France: Summer of French aliyah begins

Ynet News reports:

Some 130 French Jews, including 46 children and two babies, landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday, marking the start of a wave of French aliyah expected over the course of the summer. Some 400 French immigrants were expected to arrive by the end of the week.

Additionally, some 80 French Jews who had been in Israel on tourist visas became Israeli citizens and received their Israeli identity cards in a ceremony hosted by the Jewish Agency for Israel at the organization's Jerusalem headquarters building on Tuesday.  

According to data compiled by the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, more than 3,000 French Jews will immigrate to Israel this summer, including many young families whose children will enter Israeli schools at the start of the new school year.

The current wave of French aliyah comes in the midst of a joint effort by the Ministry and The Jewish Agency to maintain the high rate of immigration from France and increase aliyah from around the world. Aliyah from France has risen steeply in recent years and France has become the number one source of immigration to Israel for the first time.  More.