Israel looking to boost Jewish population

JERUSALEM: Israel unveiled new incentives on Tuesday to woo back citizens who leave the Jewish state in search of a better life abroad and to reverse declining Jewish immigration.  

Under a new campaign for 2008, the immigration and absorption ministry said it was looking to repatriate 15,000 Israelis living abroad and bring in 20,000 new Jewish immigrants next year.   

The rate of immigration is expected to fall this year to the lowest level since 1988, with only 14,843 new immigrants since January 2007 compared to 19,624 in 2006, according to ministry statistics.   

More than half a million Israelis live abroad. The ministry said it would offer a series of cash incentives and tax breaks to encourage them back.   

The ministry is also advocating simplified conversion procedures. Half of the estimated 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union are not considered Jewish in the eyes of the country's Orthodox Rabbinate.   

Under Israel's 'law of return', anyone who is Jewish or has a Jewish parent, grandparent or spouse, or is the spouse of someone with such a Jewish relative provided he did not voluntarily convert from Judaism, can settle in Israel.   

The population of Israel is 7.1 million, 76 percent of which is Jewish and 20 percent Arab.