
 
 
Hundreds of  new immigrants arrived in Israel on Sunday from the Commonwealth of Independent  States (CIS). The Jewish Agency plans to bring hundreds more in the course of  this week, in the days leading up to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
A total  of approximately 600 new immigrants from the CIS are expected to arrive between  Sunday morning and the beginning of the Jewish new year on Friday  evening.
The new immigrants will be greeted by ministers, members of  Knesset, Jewish Agency officials, and other public figures. Many will continue  on to participate in Jewish Agency affiliated programs, including kibbutz  (cooperative community) absorption programs and “Selah,” an Aliyah (immigration)  track aimed at students arriving in Israel without their parents.
Jewish  Agency officials believe they may succeed this year in reversing a trend of  decreasing Aliyah from former Soviet Union states. The number of new immigrants  arriving from the CIS is expected to be higher in 2009 than in the previous  year, the first time in a decade that Jewish immigration from the region will  increase, they said Sunday.
Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky credited  the global financial crisis for the increasing flow of immigration, and said his  staff would work hard to increase it even more. “The Jewish Agency must take  advantage of the window of opportunity created by Israel's financial stability  at this time, and to do all we can to encourage the increasing Aliyah to  Israel,” he said.