BERLIN — It’s a bitter pill for some to swallow: In 2002, more Jews from the former Soviet Union immigrated to Germany than to Israel.
But the Jewish Agency for Israel, which handles immigration and absorption in the Jewish state, appears to be partially swallowing that pill.
The immigration numbers — about 19,000 to Germany versus 18,000 to Israel — have sent a message to the Jewish Agency, which recently sent a high-level delegation to visit Jewish communities across Germany.
The message is that the first priority, even ahead of aliyah, should be supporting Jewish life in Germany, delegation members said.
While the ultimate goal remains convincing German Jews to move to Israel, the Jewish Agency Task Force on Germany reflects a new approach, Jewish Agency officials say.
The argument is that strengthening Jewish identity in Germany will lead to increased Zionism, Shai Hermesh, treasurer of the Jewish Agency and head of the task force, said in a telephone interview.
“We have two major tasks: to keep Jewish life, and, secondly, to create Jewish Zionist activity,” Hermesh added. “At the end of the day, Israel is the answer for Zionists.”
Some Jewish Agency officials are upset that Germany’s attractive absorption package — far beyond what Israel can afford — is luring Jews, particularly from the former Soviet Union.
But the Jewish Agency is not about to try to convince Germany to stop accepting Jewish immigrants.
Instead, from July 14 to 18, the task force traveled through Germany, visiting seven Jewish communities of varying sizes.
The new task force aims to work with existing communal structures to “encourage Jewish roots and Jewish Zionist education” among Jews in Germany, in order to “create the opportunity that at least the younger generation will believe that their place is in Israel, not in Germany.”
With that in mind, the agency is planning to create new positions here to augment its current staff of one and to increase the emphasis on Jewish education and religious life.
“We must find the best positive way to have contact with Jews in Germany,” Hermesh said.
Though he didn’t want to comment on the task force, he said that “it is always good to strengthen Jewish life and identity; it is very positive.”
“As a true Zionist, I think the place for Jews is Israel, but I think we also have to live with the reality that there are Jews in Germany and Jews in America and England, not just Israel,” said Israel’s former ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, who now is vice president of Tel Aviv University.