Every group is discriminated against ans suffered the most. disclaimer: All views are from my position. The Russians give the impression they are better than all other Israelis and they should be the elite. When my parents arrived, they got free housing - a tent. Russians lived in "caravans" - with windows and doors. The price of real estate jumped 300% due to the Russian alyah. I suffer from your coming as much as you do. The Russian potential is mostly a known. The Ethiopian potential is still unknown because so many of the limited resources were given to the blue eyes. But the Ethiopians arrived at the same time. Russians started coming to this country in 1882 - repeat 1882 - if you have complaints - look to yourselves.

People have always left Israel. In the 70's there was a skit that asked that the last person leaving, should turn off the lights. When a politician offered money for people to leave, he had to reword the offer to not include Jews.

Regrettably ,I do not see nor imagine that the situation will ever improve here in Israel. There will never be great professional opportunities nor equality. Immigrants will always be at the end of the queue and the opportunities for thise born here are hardly any better. Too much " Protecsia" favouritism and stupid bureacracy has stifled people.Add to this the constant likelihood of wars and this makes matters even worse.

As Tom Friedman has pointed out quite accurately, the world is FLAT from a technology and business perspective, so talented labor is free to move around the world to get the best life they can. The countries that care about their future (China, Australia, etc.) make sure that talented people are welcome. While there are still some very small pockets of antisemitism on the earth, the reality is Jews can live in most places on earth with no problem, just like all other ethnic group. If any person can have a better life just by moving, why should they ignore that opportunity if their home country can't or won't provide equal or better opportunity? It took Australia a long time to figure out they were an Asian nation and how they could integrate with their neighbors, but now that they have, they are thriving. Just like the US has ignored their economic engine and wasted wealth on wars, Israel is going to eventually have to figure out what they are going to have to do to thrive over the long term and making the lives for its citizens worse every day instead of better, is NOT the way forward. Igor rightly laments the social and economic situation in Israel , but I do not see any indication that any future government will do anything to improve the situation because the focus is on war.

Over the last 2 years - YES ONLY 2 YEARS, over 22,000 Israelis living abroad have come back. The number is expected to keep rising. Why? Becuase despite the "economic hardship" so many like to complain about, things in Israel are good, an they get better and better. Israel has weatehred the world economic crisis better than almost anywhere.

There is just one thing missing in your analysis. And it's called Love for Zion! I do understand hardness, the problem is that this country was created for people who believe that this is the land that HaShem gave to us. Because of that they were ready (some of us still are) to do things different than running after money. Go again to school and learn to love Israel, that's the only secret!

perks for port workers making >40,000 NIS a month tenure for all public workers for doing NOTHING. then draconian taxes on the rest of us (especially small business) to pay for that. If G-d for bid they get in, SHELLY and TZIPPI (Amir) will make it much worse.

So good riddance to all of them . I hope the rest emigrates also in due time.

Hello Igor, I too am an immigrant, though not Russian. Regarding real estate, I was not eligible for any housing help and managed to buy one apartment eight years after being married. Why would you need more than one apartment? Regarding pension, our company is foreign owned and when things did not go so well, my coworkers at our American sister company lost their pensions after having worked 30-40 years due to the way the laws there work, while ours are still intact. Regarding the glass ceiling, I don't see how not owning a business that is not a Russian food show or grage or workshop is reason to feel unsuccessful and leave the country. It seems to me that people leave because they think they'll be better off financially abroad and then find excuses to fit, no offense intended.

objective..to become wealthy. I worked, I saved, I invested I busted my ass. Today I live in golus on piles of money in a cold frozen place. You have a choice..you can live among the Jews where everyone wants to be your accountant, social worker, dreikop and all around schnorrer or you can live among the goyim who will end up either killing you , taking it away from you or both. The choice is yours. I still havent made up my mind as to what I will do. I may do that after I eat breakfast or maybe not.

