For the first time since the State of Israel's
inception, the government initiated a survey meant to analyze the community of Israeli expatriates across the globe. The objective? To create a consistent channel of communication with these communities and thus strengthen their connection with Israel and, hopefully, encourage them to return.
Israeli Expatriates
Jews abroad love Israel, though fewer call it home / Reuters
As immigration numbers drop in favor of emigration, Jews worldwide share their sentiments towards Israel. Some call it ‘homeland’ while others prefer comfort life aborad with occasional visit
The idea was conceived by Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel, who enlisted the help of Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski. The survey itself will undertaken by Dr. Uzi Ravhon, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
In upcoming weeks, the Israeli government will encourage expatriates to fill out a survey available on the website
of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, which features such questions as: Why did you leave Israel? What is preventing you from returning? To what degree to you belong to a community of Israelis or a Jewish community abroad?
According to Dr. Ravhon, "The survey will aid in developing tools to analyze the consistency of relationship identity between the expatriates and the State."
"We have a crazy number of Israelis living elsewhere in the world and we don't know where they are," said Yehezkel. "Our working assumption is that they don't want to cut off ties with the state. We are past the time when the State can allow itself to view expatriates as wimps."
RSS
