742 British Jews moved to Israel in 2025, marking 40-year high, study finds

Immigration to Israel from the United Kingdom is currently at the highest level it has been in 40 years, a new study from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research has found.

In total, 742 people moved from the UK to Israel in 2025, the highest number since the mid-1980s, the JPR study finds.

Although a higher number than previous years, it is not a drastic increase, as the study notes that over the past two decades, between 400 and 740 people have immigrated to Israel annually. This amounts to around 2 Jews per 1,000 members of the UK’s Jewish community moving to Israel each year.

Still, the number has been increasing slightly year-on-year, the study notes, since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack and the subsequent war in Gaza, which led to increased rates of antisemitism in the US and Europe.

The study also finds that the rate of immigration to Israel is higher among ultra-Orthodox Jews in the UK, and it is also higher among Jews who feel “strongly attached” to a local Jewish community compared to those who do not interact much with the wider Jewish community.

Despite the higher rates of immigration, a survey conducted as part of the study finds that most British Jews still feel at ease in the UK even amid rising antisemitism.

According to the survey, 85% of British Jews either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that they can practice Judaism without restriction, despite 82% of correspondents also saying they believe antisemitism to be a “very big” or “fairly big” problem.

JPR notes that the survey was conducted between June 8 and July 21, 2025, months before the deadly Yom Kippur terror attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester in October, meaning the responses may no longer accurately reflect the sentiment among UK Jewry.