I understand because I HAD to move to Israel. Life is about choices and each one of us HAS to make the choices which are best for us. I could be living in the United States in a large house with a two car garage but I HAD to live in Israel so that I could enjoy the beautiful view from my third floor walk up! but I HAD to live in Israel so that I could ensure my children's Jewishness but I HAD to live in Israel so that I could struggle through life in a slower lane with a language deficit! but I HAD to live in Israel so that I could write and wish you well as you freely chose your choices and freely feel that you HAVE to leave Israel! Good luck come back and visit from time to time and let us know how you are doing.

An educated person such as myself couldn't see himself making something of myself until I either won the lottery, married a rich Israeli with combinot or what most of us Olim hate doing - throwing away our values and falling to the levels of yelling, stealing, scheming to get ahead in life there.

I too left Israel and live in London. Reasons were (and are always) economic. After serving in army, paying taxes, working hard you feel that the government does not care and you are a "friar" (sucker) instead of feeling good about this. Otherwise, I miss Israel and care about Israel more than anywhere else. But, I can only see a return at retirement age, alas. I am not alone in thinking this.

destroy it in their drunken rages? When the Russian olim came to Israel, the down payment on rent went up to six months rent in advance to pay for the damage Russians do to apartments they do not own in their drunken rages. The Russian olim are mostly pretend Jews who eat pork and other unclean foods and whore around for extra money. I stayed at the Apropo Hotel in Tel Hashomer in 2006 for a couple of months and the Russian maids used the rooms that were vacant before cleaning to have their trysts. I could hear them. It was sickening. The Russians are very jealous people and stabbed my clothes and took the screws out of my glasses when cleaning the room if I was in the shower or out of the room. The Russians are mostly pigs who belong in other countries. Thank Rabbi Eckstein and Pastor John Hagee and others for filling Israel with Russian fake Jews with millions from Christians. Now they are bringing in fake Jews from Africa and India and who knows where next? Probably the Vatican. They will bring the Pope who wears a yamulka, a fake Jew, too. Thank you Russians for leaving! Why pretend you are Jews in Germany and Australia and all those other places you are leaving Israel to go to? Why not confess you are the pig eating Russian sluts and slobs you are.

I have many Russian friends that worked in low classed jobs because the state did not recognize their degree. Somewhere, some how, they were recognized and found good jobs in their fields. Some did not. It is sad to me to see Russians leave. I think the Russians made the Israelis work harder to hold on to their jobs. But still it is sad for me to see such happen.

Ho hum. What doesn't "endanger" the country? The Right, the Left, BIbi, Tzippi, the Arabs, the Economy, the Peace Talks or lack of, etc. ad naseum. And imagine.... despite everything the country continues to exist and even (gasp!) to flourish! Ain't it amazing?

" Borta Bra Men Hemma Bäst " ! " Gone Place Is Good, But, Home Is Best " !. But as the Proverb has it - " The One who rises His Knowledge, rises His Pain " ! They become Softies in Thought, and therefore in Endurence, because their Maturity doesnt match their Knowledge. Arn.Sweden.

Native population of Palestine was expelled to make a living space for people, who don't want to live there.

Maybe you can change the situation by voting? Real estate: only in Judea and Samaria can you live close to where the jobs are and yet afford a house. Who will let you buy a house there and who won't? Pension: who ran the corrupt pension funds and insurance companies that give good conditions for members of strong unions and not normal working people? Do you know the math Histadrut = Eini = Shelley? Glass ceiling: who prevents "Russians" from being professors and who opened a new university in Ariel with lots of "Russian" researchers? Everyone knows that "Russians" worked hard in any job until they could make it. Who mocks these "Russians", like calling an excellent foreign minister "Moldovian Bouncer"?

Recently Israel opened a new university so that the excellent "russian" researchers could get jobs. Who opposed the move and who promoted it?

