Chairman Isaac Herzog thinks up to 100,000 people will make Israel their home, either for their first or second time.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog expects that up to 100,000 people may leave their home countries for Israel, or make aliyah (literally “ascent”), once the current global health emergency is under control, Makor Rishon reported on Sunday.
Herzog called for the government and aliyah-oriented groups to prepare for “a major wave of immigration to Israel when the corona crisis ends, as happened in the past after many crises in Jewish communities around the world since the establishment of the state.”
In many places, Jews have been especially hard-hit by the deadly COVID-19 virus, with infections and deaths far out of proportion to their percentage in the population.
In Great Britain, 335 Jews have accounted for 1.6 percent of the deaths so far, while consisting of only 0.37 percent of the population. In France, an article in Haaretz stated two weeks ago that “coronavirus-related deaths are reportedly four times the proportion for the overall population.”
In the United States, there seems to be no official breakdown by religious affiliation, but anecdotal evidence suggests many hundreds of deaths at least, as Jewish burial societies report being overwhelmed.
JTA reported in early April that New York City’s Department of Health released figures showing that heavily Jewish areas have especially high rates of infection. While the average positive test rate in the city was 53 percent, in Boro Park, for example, over 67 percent of tests came back positive.
Aliyah inquiries
The Agency’s hopes are based on the number of inquiries they have received recently regarding the possibility of immigrating. The first group consists of 60,000 citizens who left the country years ago and have expressed an interest in returning as soon as possible.
The rest are people who have asked about making Israel their home for the first time, with the expectation that the 2020 figure would beat the decade-high number of 35,000 who immigrated in 2019.
Last month in the UK, for example, 500 people inquired about aliyah when the annual number of British immigrants is usually around 700. And in France, said Makor Rishon, some 1,000 families are currently preparing to come to Israel.
Israel’s well-publicized relative success in battling the pandemic is one reason for the high-level interest, said Herzog.
主席以撒·赫尔佐格（Isaac Herzog）认为，多达十万人将使以色列成为他们的家，这是他们的第一次或第二次。
巴蒂亚·耶伦贝格（Batya Jerenberg），《世界以色列新闻》
犹太机构主席艾萨克·赫尔佐格（Isaac Herzog）预计，一旦当前的全球卫生紧急情况得到控制，多达100,000人可能会离开自己的祖国前往以色列，或进行aliyah（直译为“上升”）。
赫尔佐格（Herzog）呼吁政府和以阿利亚为主导的组织为“电晕危机结束后向以色列的大规模移民浪潮做准备，这是自建国以来世界各地犹太社区发生多次危机之后的过去。”
在许多地方，犹太人受到致命的COVID-19病毒的打击尤其严重，其感染和死亡情况远不及其在人口中所占的比例。
迄今为止，在英国，有335名犹太人占死亡人数的1.6％，而仅占人口的0.37％。在法国，两周前哈雷兹（Haaretz）的一篇文章说：“据报道，与冠状病毒相关的死亡是总人口的四倍。”
在美国，似乎没有因宗教派别而导致官方崩溃，但轶事证据表明，至少有数百人丧生，因为犹太人的丧葬社团报道不堪重负。
JTA在4月初报道说，纽约市卫生部发布的数据显示，犹太人重症地区的感染率特别高。尽管该城市的平均阳性测试率为53％，但在Boro Park，超过67％的测试返回阳性。
Aliyah查询
该机构的希望基于他们最近收到的有关移民可能性的询问。第一组包括60,000多年前就已离开该国并表示有兴趣尽快返回的公民。
其余的人是第一次要求把以色列作为自己的家的人，他们期望 2020 年的数字将超过2019 年移居的十年来最高的 35,000人。
例如，上个月在英国，每年有500名英国移民，通常有700名左右，其中有500人询问了Aliyah。在法国，Makor Rishon说，目前约有1,000个家庭正准备来到以色列。
赫尔佐格说，以色列在与大流行作斗争方面取得了相对广泛的成功，这是引起高层关注的原因之一。
他说：“与全球危机同时，他们研究了以色列在抗击病毒中的作用方式，并看到了一个相对运作良好的强国，我收到了来自世界各地的许多反应。”说过。
在过去几周内，在健康危机之中，实际上有一百多名新移民降落在以色列，这是对总体旅行禁令的特殊例外。这个数字包括 72 名埃塞俄比亚人，他们已经等待了多年等待在犹太州与家人团聚的许可，还包括44名美国人，年龄从婴儿到退休人员不等。