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Originally appeared at JNS.org on April 28, 2026

The five-year exemption plan targets new immigrants and returning residents amid a global outreach effort.

Israel is rolling out a major financial incentive aimed at encouraging Jews worldwide to make aliyah, offering a new income-tax exemption for immigrants arriving in 2026, Israeli officials confirmed to JNS this week.

Minister of Aliyah and Integration Ofir Sofer and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently announced the government’s intention to grant a five-year income-tax exemption to new olim (immigrants) and returning residents who relocate to Israel during the 2026 calendar year.

According to guidelines published by the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the reform would apply to earned income in Israel, including salaries and self-employed business income, from 2026 through 2030. The exemption would be capped at one million shekels (approx. $335,000 in 2026 and 2027, 600,000 shekels (approx. $200,000) in 2028, 350,000 (approx. $117,000) in 2029 and 150,000 (approx. $50,000) in 2030.

For those employed by a relative, the exemption would be limited to 140,000 shekels (approx. $47,000) annually. The measure is expected to take several months to pass into law, with benefits applied retroactively once enacted.

Eligibility extends to new olim and returning residents who have lived abroad for more than 10 years and who immigrate between Nov. 5, 2025, and the end of 2026. The reform would not affect existing benefits, including the 10-year exemption on foreign-source income and tax-credit points. Passive income, such as dividends, interest and rental income, would not qualify under the new plan.

The proposal also includes safeguards intended to prevent abuse, stipulating that individuals who spend fewer than 75 days in Israel in 2028 or 2029 would forfeit eligibility.

A graphic outlining “Tax Reforms for New Olim,” April 2026. Credit: Nefesh B’Nefesh.

Officials say the initiative is designed to ease the financial burden of relocation and accelerate integration into Israel’s workforce.

Matan Ben Harush, spokesperson for the minister of aliyah and integration, said, “This is a groundbreaking and important proposal that demonstrates how committed the State of Israel and Minister Ofir Sofer, together with Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are to encouraging Jewish immigration to Israel.”

He added, “We are working to promote the program and hope it will be as effective as possible in encouraging aliyah, alongside a range of additional measures, such as reforms in licensed professions, tax benefits on home purchases, Hebrew-language studies, student programs and more.”

Yael Katzman, vice president of communications for Nefesh B’Nefesh,a Jerusalem-based organization that promotes aliyah from North America and other countries, said, “By easing the financial burden of the critical first years of aliyah, this new law has the potential to turn the dream of aliyah into a realistic and achievable step for many more people. For years, financial concerns have been a significant barrier. This law helps change that equation, giving prospective olim greater ability to build both a meaningful life and a sustainable future in Israel.”

Yehuda Amrani, spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, said, “We believe this will have an impact, but it is very difficult to provide specific figures at this stage.”

The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration framed the reform as an immediate opportunity for prospective immigrants, stating in its official statement: “On the contrary, the purpose of announcing this reform is to help you make the decision and choose now, more than ever, to make aliyah. Everyone who makes aliyah from now until the end of 2026 will benefit from this significant tax advantage. Come, we’re waiting for you in Israel!”

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Originally appeared at JNS.org on April 24, 2026

Clalit study finds hospital-level care at home can improve outcomes as wartime pressures reshape patient treatment.

During the recent war against Iran and Hezbollah, Matan Tal, a senior nurse in Israel’s northern district, received an urgent call from the caregiver of 94-year-old Yoash Tadmor, a resident of Kibbutz Yehiam, about 14 miles southeast of the Lebanese border. Tadmor was suffering from shortness of breath, swelling and a history of heart failure.

Tal, an experienced emergency room nurse and a resident of the same kibbutz, responded immediately. He examined the patient at home, consulted with a physician and promptly began administering diuretics.

The intervention—carried out while missiles flew overhead—kept Tadmor out of the hospital. He has since recovered.

Care under fire

The war has accelerated a quiet transformation in the country’s health-care system, with increasing reliance on hospital-level treatment delivered in patients’ homes—often with better outcomes than traditional hospitalization.

A new large-scale study by Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, suggests that in-home care not only reduces strain on hospitals but can also outperform them in key measures, including mortality and readmission rates.