US, UK and most of Europe are now bankrupt and entering a Great Depression. Canada & Australia have housing bubbles that are only just now popping so they too will follow. That's why many Yordim will return in a few years time. Many expats from the US have already returned.

Sorry, I don't buy it. For countless generations the Jewish people dreamed, yearned and prayed ceaselessly to be back in their land. Even moreso how they wished they could be there to see the fulfillment of the promises in our holy Tanakh and Talmud that Jerusalem would be rebuilt and teeming with children playing in the streets. That reality is now. Instead, these so called friends of yours trade away something far more precious than money for an easier life. You want to know why? Secularism and as a result, selfish motives based on "me". By leaving the Land I can already tell you that they are leaving the Jewish people and Hashem as well, possibly never to return. The Baal Shem Tov nearly gave his life just to walk three steps in Eretz Yisrael. Today you have the chance to do something that millions of our people would have given everything to do. Live there, work there, follow Torah there. Breath in the air, roll around on the earth, look up at the stars just as our Sages saw them in the very same places. These things are worth more than all the comforts you can imagine. Israel is your home, your only home and if you won't follow the carrot then you're going to get the stick again and again and again.

I read with interest Igor Teller's article. My Jewish husband and I made Aliya as highly educated professionals from the UK in 2009 with high hopes of establishing a new life, free from anti-antisemitism. We left exactly two years later, for the reasons Mr Teller recounts - not the wars or language - but because of the lack of civility and opportunity to live with dignity in a country that had become strangulated by its bureaucratic and religious structures with little hope for creative actions to enable social change.

Russian you have been very lucky in Israel and stop complaining ,we from Morroco had very hard time just watch the film END OF THE WORLD TURN LEFT ,hey russian did ever here about CFAR YEROUHAM and so on

I know an Israeli family, not immigrants, who have all but left the country for good. It saddens me to write these lines and I would welcome any constructive comments on why this has happened and what should have been done to prevent it and what changes could be made to avoid it happening to someone else. A family with deep roots, five generations born and with all these generations contributing to the rebuilding of our Homeland. This contribution was in toil, sweat, tears and blood. Plowing the land and reaping its harvests, guarding its borders and serving mostly in elite military units with total conviction. The present generation comprises of one grandfather, four children and fourteen grandchildren. At present the grandfather and three children together with their ten children have left and have no intention of returning. The remaining grandchild with four grandchildren is on her way out. They are all descendents from Second Aliya Zionists from Russia and Ukraine at the beginning of the last century. Another close branch of the family, two people with the highest possible academic qualifications have left long ago with their children who are now two MD's and one Phd with no intention of ever returning. They all cite the same reasons for leaving, namely the virtual impossibility of living in dignity, the ridiculous tax situation (think about motor vehicles where the tax amounts to more than the actual production cost or retail price). Public services and bureaucracy which are designed to install madness in any sane person and lastly, not one of them is prepared to sweat and toil and pay taxes in order to contribute to the farce and travesty which is known as "yeshiva students", "haredim exemptions" etc. One of them, here on a visit this summer told me that he encounterd a sight in Tel Aviv that made him almost cry and to be overcome with shame. He saw a middle aged man with no arms and no legs perched on a wheeled board begging. He categorically stated to me that he does not wish to see such things and thus chose to not reside in his country of birth. Another told me that the mere fact that he is a citizen of a country that tolerates the segregation of women on public transport is not something which can be negotiable. It is a matter of principle. The same goes for the fact that in certain places a woman can be spat upon, this in itself is distressing but the fact that it happens with impunity is even more unacceptable. Why have these things occurred and what changes have to be made. These were not the intentions of our Founding Fathers. In fact this is the failure of the Zionist dream.

I totally agree and sympathise with you - the only solution to relocate in a place where you feel confortable - that is what this modern world is all about - It is not the education or idiology - it is where you think you can fit in with the society - The world dont owe us a living - We have to make a home and live in it