JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet approved a more than $46 million plan to encourage immigration and adapt the absorption process to Jews from France, Belgium and Ukraine.
The plan was approved Sunday hours after a gunman killed a volunteer Jewish guard at a synagogue in Copenhagen.
“We say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe. I would like to tell all European Jews and all Jews wherever they are: Israel is the home of every Jew,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before the Cabinet vote. “To the Jews of Europe and to the Jews of the world I say that Israel is waiting for you with open arms.”
The plan, which was designed by several ministries, includes three layers, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. They are encouraging immigration, strengthening and adapting absorption processes and special assistance for immigrants from emergency areas.”
Among the programs included in the plan are encouraging links to Israel and boosting Hebrew studies in the home countries; speeding up dealing with immigrant files by increasing the number of immigration emissaries; and counseling on personally adapted absorption tracks while still in the countries of origin including on looking for work and establishing businesses in Israel, or moving existing businesses to Israel.
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