Milestones in Israeli History

1990 - Immigration to Israel Reaches a New High
The Law of Return, which gives every Jew the right of immigration to Israel, was approved in 1952. In 1970, it was revised, extending the right of Israeli citizenship to non-Jewish relatives of Jewish immigrants as well. As the gates of the former Soviet Union opened, immigrants began pouring into Israel. In 1989, great waves of immigration began to arrive, the largest of them, in 1990 numbering 185,000 olim.

Between 1990 and 1993, more than half a million immigrants arrived in Israel, including 465,000 from the former Soviet Union. During this time, 30,000 olim arrived from Ethiopia. On May 25, 1991, 14,500 Ethiopian immigrants were flown to Israel, on board 36 flights of the Israeli Air Force and El Al. This operation was dubbed “Operation Shlomo”.

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