Germany is goal for east European Jews

12 February 2004

BERLIN – Germany has become a more popular immigration goal than Israel for Jews leaving eastern Europe, a report said Thursday.

A total of 19,200 Jewish immigrants from east Europe and the former Soviet Union arrived in Germany in 2002, compared with 18,000 who went to Israel. The data was contained in a study by the University of Potsdam’s Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European Jewish Studies cited in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

“The difficult Hebrew language, the climate and certainly also the Middle East conflict keep many from immigrating to Israel,” said Julius Schoeps, who heads the centre.

Germany’s Jewish population has increased to over 100,000 from about 30,000 in 1989.

Most immigrants have come from eastern Europe and the former USSR under a German law from 1990 which allows Jews from the region to settle in Germany.