The study analyzed 6,670 patients treated either at home or in hospitals for conditions such as pneumonia, heart failure and urinary tract infections. It found that 30-day mortality was 5.8% among patients treated at home, compared to 9.1% in hospitals. Readmission rates were also lower—13% versus 16%—and 84% of patients said they would prefer home care in the future.

The shift has been accelerated by wartime conditions, particularly in the early days of “Operation Roaring Lion,” when unprotected hospital wards were evacuated, and thousands of patients were transferred to home-based care.

“It is my community in the kibbutz, so I want to serve and give all I can to make people feel better,” Tal said.

Tal said home visits allow for more accurate assessments and closer interaction with family members and caregivers, often preventing conditions from worsening.

“In most cases, we can treat at home,” he said. “If we treat chronic conditions properly, they won’t become acute and require hospitalization.”

In Beersheva, geriatric nurse Anastasia Sergievski Rabinovich has seen similar benefits. Visiting patients at home allows her to assess not only medical needs but also living conditions—an important factor in areas frequently impacted by Iranian missile fire.

She recalled visiting Diana, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, after nearby missile strikes damaged her apartment.

“I went there and didn’t know what I would find,” Rabinovich said.

She found shattered windows, broken glass in the bedroom and essential medications buried under debris. With the patient’s daughter stranded abroad, Rabinovich arranged for medical care, coordinated volunteers to clean the apartment and ensured temporary repairs were made.

Rabinovich and her team provide a range of treatments, including antibiotics and IV therapies, effectively creating what she described as “a hospital at home.”

“We prevent hospitalizations,” she said. “It is better for patients in their own environment, in their own bed, with family.”

A model beyond wartime

This approach has also required medical teams to operate under fire. Dr. Moshe Sagi, head of home hospitalization in Clalit’s Tel Aviv-Jaffa district, recalled taking cover from incoming missiles while en route to treat a patient.

Despite the risks, Sagi has championed advanced home care, including the use of portable ultrasound devices to diagnose conditions such as pneumonia, pleural effusions and blood clots.

In one case, he identified acute gallbladder inflammation in a patient initially thought to have pneumonia, enabling timely hospital transfer and life-saving treatment. Without that diagnosis, Sagi said, the patient likely would not have survived.

Professor Doron Netzer, head of community medicine at Clalit and a co-author of the study, said home hospitalization reduces pressure on hospitals while improving outcomes, making it a critical component of both routine care and emergency response.

Clalit CEO professor Eytan Wirtheim said the war has exposed structural challenges in Israel’s health system, particularly the need to expand capacity without building new infrastructure. Home-based care, he said, offers a practical and effective solution.

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Originally appeared in JNS.org on April 19, 2026

Hosted by Masa Israel Journey, the largest English-language Memorial Day ceremony will be broadcast worldwide, focusing on the stories of lone soldiers, new immigrants and victims of terror from across the Diaspora.

As Israel ushers in Yom Hazikaron on Monday evening in memory of the country’s fallen soldiers and victims of terror, hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide are expected to tune in to the International Yom Hazikaron Ceremony, now in its 18th year. The event was founded by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Government of Israel and is organized by Masa Israel Journey.

This year’s ceremony, which commemorates lone soldiers and victims of terror from across the Jewish Diaspora, will be held in English and translated into multiple languages, including Hebrew, Spanish, Russian and French, making it accessible to Jewish communities in approximately 60 countries and across multiple time zones, including Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the United States and Canada, as well as Turkey, Morocco, Ukraine, the Philippines, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina.

Due to the war and the fact that many delegations are unable to travel to Israel to attend in person, the ceremony will be pre-recorded and broadcast across multiple platforms, allowing Jews around the world to connect to the day from afar.

At the heart of the ceremony are the stories of lone soldiers, new immigrants, civilians and visitors who came to Israel from around the world and either fell in the line of duty in the IDF or were murdered in acts of terror, both in Israel and abroad.

Among those laying wreaths will be Barbara Lubliner, a Masa alumna who made aliyah from Spain and lost her husband, Lt. Col. (res.) Ariel Lubliner, also a Masa alumnus, during reserve duty in Gaza in the Swords of Iron War. Lubliner, 34, originally from São Paulo, Brazil, is survived by his wife, Barbara, and their two-year-old son, Lior. As a 22-year-old university student in Brazil, Lubliner participated in a Masa program, studied Hebrew on a kibbutz ulpan, made aliyah in 2014 and joined the IDF’s Paratroopers Brigade. Following his university studies, he worked as a consultant for commercial companies.

