Immigration and Integration

The Social Justice Approach

Israel is, even more than the U.S., a nation of immigrants. More than a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and 100,000 from Ethiopia came to Israel, mostly in the 1990s. First-generation Israelis comprise more than 32 percent of the population. While the level of immigration has slowed, many – even those who immigrated in earlier waves – are still grappling with day-to-day issues of unemployment and under-employment, housing, youth at-risk and social alienation.

The Israeli Association for Immigrant Children’s (IAIC) Night Owls program seeks to reduce school drop-out rates and improving scholastic performance among new immigrant students.

Several philanthropies support charitable organizations for Israeli immigrants. The New Israel Fund approach is different. We believe that Israeli immigrants must be able to speak for themselves about their needs, their families, their culture and the best way for them to integrate into Israeli society. Only by participating in Israeli society as advocates and activists for their own needs will today's immigrants become tomorrow's veteran Israelis. Our successes are many.

The largest organization representing Ethiopian immigrants, Tebeka, received its first grants and seed money from the New Israel Fund. We've seeded more than a dozen organizations empowering immigrant women economically – a critically important need given the high percentage of single-parent immigrant households. More than 300,000 FSU immigrants who could not marry because they did not qualify as halachically Jewish are progressing towards the permission of civil marriage, long a political third-rail in Israel.

Currently, NIF provides grants to 22 nonprofit immigrant organizations of both grassroots activists and professionals, focusing on areas such as helping women open micro-businesses, running youth leadership centers and graduation programs for high-school dropouts, Jewish congregations and study programs developed by and for immigrants, and teaching immigrants about their rights and obligations in a democracy.

No matter where you stand on the American immigration issue, supporters of Israel agree that successful integration of new immigrants has always been, and remains, the foundation for a just and secure state.