Hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish new immigrants according to Jewish law (halacha) have arrived in Israel in the last decade, but only a minority of them convert, according to the data provided by the Knesset's research institute at the request of the Chairman of the Aliya, Absorption, and Diaspora Committee, MK Oded Porer. It is true that this is a well-known phenomenon, and on the basis of which members of the Knesset and public figures demand to change or cancel the grandchild clause allowing all with one-quarter of Jewish heritage to immigrate, but the data, revealed in the research institute's report, reveal how dismal the phenomenon is and how much the state has failed in its ability to proselytize immigrants from the former Soviet Union countries.

Between the years 2009-2021, about 292 thousand people immigrated to Israel, of which about 120 thousand are considered to be non-Jews, an average of about 9,250 non-Jewish immigrants per year. Of these, 86% are immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union, 7% from Ethiopia, 3% from Europe, and one percent from North America. In these years, the proportion of non-Jewish immigrants has been on an upward trend from 32.8% to 38.7%. The proportion of non-Jewish immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union jumped from 57.9% to 71.8%.

In 2022, out of 70 thousand immigrants, 42 thousand of them are not Jewish according to Halacha. As of the end of 2022, according to the Israeli government data, there were 466 thousand non-Jewish immigrants or children of immigrants in Israel.

.@navaannegrant: I chose to become Jewish. But the failure of Israel's conversion program signals why an Orthodox conversion to Judaism should not privilege perfect religious observance over sincerity and the embrace of Jewish peoplehood https://t.co/PhwuumFSul

— Religion and State (@religion_state) June 26, 2023

The data of the state conversion system reveal that in the places where they invested the most effort, the conversion was conducted in a good and efficient manner. No less than 95% of the immigrants from Ethiopia who opened conversion files completed their conversion, which is 42% of all converts, despite the fact that this is only seven percent of the immigrants. This apparently happens because there is a special conversion track for Ethiopians.

Ethiopian Jewish immigrants from Beta Israel are recognized as fully Jewish & are required to undergo Orthodox conversion after immigrating. Ethiopian Jews some of whose ancestors converted to Christianity, under duress, some 30,000 of them have immigrated to Israel. pic.twitter.com/6e42p8uBjQ

— Julie Parker (@JulieParker144) January 2, 2023

In contrast to them, the immigrants from the former Soviet Union countries, 86% of all non-Jewish immigrants, are in no rush to convert at all and accounted for only 24% of all converts. It also appears that there is stability in the number of converts, this is contrary to the government's decision made in 2008, which adopted a goal of doubling the number of converts per year. Only 12% of the children of immigrants from those mentioned regions undergo conversion.

Only a tiny percentage of individuals eligible to convert to Judaism in Israel – fewer than 1 percent – choose to undergo the process through the rigidly Orthodox national conversion program.

Among those who do, it found that more than half drop outhttps://t.co/TXD7hspMEG

— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) July 4, 2023

In the IDF, there has been a drop in the number of converts from the countries of the Soviet Union in recent years. While in 2008 there were 722 converts in the designated course, in 2021 there were only 155. These stats are concerning to many Israeli Zionists who see the Jewish demographic as the very purpose of the State of Israel, and view the immigration of non-Jews as a direct threat.