Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24th this year, an astonishing 20,500 of Russia’s estimated total of 165,000 Jews (12.5%) have packed their bags and moved to Israel, where the Law of Return gives anyone who can prove they have at least one Jewish grandparent the right to citizenship.
It is estimated that up to 30,000 other dual passport holders have left Russia for Israel since March, while thousands of other Russian Jews have moved to other countries. It’s not that there has been a huge surge of anti-Semitism in Russia, yet every time there is significant change in the country, Jews tend to sense danger.
Moscow’s former chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, was among those who left for Israel in March, where he now lives in exile. He claims the Jewish community was pressured to openly support the war. “But our community did not support the war”, he said, matter-of-factly.
Fears for the future
Many believe that the security and future of Russian Jews is dependent on Israel-Russia relations, and that those relations are currently highly precarious, especially after Israeli premier Yair Lapid condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lapid also made it clear that the threatened closure of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency –which helps Russian Jews make aliyah (immigrate from the diaspora to Israel) – would be a “serious event”, threatening bilateral ties.
Russia’s threat to shut down the Jewish Agency has caused great alarm among Jews living in Russia.
Russia’s threat to shut down the Jewish Agency has caused great alarm among Jews living in Russia, many of whom fear that the Iron Curtain may well fall again and it will once again be impossible to leave the country.
A long-term trend
However, for all that it has increased significantly, Jewish exodus from Israel long predates events of the current year. As many as 7,800 Russian Jews moved to Israel in 2021 alone, with Putin’s strict crackdown on freedom of speech, the closure of independent media outlets, increasing levels of poverty and general fear of their future being the key factors alarming Russian Jews, even before the invasion.
Jews are by no means the only ones fleeing Russia in significant numbers. The Kremlin would never admit to any exodus, but using Eastern European and Central Asian sources such as local newspapers, it has been estimated that no less than 500,000 technical workers have fled the country, with as many flocking to newfound IT hubs in Finland, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. Many other 'Gentiles' who have left Russia since the Ukraine invasion have found it very much harder, as currently very few countries are welcoming to Russian émigrés.
More than one million of Israel's 9.4 million residents today have roots in the former Soviet Union, with aliyah in the 1990s accounting for the majority of this population. So far in 2022, around 40,000 people made aliyah to Israel, 48% of whom came from Russia.
There are currently around 15,000 Russian Messianic Jews living in Israel, comprising 136 Russian-speaking congregations. In addition, Israel contains a remarkable 70,000–100,000 Russian Orthodox believers. Clearly, despite chaos, war and shortages across the world, it is apparent that God is moving, fulfilling prophecy and working his purposes out.