On Oct. 7, Ariel left for reserve duty and served four extended deployments, during which his son, Lior, was born. In June 2025, Ariel was killed in Khan Yunis, becoming the 900th fallen soldier since the start of the war.

The ceremony will also honor the memory of Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, Israeli embassy staff members who were killed on May 21, 2025, outside the Young Diplomats Reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The gunman reportedly shouted “Free, free Palestine” during his arrest.

Lischinsky’s family relocated from Israel to Germany when he was one year old, returning to Israel when he was 14. Although asthma prevented him from serving in a combat unit, he served in the Military Police and later worked on the parole board committee, assisting military prosecutors and defense attorneys. After completing studies in international relations, Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies and crisis resolution, he pursued a career with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Following the Oct. 7 attacks, he volunteered in public diplomacy efforts at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and assisted delegations of released hostages visiting the U.S. capital.

During this time, he met Sarah Milgrim, who also worked at the embassy. The two became a couple, and Lischinsky had planned to propose at the Western Wall in Jerusalem before both were murdered.

Milgrim grew up in a Reform Jewish home in the Kansas City area, attended Jewish preschool and observed Shabbat weekly. She was active in Hillel and Chabad at the University of Kansas before pursuing a master’s degree at American University in international relations, natural resources and sustainable development. She later participated in a Masa program in Israel, interning with Tech2Peace, an organization promoting dialogue initiatives within Israel’s high-tech sector. In 2023, she began working as Civil Society Affairs Manager at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, focusing on outreach to diverse communities in the United States, including young adults, the LGBTQ+ community and minority groups, with emphasis on gender equality, prevention of sexual violence and climate change issues.

Other individuals to be commemorated include First Sgt. Jordan Ben Simon, who made aliyah from France and was killed during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza; Master Sgt. Yulia Vekser Daunov, who immigrated from Ukraine and was killed on Oct. 7; and Yaakov Leviton, a Masa alumnus murdered in a terror attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, who is survived by his wife and five children.

Kaddish will be recited by Shmuel Daunov, the widower of Master Sgt. Yulia Vekser Daunov, who was killed in battle at the Nova festival near Re’im on Oct. 7. The Prayer for the State of Israel will be delivered by Emily Damari of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who was kidnapped from her home and survived 471 days in Hamas captivity.

The ceremony will conclude with a performance by Yuval Raphael, who will sing “New Day Will Rise,” expressing hope for brighter days ahead.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency, said the stories of those who fell after coming from the Diaspora highlight the deep bond between world Jewry and Israel.

“The stories of those who fell from the Diaspora remind us that the bond between the Jewish people and the State of Israel is not merely an idea, but a courageous choice and a deep commitment,” Almog said. “On this Memorial Day, we remember them together, in Israel and around the world, and draw strength from our shared responsibility for the future of the Jewish people.”

Meir Holtz, CEO of Masa Israel Journey, said the ceremony reflects a shared sense of responsibility across global Jewry.

“‘Together, We Remember’ is not just a slogan—it is an essential truth for our people,” Holtz said. “Hundreds of thousands from around the world will remember together those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the continued existence of the State of Israel, especially those who chose Israel as their home or were murdered solely for being Jewish.”

Masa Israel Journey provides immersive educational programs for young adults ages 16–40, offering experiences in Israeli society, culture and history. Since its founding in 2004 by the Jewish Agency and the Government of Israel, Masa has served more than 220,000 participants from over 60 countries.

The ceremony will begin on Monday, April 20, 2026 (Yom Hazikaron eve) at 7:55 p.m. Israel time.

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Originally appeared in JNS.org on April 14, 2026

“As prime minister of Israel, I have promised: ‘There will not be a second Holocaust.’ This year, we turned that promise into reality,” Netanyahu said.

Due to security considerations, Israel’s opening ceremony for Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day) at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem did not take place live this year. Instead, audiences across the globe were invited to participate via a prerecorded broadcast aired at 8 p.m. Monday Israel time on Israeli television channels.

Viewers paused to reflect and take part in a shared act of memory, hearing directly from survivors and Israeli leaders while honoring the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.

