The Polish embassy in Tel Aviv is striving to cope with a sweeping number of Israelis, young and old, applying for a Polish passport, opting for a better life back in their native country, Germany's Deutsche Welle reported Sunday, November 28.
Every Monday morning, they line up in front of the embassy, digging deep into their pasts in an attempt to prove to authorities that they are entitled to a Polish passport, the leading broadcasting organization said.
“We can accept about 100 applications a month, approximately half of the applicants get a positive answer from Poland,” an embassy official told DW.
Margaret Rok, who works for a law firm helping Israelis fill out necessary documents and applications, said her company has been inundated by requests.
“We have more and more Israeli people coming to us and we're opening a new service especially for them,” she said.
Homesickness
Many Israelis have an irresistible feeling of homesickness and want to get closer to their roots.
“I want to be a part of it,” said arts manager Yosi Notkowitz. “I'm like a bridge from the past to the future.”
For thousands of Polish Jews now living in Israel, the question of identity is a complex one.
Until the 1970s, leading politicians in the Israeli parliament used to argue in Polish.
Intifada
Many of the applicants attributed their reverse immigration to the unabated Palestinian 'Intifada' and stagnant economic conditions in Israel.
“Israel is not the most stable place. I want to have a place to go to which will be easier,” said Michael Kerner, 43, an Israeli with two children.
“I would like to have a Polish passport as insurance for my future,” added Kerner, whose father and mother were born and raised in Poland.
Poland, once the country they and their families turned their backs on, is beginning to look more attractive, particularly after it joined the expanding European Union on May 1.
“Young people know that Poland is now in Europe and they want to be free to travel, not to be pressed to show the Israeli passport which always can be attacked because of the (Arab-Israeli) conflict,” added Miriam Akavia, a novelist who arrived in Israel from Poland in the late 1940s.
The Jewish Agency admitted last year that the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation and sluggish Israeli economy had led to a significant dwindling of Jewish immigration to Israel in 2003.
Total immigration rates decreased by 31%, compared to the rates of 2002.
According to a count by Agence France-Presse (AFP), some 12,500 Jews immigrated to Israel in 2003 from the Soviet Union compared to 18,500 in 2002.
Around 3,000 immigrants arrived from Ethiopia in 2002, and 2,500 from the US in 2003, compared to 1,900 in 2002.
Furthermore, 1,200 immigrants have arrived from Argentine in 2003, compared to 6,000 during 2002.
As many as 600,000 Israeli Jews have emigrated or become permanent citizens in North America, Australia, or Europe since the beginning of the second Intifada, according to AFP.
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