I8: Aliya

Issue Navigation:

What would we do without Israel? Since the state began, the Israeli people have taken the responsibility of rescuing and providing a home for distressed Jews anywhere in the world. How do they do it?

Introduction

For Jews everywhere the world is a safer place now that Israel exists. A Jew knows that if times get tough and the surroundings become oppressive then there is always a place to go. Israel is a shelter, a haven and an open home for all of world Jewry. For over fifty years Israel has come to the rescue of our people who suffered from anti-Semitism and persecution in foreign lands. Here, The Jampacked Bible tells some stories of Israel's rescue efforts.

Fifty years of rescue

Over one and a half million Jews have been rescued by Israel since 1948. That's nearly a third of the current Jewish population of the entire country:

YEMEN Operation 'Magic carpet' brought over 45,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel from 1948-50. A few thousand Jews are known to remain there.

IRAN About 25,000 Persian Jews were brought to Israel during 1949-50. On the eve of Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power in Jan. 1979, over 2000 Iranian Jews were brought out to Israel.

IRANIAN KURDISTAN Some 7000 Kurdish Jews were brought to Israel during 1948-50.

AFGHANISTAN Some 4000 Jews were rescued via Iran during 1949-50.

IRAQ Operation 'Ezra & Nehemia' rescued over 110,000 Iraqi Jews during 1948-50. They were flown to Israel in 2000 flights from Baghdad.

LIBYA During 1949-51, over 32,000 Jews were brought to Israel.

TURKEY Throughout 1953, about 35,000 Jews were brought to Israel by boat. Many remain in Turkey, a Moslem country moderately hospitable to Jews.

INDIA In 1951, most of the 2500 Jews living in the Indian port city of Cochin were brought to Israel. Another 12,000 Indian Jews called the 'Bene Israel' were brought to Israel in the 1950s.

EGYPT Operation 'Goshen' brought 10,000 Jews to Israel during 1948-53. Another 12,000 Egyptian Jews were brought to Israel in 1956 in a lightening rescue operation carried out during the Sinai campaign.

MOROCCO During 1959-65, the Mossad, Israel's secret security agency, brought out 250,000 Moroccan Jews in operation 'Yachin'. A Jewish community of some 15,000 continues to live comfortably there.

ROMANIA Since 1948, more than Romanian 300,000 Jews have been brought to Israel.

ETHIOPIA Over 7000 (1984), and 14,500 (1991), Ethiopian Jews have been rescued.

ALBANIA In 1991, about 300 Jews, nearly the entire known Albanian Jewish community was brought to Israel in a speedy operation.

FSU Operation 'Exodus', which has brought out over 700,000 Soviet Jews since 1989, continues to assist thousands of Soviet Jews each month in coming to Israel.

Next Page