This year’s theme, “The Jewish Family During the Holocaust,” highlighted the family as a source of identity, strength and human connection even in the face of unimaginable loss. In ghettos, concentration camps and hiding places, families preserved dignity and hope under the harshest conditions, Yad Vashem said, noting that many survivors went on to rebuild their lives in Israel.

The Jewish state is home to some 111,000 survivors, according to government estimates released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026.

Following the lowering of the national flag, Rabbi Yisrael (Israel) Meir Lau, 88, a Holocaust survivor and former chief rabbi of Tel Aviv and Israel who now serves as chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, lit a memorial torch.

Netanyahu’s address

In his address, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a direct line between the lessons of the Holocaust and Israel’s war against Iran and its regional proxies, declaring that the Jewish state today possesses the strength that was absent during the darkest chapter of Jewish history.

“In the Holocaust, the poet Uri Zvi Greenberg wrote: ‘We were an extinct people like a wild beast in a hunt,’” Netanyahu said. “In contrast, today our people fight back against our oppressors. During the Holocaust, we were like an abused animal crying in agony. Today, however, we have a state which is stronger than ever, which roars with power.”

Netanyahu stressed the importance of Israel’s military campaign against Iran, saying that through “Operation Rising Lion” and “Operation Roaring Lion,” Israel, together with the United States, had significantly weakened Tehran’s capabilities.

“Together, we crushed the evil regime in Iran to dust,” he said, adding that the ayatollahs had sought nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of ballistic missiles “intended to annihilate us,” while funding terror proxies aimed at encircling Israel in a “ring of fire.”

Reaffirming a longstanding commitment, Netanyahu said: “Year after year, I stand here and pledge at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony: ‘We will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.’ As prime minister of Israel, I have promised: ‘There will not be a second Holocaust.’ This year, we turned that promise into reality.”

The prime minister reflected on the historic vulnerability of Jews during World War II, posing questions about whether earlier action might have prevented the catastrophe. “Citizens of Israel, looking back at the Holocaust, the question ‘what if’ arises in all its bluntness,” he said. “What if we had a state before the catastrophe? What if the nations of Europe had stopped the monstrous Nazism in time instead of appeasing it?”

“There are no ‘what ifs’ in history,” Netanyahu continued. “The terrible disaster happened. But given all this, we are acting so that future generations will not ask ‘what if’ with a sense of missed opportunity.”

Netanyahu highlighted Israel’s close strategic cooperation with Washington, describing an unprecedented partnership with U.S. President Donald Trump. “We have changed the course of history,” he said. “The independent State of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s security organizations—all of these are manifestations of our regaining control over our destiny after centuries of horrible weakness.”

He said Israel’s actions also serve broader global interests. “On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us remember that the State of Israel is at the peak of its power,” Netanyahu said. “Who could have imagined 80 years ago that our daring Air Force pilots and American military pilots would defend the Middle East, wing to wing? We are defending Israel, the United States and … we are defending Europe.”

Addressing Holocaust survivors directly, Netanyahu praised the transformation from destruction to renewal. “No other nation could have accomplished what we have done: to bring about this immense transformation, from Holocaust to rebirth,” he said.

Concluding his remarks, Netanyahu praised the resilience of Israel’s soldiers. Quoting from the Book of Chronicles, he described them as “mighty men of valor … whose faces were like the faces of lions,” adding, “As a nation of lions, we shall continue, with God’s help, to roar the roar of eternity.”

Herzog’s address

Israeli President Isaac Herzog shared the moving story of fallen soldier Master Sgt. (res.) Asaf Cafri, 26, and his great-grandmother, Magda Baratz, who survived the Holocaust. Baratz, 96, was visiting the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany when her great-grandson, a reservist in the IDF Armored Corps, fell in battle in the Gaza Strip on April 24, 2025. She died 15 days later.

“There are moments within this war in which the story of one family sheds light on and tells the story of an entire nation,” Herzog said. “When Michal and I arrived to console the Cafri family at their home in Beit Hashmonaim and met Asaf’s dear parents, Yifat and Hagai, his brother, and his partner, I could not help but notice a woman sitting to the side, quiet and withdrawn. Her eyes were sorrowful, as though carrying a pain both old and new. I approached her and asked who she was. ‘I am Magda, Asaf’s great-grandmother.’”

