated in a 2020 study as numbering 449,000 people who self-identify as Jews.

Amid rising antisemitism there, France has a “unique potential for providing Israel with olim who possess both strong professional skills, a democracy-oriented social skill set, and a deep attachment to their Jewish identity,” Dov Maimon, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) think tank in Jerusalem, told JNS.

The less well-off French Jews

But to tap more effectively into that potential, Israel must better compete with the myriad social benefits on offer to French citizens, Maimon, who was born in France, said.

“The less well-off French Jews, of which there are at least 100,000, live in uncomfortable proximity to hostile Muslim populations. They suffer a grinding routine of harassments, but they know that if they make aliyah, they will live in abject poverty,” Maimon said.

Consecutive Israeli governments have launched initiatives to attract more olim from Western countries and beyond in recent years. In August, the government launched one such plan tailored to bring in skilled olim, and physicians especially.

Under an incentive package unveiled this year, physicians who make aliyah and settle in southern or northern areas affected by the war may be entitled to a grant of up to $116,000.

In parallel, Christian Zionist groups and donors have increased their involvement in facilitating aliyah.

Earlier this year, Keren Hayesod, also known as United Israel Appeal, arranged a visit to France for Pastor Larry Huch of the New Beginnings mega-church in Texas. He met olim there who left for Israel aboard an aliyah flight that his church funded.

Huch was astonished by the accounts of French Jews who told him of experiencing antisemitism on an almost daily basis, he told JNS. “We’ve heard about it in France, but we didn’t realize how severe, pronounced and constant it is, the hatred that our Jewish brothers and sisters face over there every day,” he said.

Despite this, the communities Huch visited displayed a joie de vivre and optimism about making aliyah. “It was amazing. The atmosphere was jubilant. The people I met in synagogue before their aliyah were applauding, cheering, shouting happily. They didn’t behave like refugees or victims, but people with a mission. It was inspiring,” Huch said of his June visit, which was facilitated by Keren Hayesod.

Sam Grundwerg, world chairman of Keren Hayesod–UIA, told JNS, “It’s a testament to the determination and attachment that French olim have to Israel and Zionism, that even during war, they’re coming to Israel in their thousands.”

This also “shows the potential for much more aliyah when these challenges subside,” added Grundwerg, whose organization is the fundraising arm of the State of Israel and funds many welfare, immigration, absorption and education projects.

Maimon, who this year published a book titled “La Fin des Juifs de France?” (“The End of French Jewry?”) along with co-author Didier Long, estimated that over the past 25 years, some 100,000 Jews have left France, with half moving to Israel. The 2015 Hyper Cacher murders of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris marked a significant acceleration in departures, he said.

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia received most of the remaining half of departing French Jews, Maimon said. Yet Israel has become a more attractive destination for departing French Jews after Oct. 7, 2023, Maimon argued. Antisemitic incitement and violence have since proliferated not only across Europe, but also in North America and Australia, making those areas less desirable for Jews.

On Dec. 14, two suspected jihadists murdered 15 people at a Chanukah party in Sydney, Australia. The following week, prosecutors in Canada revealed that they had exposed a ring of three men, including an alleged ISIS operative, who planned to abduct Jewish women.

Amid these developments, efforts must be made to mitigate Israel’s high cost of living, Maimon said. “Housing is the main expense,” he added. Maimon favors a business model in which wealthy French Jews and others provide discounted accommodations to French olim. Maimon called this the Telfed Model after the modus operandi of Telfed—South African Zionist Federation, Israel.

“Just as the arrival of one million Russian-speaking Jews in the 1990s changed Israel and its status in the Middle East, so can this next wave of aliyah, that’s waiting to happen, boost Israel even further and, at the same time, solve the plight of Diaspora Jews,” Maimon said. “If we think a little bit out the box, we can make it happen sooner rather than later.”

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