"..."Israel's greatest concern at the moment is that there have never been more Israelis living abroad," said Rabbi Walter Homolka, principal of the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin. He described it as a "brain drain" and said Germany was one of the "biggest expat centres". In addition, many Jews who once might have considered emigrating to Israel - making their Aliya - have in the past few years been choosing to head to Germany instead. In 2003, for example, 12,383 Jews reportedly chose to emigrate from the former Soviet Union to Israel. But 15,442 went to Germany. The latter country, which had conceived the idea of eliminating Jews altogether just 60 years previously, was more enticing to them than the promised land itself. Such a powerful wave of immigration has multiplied Germany's Jewish population tenfold from the 20,000 or so at the time the Berlin Wall fell. But the decision by Soviet Jews to choose Germany over Israel has been cause for serious friction between the two countries. Israel lobbied hard - and ultimately successfully - to persuade Germany to end its generous immigration laws for Jews which encouraged hundreds of thousands to head to the reunited European state after the collapse of communism. Israel's concern is prompted in large part by the word "demographics", which has become a hot topic in the Holy Land. Israel may define itself as the Jewish state, but more than a million of its citizens are Arab Muslims. They have a higher birth rate than Jews, and many in Israel worry that their country's Jewish identity is being diluted. This has inspired headlines warning of a "demographic time bomb". For some Jews in Berlin, however, the demographic time bomb is only half of the reason that Israel, on it 60th birthday, is so sensitive to a revitalised Jewish diaspora. The other factor, they say, is that with Jewish life flourishing, even where it was all but erased by the Holocaust, Zionism's very raison d'être is being challenged. More and more synagogues, as well as Jewish cafés, museums and schools are opening in Germany, and even in Poland. Amnon Seelig sings in the Munich synagogue choir every Shabbat. "Israel is in a really difficult position with immigration now, because people ask 'what is the role of Zionism today?'," said Rabbi Homolka. "The Jewish community in Berlin makes the argument that it is valid to stay here, in Germany."..." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3558319/Israels-anxiety-as-Jews-prefer-Germany.html