When the plane from Basel flies over the rolling fields heading to the Ben Gurion airport, emigrants from Basel will not be looking at the Tel Aviv skyline for the first time. They know the city and Israel from previous visits to relatives and from the long summer holidays. The blazing heat, the bustling sea, the narrow streets: all this is familiar to them when they move from Basel to the Promised Land.
It is becoming increasingly common. In 2010, around 15,000 Swiss men and women were living in Israel. Last year there were 19,000 Swiss living in Israel. Today, Israel counts more inhabitants with a red Swiss passport than Jews living in Switzerland.
Nearly 18,000 Jews live in Switzerland. What makes the Swiss of the Jewish faith go to the Promised Land? What do they expect from their lives? And the fulfillment of their aspirations? That is what «Schweiz am Wochenende» wanted to find out, exactly 120 years after the Basel Zionist Congress - one of the most important milestones in the history of the Jewish state.
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