The Education Ministry celebrates Aliyah Week

"The power of Israel and strength of its society are very much based on our being a country that has always absorbed immigration," said Education Minister Yoav Gallant.

ALIYAH AND INTEGRATION MINISTER Pnina Tamano-Shata welcomes new immigrants from France at Ben-Gurion Airport last month. (photo credit: SHLOMI AMSALEM/GPO)
ALIYAH AND INTEGRATION MINISTER Pnina Tamano-Shata welcomes new immigrants from France at Ben-Gurion Airport last month.
(photo credit: SHLOMI AMSALEM/GPO)
The Education Ministry will celebrate Aliyah Week and the 42,458 students who are immigrants to Israel, the ministry announced on Sunday. During the week, students will be exposed to inspiring stories that will emphasize the contributions that immigrants have made to Israel in an attempt to strengthen their feeling of belonging to the country. 
The Education Ministry has developed a series of interactive classes and activities to celebrate Israel's immigrants and encourage students to learn about the benefits of the diversity of Israel's society. Topics of these lessons will include lone soldiers from abroad, immigration from Ethiopia and the difficulties that some immigrants to Israel encounter. 
"The power of Israel and strength of its society are very much based on our being a country that has always absorbed immigration," said Education Minister Yoav Gallant.
"The fact that almost every citizen of Israel is the descendant of an immigrant or an immigrant himself creates the varied nature of Israeli society – a unique mosaic of immigrants from all over the world."
Gallant went on to say that Aliyah Week is an opportunity to express "support and admiration for the new immigrant students that we are blessed to have." 
In Israel, there are currently students from 120 different countries that are in 6,337 different Education Ministry frameworks, according to the ministry. Of these students, 7,459 immigrated to Israel in the past two years. The majority of these students come from the former Soviet Union with the second largest amount of new immigrant students coming from he US. 
It has been an extremely complicated year for immigration to the Jewish state, as Israel celebrated Aliyah Day on October 25 and the more than 15,000 new immigrants who have made it to the country so far this year, despite the global pandemic raging across the world.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.