Over the past two decades, UK aliyah has remained “strikingly stable” with annual totals fluctuating between 400 and 700 and an average of around 550. Only once before in the past 20 years has it exceeded 700, in 2009.
Findings suggest that “the British Jewish community is not on the brink of an exodus.
“The overwhelming majority of Jews are staying, and feel able to practise their Judaism in the UK. However, the sense of conditionality surrounding that future has Increased.”
JPR noted that the most recent survey on attitudes had been collected before the fatal Yom Kippur assault on Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue last year and the arson attack on the Hatzola ambulances this year. Attitudes may have shifted but “it seems unlikely that they will have changed dramatically”.
“When the figures are smoothed out between 2023 and 2025, it is distinctly possible that the high count in 2025 is simply a ‘catch up’ due to the particularly low count in 2023, which was likely a result of individuals delaying their aliyah plans due to the political turmoil,” JPR said.
However, a year-on-year increase two years running was “rare” and a further increase this year would be 2026 would be “unusual and would lend credence to the notion that some kind of wave is occurring”.
Figures showing aliyah from UK (Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics)[Missing Credit]
The numbers leaving were “relatively small” given the UK Jewish population with two in a thousand – more than Canada (0.7 per 1,000) but “considerably lower” than France (6.4 per 1,000).
But while the numbers remain “low and fairly stable, the antisemitism British Jews have seen and experienced around them is having a bearing on how they think about their future in the UK, and appears to be pushing more to at least contemplate the possibility of moving to Israel in the coming years,” JPR said.
Potential olim “disproportionately include younger adults, 50-60-somethings, strictly and mainstream Orthodox Jews, and individuals who feel strongly attached to Jewish communal life”.
Around 85 per cent of British Jews agreed that they could practise Judaism “without restriction” where they lived, while 82 per cent considered antisemitism a problem. More than a quarter who did feel their Judaism was restricted in the current climate were highly likely to be thinking of aliyah.
Previous data from a few years ago indicated that of those who were considering emigration from Britain, 70 per cent thought of Israel as their destination.
