by Jason Burke, Guardian
Research shows dramatic reversal of decades of net outflow to Israel, as new arrivals bring cultural influences
Israelis making a new home in Europe have become vital to previously declining Jewish communities on the continent, boosting numbers, bringing a range of cultural influences and marking a fundamental change in the relationship between the diaspora and the Jewish state, research has revealed.
A report released on Wednesday by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research will detail for the first time a dramatic reversal of decades of net outflow to Israel from Jewish communities in Europe.
“We can say that culturally and demographically there is a real turning point. Possibly the end of an era,” said Dr Daniel Staetsky, the report’s author. “The founders of the state of Israel would never have imagined that it would be Israel that would be rejuvenating European Jewish communities, not the other way around.”
Recent Israeli government statistics show accelerating emigration from Israel, driven by factors including political polarisation, the high cost of living, the impact of wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and security concerns after the bloody Hamas raid into Israel of October 2023 and Iranian attacks.