JNS
The biggest need, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer told JNS, is integrating professionals into the workforce in Israel and getting jobs that reflect their level in the United States.
Revital Gorodeski Baskin and her husband, Joseph Baskin, both doctors from Cleveland, landed in Israel on a Nefesh B’Nefesh group aliyah charter flight on Aug. 20. They are moving to Zichron Ya'akov, in the Haifa district in northern Israel, with three teenage children (their fourth is studying at a college in the United States) and their dog.
“Making aliyah has been our lifelong dream, and the war [against Hamas in Gaza] was an encouraging factor as we want to contribute our expertise in this time of need,” Revital told JNS. “We’ve also encountered antisemitism, and our kids are entering their adulthood. We know there are many struggles in Israel, but it’s where we belong.”
The Baskins have a lot to offer Israel. Revital is an endocrinologist and the director of the Obesity Center at University Hospitals in Cleveland. She says that obesity care in Israel lags far behind that of the United States and that obesity contributes to numerous metabolic diseases. Joseph is a psychiatrist at a time when studies show a large proportion of Israelis are confronting mental-health problems from the 22-month-long war on multiple fronts.
They are exactly the kind of immigrants that Israel wants and have benefited from a special program that aims to bring doctors to Israel, given a growing shortage of doctors.
Five physicians and 19 medical professionals arrived in Israel via the charter flight, with the youngest immigrant just 9 months old and the oldest 72, according to Nefesh B'Nefesh.
Yael Katsman, vice president of communications at Nefesh B’Nefesh, says that 786 doctors have made aliyah since the program launched in March 2024. Overall, Nefesh B’Nefesh has helped 1,832 physicians and 3,280 medical professionals relocate to Israel since 2002.
The idea behind the program is to streamline the entire process for medical professionals by helping them get their licenses translated and recognized in Israel, as well as connections for jobs and extra grants of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for living and working in northern or southern Israel.
“The International Medical Aliyah Program is an incredible initiative that is enabling hundreds of physicians each year to seamlessly join and strengthen Israel’s health-care system, while making a measurable impact nationwide,” Katsman told JNS. “It’s inspiring to see how it empowers them not only to contribute to the country, but also to enrich their own lives as they establish new homes and become integral members of communities across Israel.”
Now, a new plan is being put together by the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption that aims to encourage immigrants called “strategic investors.” This means that either they come with significant financial assets or they have “exceptional skills” in fields, including advanced technology, innovation, cybersecurity and finance.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, aliyah for 2024 dropped by a third to 31,000 people. Most of that is due to a decrease in immigration from Russia and Ukraine, although aliyah from the United States increased to 2,200, an increase of 11% over the previous year.
‘The job is still a big challenge’
“Each and every oleh ('immigrant') who comes to Israel is good news,” Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer told JNS. “But we want to work in cooperation with the other ministries in the government to target specific professionals, like we did with the doctors.”
He said that since becoming a minister, he has focused on helping immigrants with basic needs like rent and learning Hebrew, although the ministry has also started 40 new programs for students, including degree programs where the new immigrants study in English for the first two years and only switch to Hebrew for the last year.
But the biggest need for professionals, he said, is integrating into the workforce in Israel and getting jobs that reflect their level in America.
“The job is still a big challenge. It’s very important that we start the bureaucracy when they are still in their home countries and we continue it in Israel,” he said. “We help them write a résumé and offer significant grants if they will move to the periphery.”
In past years, he said, the largest number of immigrants came from Russia and Ukraine, many of whom came to Israel to escape the war in Ukraine or political persecution.
“When I came into office, I decided to develop new infrastructure to encourage people to make aliyah from the West,” he said.
Those include several hundred young people who have decided to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, which could help alleviate the shortfall of thousands of combat soldiers.
‘A lot on the micro level’
For some new immigrants, the army offers a good way to integrate. Ari Israel, 26, made aliyah in November 2022, and his then-fiancée, Gavi, 25, in July 2023. They married the next month. Both came with college degrees from the United States, Ari as an electrical engineer and Gavi in kinesiology. They live in the Modern Orthodox enclave of Givat Shmuel near Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan.
Today, Ari works for the army in intelligence, and Gavi is studying physical therapy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva.
“Aliyah was always something I was passionate about,” Gavi told JNS. “I come from a very Zionist family, and we spent a year here when I was in seventh grade. Culturally, it scared me to live here even though my parents made aliyah, and I went back to Maryland.”
She said that studying at a college level in Hebrew has been challenging, but has gotten easier with time. Ari said he has faced challenges as well, but he's sure that they made the right decision.
“A lot of it was on the micro-level—dealing with finance and banking and credit cards and reading a legal document I didn’t understand,” he said. “On the macro level, we both have good spoken Hebrew, but getting to the point where we can talk on the phone to a customer sales representative or understand when the bus driver is yelling at you in Hebrew is a challenge.”
