Posted on 12/17/21
| News Source: MATZAV
Chareidim are moving from the US to Israel in record numbers, according to Haaretz.
According to Nefesh B’Nefesh figures, 40% of the 3,000 North Americans moving to Israel annually identify as chareidi, Chabad, or Orthodox, as opposed to Modern Orthodox or secular.
Haaretz spoke to Rabbi Nesanel Cadle of Philadelphia, who plans to live with 70 East Coast families in a new chareidi neighborhood specially built for them in Afula.
Cadle explained that “Jews don’t feel as comfortable as they once did in America,” saying this began with the coronavirus crisis when chareidim were “singled out” for not conforming with the rules and were blamed for the spread of the disease. He said the trend continued with Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election and the rise of the progressive left.
Menachem Leibowitz, who moved to Beit Shemesh from Lakewood, has spearheaded an initiative intended to bring two large groups next year, including 120 families from Lakewood and the East Coast. The newcomers will live in two neighborhoods in the north and south, and Leibowitz is laying the groundwork for other such neighborhoods.
Rabbi Pesach Lerner of Eretz Hakodesh, the third largest party in the World Zionist Congress, said he is securing more funding and resources for the aliyah and has encouraged Nefesh B’Nefesh to establish a chareidi desk.