After eight successful years of expediting licensing and placements for thousands of North American healthcare professionals interested in making aliyah, Nefesh B’Nefesh is due to arrive on the West Coast next month for its MedEx event.
On Sunday, December 8, Nefesh B’Nefesh will hold its first West Coast event in Los Angeles as part of its newly founded International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP). The program, created through a collaboration of the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, Ministry of Health and Nefesh B’Nefesh, in partnership with The Jewish Agency for Israel, streamlines the immigration process for medical professionals, ensuring their ability to integrate into Israel’s medical workforce upon arrival in Israel.
This initiative focuses on recruitment and provides personalized assistance for those looking to make aliyah, become part of the Israeli health system, and acclimate into communities throughout Israel. Building on the success of the annual US MedEx event held last March on the East Coast and events following soon after in France, Argentina, and the UK, MedEx aims to maximize the potential of Jewish doctors from various communities and integrate them into Israel’s medical system.
The West Coast Medex event will take place in Beverly Hills and is expected to attract physicians and medical professionals throughout the West Coast, many of whom are planning to make aliyah in the near future or seeking to gather information on making the move.
MedEx LA participants will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Israeli Ministry of Health and Medical Directorate to discuss licensing requirements and will have the opportunity to submit documentation for license and specialty recognition onsite.
In addition, representatives from the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration’s new Physicians Olim Directorate will be onsite to speak about employment options, insights into official procedures and grants, and provide comprehensive insights into Israeli communities and lifestyles.
Representatives from various health insurance funds and hospitals, such as Clalit, Leumit, Terem, and Ichilov, will attend the event to conduct real-time job interviews, further enabling a smoother integration into the workforce upon their arrival.
A special emphasis will also be placed on employment opportunities in Israel’s periphery, supported by new grant programs from the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, and the T’kuma government administration in the Gaza envelope.
Those still in the early planning stages of aliyah can gain valuable insights from informational sessions that will be delivered throughout the day, as well as opportunities for face-to-face guidance from representatives of the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration.
Dr. Eli Miller, who made Aliyah in 2023, benefitted from a previous MedEx event in the USA. He shared that as an endocrinologist, he needed to ensure that he could continue his professional career in Israel before moving. “MedEx was incredibly helpful in helping me get off the ground.
The team was so supportive, helping me get the right documents gathered. They served as a liaison to the Ministry of Health and Israel’s Medical Association and assisted with networking and my job placement. The relative ease of the process was only possible because of the team’s knowledge and connections.
Thanks largely to this assistance and experience, I am now happily working in my field at Maccabi and Meuhedet Health Services.” The objective of the IMAP program is to facilitate the aliyah of 2,000 physicians over the next five years.
To that end, it offers medical professionals an all-encompassing array of resources, services, and personal consultations, which will now be offered worldwide in various locations. This first-of-its-kind program has been made possible thanks in part to the generous sponsorship of its key partners, including the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Ministry of the Negev, the Galilee and National Resilience, the Marcus Foundation, the Gottesman Foundation, and the Jewish Federation of North America.
Pre-registration for the West Coast Medex event is mandatory. Additional information andregistration can be found at: https://www.imap.org.il/medex-la/This article was written in cooperation with Nefesh B’Nefesh.