"To embody the vision of Keren Hayesod is a privilege” – Elie Wiesel - 100 Heartbeats - Keren Hayesod

The massive aliyah from the Soviet Union and the special Exodus fundraising campaign

Olim from the USSR arriving in Israel

From the 1970s and until the beginning of the 2000s, over a million olim came to Israel from Soviet countries. 160,000 Jews came from the USSR in the first part of the wave of aliyah, but the largest number came in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The vast number of immigrants who arrived during this period changed the history of the state. In 1990, the question was how to deal with 30,000 new immigrants a month. Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel faced a serious challenge. Planning, along with complicated and complex logistical organization in Russia, Europe and Israel, was needed. A special fundraising initiative – the Exodus Campaign – was launched, with spectacular results. In just three years, world Jewry donated over half a billion dollars, enabling the massive number of immigrants to be successfully absorbed and socially integrated, to find employment and to learn Hebrew.

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Photo: Olim from the USSR arriving in Israel,1999