The Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem has launched a career development program for French-speaking immigrants, hoping to help them build optometry careers in Israel.
As part of the four-year program, 28 French-speaking students will study in French while simultaneously taking Hebrew language courses in optometry. These students will join the larger Israeli student cohort from their second year onward.
The Aliyah and Integration Ministry has recorded a 430 percent increase in the number of applications from France amid a surge in antisemitism since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage, sparkling the Gaza war.
“Over the past year, we’ve witnessed a growing interest among Jews, especially in France, to make Aliyah,” said Prof. Ariela Gordon-Shaag, Hadassah Academic College President. “This program is a direct response to that call.”
Gordon-Shaag said the program “will give students academic and professional knowledge.” It will also address the challenges immigrants face in adapting to life in Israel.
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Students receive extensive support from the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, including full tuition coverage, subsidized housing assistance and tutoring services, as well as a counselor to help with their integration into Israeli society.
Moriel Maimon teaches a class at the Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem, December 2024. (Courtesy)
“We have launched 27 programs tailored for new immigrants in the recent year,” said Ophir Sofer, Aliyah and Integration Minister. “We aim to expand this number to 90 to provide tracks in English, French and Hebrew in fields such as life sciences, law and computer science.”
Increase in antisemitism in France
In 2023, France registered the highest increase in recorded antisemitic incidents of any country with reliable statistics, according to Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League.
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Since the massacre, there has been a rise in applications of French Jews seeking to immigrate to Israel.
A demonstration called by SOS Racisme, the Women’s Foundation and other organizations to denounce antisemitism, in Paris on June 20, 2024, after the alleged antisemitic gang rape of a 12-year-old girl in Paris’ suburb of Courbevoie. (Zakaria ABDELKAFI / AFP)
Noa Mimran, 19, a first-year student at the college, said she never thought about leaving Paris for Israel until “the pogrom,” she said, of October 7.
“Everything changed in France then,” Mimran said. “I was in my first year of studying to be a physiotherapist at the university, and I couldn’t go to classes anymore. People called me ‘Dirty Zionist’ to my face.”
She said that for her, “Dirty Zionist is the same as ‘dirty Jew’ because Jews have an attachment to Israel.”
“I no longer felt at home in France even though I grew up there,” she said.
Mimran considered moving to Israel, but everything was “too complicated.” When she heard about the program at the college, however, she decided to enroll. She switched her career track to optometry but “I like the idea of staying in the healthcare field.”
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“At the university in France, the professors didn’t care if we were having huge problems,” she said. “Here, they want to see us develop.”
Mimran said she had her doubts about leaving behind “my family, my friends, my whole life.”
“But I don’t see a future for Jews in France,” she said. “I don’t have kids, I don’t have a career yet, so I knew it was either now or never.”