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Russian Jews Are Still Coming to Israel
Russian President Vladimir Putin and then Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov attend an annual meeting of the Defence Ministry Board in Moscow, Russia, December 21, 2022. Photo: Sputnik/Mikhail Kuravlev/Kremlin via REUTERS/File Photo
I was young when I first learned about the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. I knew that this number represented two thirds of the Jews of Europe. To make matters worse, I learned that more than three million were trapped behind the Iron Curtain, in the Soviet Union and its satellite neighbors.
Then, a miracle took place, and Soviet Jews were given exit visas. In response to pressure from within and without, by the year 2000, two million Jews had left the Former Soviet Union.
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 1.3 million individuals immigrated to Israel between the founding of the state in 1948 and the year 2021 from the Former Soviet Union.
Amazingly, the Russians are still coming. More than 83,000 emigres from Russia have come to Israel since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war in early 2022, according to figures from the Aliyah and Integration Ministry. Moreover, according to a report published on the anniversary of October 7 by The Moscow Times, these immigrants feel that political tensions in Russia are personally more dangerous than the multi-front war Israel is currently fighting.
In fact, Jews from both Russia and Ukraine have been immigrating to Israel since the start of the war. Most are not Jewish according to strict Jewish religious law. They are immigrating in accordance with the Law of Return, which gives an individual with one Jewish grandparent the right to Israeli citizenship. However, citing Israeli data, Interfax, a Russian non-governmental news agency in Moscow, reported that in 2023, nearly 70% of the 45,000 immigrants who came to Israel were from Russia, while only 4.5 % were from Ukraine.
If that information is indeed accurate, what explains this difference? Both Ukraine and Russia still have Jewish notable Jewish populations. Moreover, indiscriminate Russian attacks have killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians. There is no Iron Dome in Ukraine. If anything, civilian life in Ukraine is much more harrowing than that experienced by Israelis.
A blog in The Times of Israel by Anna Abramzon, an artist based in Los Angeles, may be relevant to answer that question. Abramzon writes that while many American Jews are shocked by the antisemitism unleashed after the brutal Hamas pogrom on October 7, those who grew up in the Soviet Union are not.
She cites several recent examples of discrimination toward American Jews. These include the cancellation of an exhibit by a Jewish artist, the reluctance by university presidents to renounce antisemitism, the retraction by an American literary magazine of an essay by a left-wing Israeli writer, and whether Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was considered too Jewish to be a vice presidential running mate in the US election.
Abramzon writes, “Jews knew their limits in Soviet society. There was only so far a Jew could get professionally, educationally, or socially in the Soviet Union. Universities had quotas; travel visas abroad were impossible. You could be talented, hardworking, and even a loyal Communist, but first and foremost, you would always be a Jew.”
To Abramzon, it is this kind discrimination, and the impact it has on limiting the freedom of an individual to make life choices, that may now be experienced by American Jews. Life for Jews in Ukraine may not be a bed of roses (the Democracy Index rates Ukraine to be a hybrid regime, not a democracy), but, this is a far cry from the autocratic regime that rules Russia today.
Abramzon ends her blog stating, “There is a vast space between ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and Auschwitz, but there is no reason we have to settle for living in it.”
Is she suggesting that North American Jews make aliyah too?
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
The post Russian Jews Are Still Coming to Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.