The president recounted Baratz’s harrowing story of being imprisoned with her family at 15 in a ghetto in Transylvania before being deported to Auschwitz. She endured forced labor, starvation and death marches, and witnessed the murder of her parents and a sibling.

In the spring of 1945, she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, weighing only 20 kilograms (44 pounds). At the detention camp in Cyprus, on her journey to Israel, she met her husband, Ze’ev. After immigrating to Israel, she started a family. Her firstborn daughter, Racheli—Asaf’s grandmother—was born during Israel’s War of Independence.

“This is my victory: to survive, to immigrate to the Land of Israel and to establish a dynasty,” Baratz would say, Herzog recounted. “Indeed, she established a magnificent dynasty: children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Generation after generation of renewal, love of humanity, the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.”

Six years ago, ahead of Yom Hashoah, a photograph of Baratz and Asaf was featured on a billboard. On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Baratz was invited to attend a ceremony there as a guest of honor, accompanied by her family. It was there, Herzog said, that she received the devastating news: Her beloved great-grandson, Asaf, had fallen in battle defending the State of Israel.

“Last year, shortly before we parted with the Cafri family, Magda Baratz asked to share a final message with us. From the depths of her sorrow, in moments of unbearable grief, Magda, the Holocaust survivor and bereaved great-grandmother, chose a message of hope. ‘I continue to believe that it will be good here. I may no longer be here, but it will be good here. I believe this with all my heart,’ Magda told us.

“This hope, this faith that Magda left us, is not hers alone. It is the hope that you have bequeathed to us—and this hope, this knowledge, so Jewish, so Israeli—we carry with us.

Herzog offered words of encouragement to the security forces currently defending the country. “To each and every one of you, I say: This is a prolonged campaign, but I am confident that we will emerge from it strengthened and empowered.”

He continued: “Our eyes look toward the heavens and pray for the safety and success of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and all the security forces wherever they may be. Let us not forget: 81 years after the Holocaust, the striped prisoner’s uniform has been replaced by the IDF uniform, worn by the grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. For them, it is a tremendous privilege to continue your path and ensure the security of Israel.”

The six torch-lighters

Following a musical interlude by Israeli singer Roni Daloomi, six Holocaust survivors and family members lit torches representing the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The stories of Saadia Bahat, Michael Sidko, Miriam (Daisy) Bar Lev, Moshe Harari, Ilana Fallach and Avigdor Neumann reflected the geographic breadth of the Holocaust and the resilience of survivors who rebuilt their lives in Israel.

• Bahat was born in Lithuania, survived ghettos and labor camps and reached Mandatory Palestine after liberation by Soviet forces. He fought in Israel’s War of Independence, built a career as an engineer at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and later became an award-winning sculptor.

• Sidko, born in Kyiv, witnessed the murder of his mother and siblings at Babi Yar. He and his siblings were sheltered by a Ukrainian woman who claimed them as her sons and saved their lives. After the war, he reunited with his father, served in the Red Army, became an engineer and immigrated to Israel in 2000.

• Bar Lev, born in Tel Aviv in 1936, returned with her family to Amsterdam, where they were deported to Westerbork and later Bergen-Belsen. She immigrated to Israel in 1946, settled on Kibbutz Ginegar, served in the IDF and became a nurse.

• Harari was born in Poland, escaped the Mordy Ghetto and hid with a Polish farmer. After liberation in 1944, he and surviving relatives faced continued antisemitism before immigrating to Israel, where he worked in the defense industry.

• Fallach was born in Benghazi, Libya, and deported with her family to the Giado concentration camp in 1942. The family immigrated to Israel in 1949.

• Neumann was born in Czechoslovakia and deported with his family to Auschwitz. He survived selections and death marches before being liberated in 1945. After being detained in Cyprus, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine.

Haviva Burst, a Holocaust survivor born in Wojsławice, Poland, delivered an address on behalf of all survivors. “I don’t remember my parents’ faces, but I remember what it felt like to be part of a big, happy family,” she said, noting that after making aliyah in 1947, marrying her late husband of 72 years and rebuilding her life in Israel, “I learned how essential family is.”

The ceremony concluded with a psalm recited by Rabbi Kalman Meir Ber, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel; the Kaddish mourners’ prayer by Hacham David Yosef, the Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel; the El Maleh Rachamim memorial prayer by Holocaust survivor and retired Haifa judge Menachem Neeman; and the singing of “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem.

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