A red-carpet promise, a red-tape reality for skilled immigrants in new gov program
Israel vows to lure talent, but Hebrew-only barriers and nepotistic hiring are blockers. Here's how Israel can become super-attractive to global professionals.
Exclusive for The Economic Zionist
Executive Summary:
Israel’s new skilled immigrant program is being marketed as a solution to boost the economy, but it is structurally flawed. The state is treating immigration as an act of talent recruitment, without considering retention. Infrastructure for professional integration is needed for success - like multilingual services and access to professional networks. Otherwise, the multi-billion-shekel upside will be worthless.
A new, Israeli government task force has raised eyebrows with its announcement of a three-year program to identify and recruit potential immigrants among wealthy individuals, finance professionals, doctors, and high-tech leaders in the Diaspora. Reported benefits for skilled immigrants include tax incentives, special help with integration beyond the standard assistance for new immigrants, and in some cases, financial grants.
The goals are ambitious - attract 825 skilled immigrants, help fill 10,500 open roles, and add up to ₪3 billion annually to the economy. While the new regional superpower needs fuel, the state and our closed Israeli society have demonstrated we cannot yet contain the abundance that New Israelis bring. For now, economic integration will remain the Achilles’ heel of Aliya.
Just look what happened in last wave of Aliya that fell into Israel like Manna from Heaven. Since 2022, more than 160,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel, with over two-thirds of working age. Many are well-trained and experienced abroad in fields that directly align with national priorities, including technology, medicine, and infrastructure. These are hard-hitting, net economic contributors, yet a 2025 Lobby Million report found only 18% working in their original profession, with 33% working in temporary jobs to survive financially.
Here’s what will kill the skilled Aliya dream on arrival
In April 2025 in the Jerusalem Post, I argued for a more capitalist approach to Aliya that acknowledges that ‘one size does not fit all,’ offering a ‘Golden Sal Klita.’ So I think it’s great to roll out the red carpet on the tarmac for even more economically productive immigrants. But nobody wants to talk about addressing the gaps in this system that traps them in low-tech bureaucracies. Zionism alone will not overcome the barriers all immigrant professionals face: Hebrew-only interfaces in digital banking and healthcare, sub-par tax structures to the U.S., and a stark absence of professional and personal networks.
For these reasons, New Israelis - no matter how skilled, or wealthy - will continue to struggle to break into the economy, and move upwards though it. That’s because immigrants are located outside of the back-channel professional networks that power the Israeli economy and embolden nepotistic practices in hiring.
The Director-General of the Ministry of Aliyah has described his new division as a headhunting unit. At the same time, Israel has chosen to recruit talent without the infrastructure to retain professionals who are used to much higher standards across the board. If the government insists on calling itself the HR department of the Jewish people, it must also build retention KPIs. Otherwise, it’s just squandering public funds on another PR stunt.
Economic integration tracks still lacking for the most vulnerable
Attorney Joseph Feit has called the program ‘Zionism for the Rich.’ He argues that funneling hundreds of millions of shekels into grants, tax breaks, and expedited licensing for wealthy immigrants from Western countries violates the core Zionist commitment to the ingathering of all exiles. He writes that, at the same time that Jerusalem extends red-carpet privileges to hedge fund managers, some 14,000 Jews remain in Ethiopia under crushing poverty, malnutrition, and the threat of civil war.
The sad truth is that it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about planeloads of our East Coast finance brethren, or our most vulnerable sisters from the Global South Diaspora. Once immigrants arrive in Israel, they find themselves firmly outside of the walled garden. Not just on Day 1, but at every career transition point. The most vulnerable will end up unable to provide for themselves, and the most skilled will leave Israel to find better homes for their talents.
Economic Zionism demands more
To succeed, the government must stop front-loading the Aliya pipeline with resources, applying the classic Israeli “It’ll be okay” mentality to the rest of the funnel, and taking no responsibility for the chain of failures and churn that happen as a result of its misguided approach.
Selective incentives for a select group on Day 1 are insufficient to create a long-term economic engine. Thinking long term, Economic Zionism requires expanding the definition of skilled immigrants and broadly improving Israel’s business and professional climate for every socio-economic class. Indeed, the ingathering of exiles is not a project limited to New York financiers and Russian-speaking software kings. Every Jew who comes to Israel is an investor in the collective, bringing social, cultural, and spiritual capital that strengthens the nation.
To fuel the emergent regional superpower with global talent, the state must start by:
Mandating the provision of multilingual digital access to every essential service. This means banks, credit card companies, utilities, educational institutions, healthcare interfaces, and more;
Publishing data around measurable performance indicators, particularly in immigrants’ economic impact, retention, and track real outcomes: wages, in-profession employment, entrepreneurship, and tax contributions;
Once immigrants’ economic contribution is documented, show it to Israelis. Push Hebrew communications resources into helping Israeli society accept and value its newest members for their talents, contributions, and diversity;
Funding more NGO programs that actually execute on connecting professionals;
Incentivizing the private sector, with tax credits and economic incentives for private sector companies that hire New Israelis into junior and senior roles, and recognize Olim-friendly workplaces.
Aliyah will become a true growth engine only when Israel builds the institutional muscle to integrate New Israelis fully. Until then, the billions promised will remain theoretical, and even a ‘strategic investor’ plan will stand as another cynical experiment: a red carpet rolled out on the tarmac, followed by years of neglect.
Israel has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform Aliyah into a system of national strength. The question is whether it will meet the challenge with substantive strategy, or squander it with spectacle.
If you are a government servant, here are ways to contact the author for more practical solutions:
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