(Jewish Group) Israel, Jewish groups discuss airlifting Ukraine's Jews if Russia invades

With a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine looming, a briefing held Sunday by top officials in the Israeli government and Jewish organizations discussed the level of threat to Jewish communities in Ukraine and the possibility that Israel will facilitate an evacuation program.

The meeting included representatives from the National Security Council, the Prime Minister’s Office, the foreign, defense, transport and diaspora affairs ministries, as well as the Jewish Agency and Nativ, the secretive government organization that maintains connections between Israel and Jews in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

While there is currently no major rise in the number of Ukrainian Jews requesting to immigrate to Israel, there is concern that should war break out in Ukraine and Jewish communities in the country be at risk in the ensuing chaos, thousands of Jews may seek shelter in Israel.

Jewish organizations assess that there are currently around 75,000 Ukrainian citizens in the eastern regions of the country, in and around the main cities of Odessa, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk, who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. While many of these may not seek to be evacuated or move to Israel, the situation has the potential to become the largest evacuation of Jews from a war-torn country in over three decades.

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Pogroms anyone?