Abdullah Al-Haqim 
Occupied Jerusalem- Michal Regev, an Israeli researcher at the beginning of 2025, traveled to carry out a post -doctoral scientific research at Cambridge University in BritainAnd that she returned to 6 years after obtaining a previous degree, and was always active in the Israeli scientific community there.
The researcher estimates that the number of Israelis residing in Cambridge has doubled 4 times over the past six years.
And you see that even without the number of Israelis doubled in Cambridge 4 times, it is clear that the reality affects the Israeli academic circles and the emigration of brains from distinguished scientists and doctors from Israel. During the past two years, the reforms of the Israeli government and the war on the Gaza Strip have caused the breadth of brain migration from Israel.
This is not just the impression of an Israeli researcher that has returned to Cambridge. Rather, the phenomenon of brain migration from Israel is gaining attention, which is highlighted by the organization “Science abroad”, a Jewish organization that has been active for 19 years in maintaining contact with Israeli scientists and doctors abroad and helping them integrate abroad and build societies of scientists and try to return them to Israel in the end.
Israeli brains
Activists of “Science abroad” communicate with more than 11 thousand Israeli scientists, researchers and doctor in more than 30 countries, and they run 34 branches throughout America Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Switzerland and Austria, about 4,500 of them are organized in active societies of Israelis who support each other, according to a report by the newspaper “De Marker”.
In fact, journalist Miral Arluzorov, who prepared the report, says that the organization “seeks to communicate with Israeli scientists before traveling, accompanying them during the absorption operations abroad, and helping to maintain their Jewish and Israeli identity and the identity of their families, and finally seeking to motivate them to return to the country, which is today and in light of the judicial coup and the war is fighting the battle against the migration of brains from Israel.”
This is not an easy step, but the CEO of the Science Organization abroad, Nadaf Dawani, is proud of more than 1,200 scientists who have returned to Israel over the years with the help of the organization. “This amazing number looks less interesting when translated into percentage,” said Dawani.
It turns out that over the years, the CEO of the organization adds in his interview with “Di Marker” that “about 70% of scientists and researchers do not return to Israel, as more than two -thirds of the brightest Israeli brains who travel to develop their career abroad reside.”
Anxious numbers
A study conducted by Dr. Ma’ian Ghallawah and Dr. Layor behavior in 2024, among Israeli doctors abroad, showed that 31% of them will not return to Israel even after the completion of their training, while 70% of scientists who travel abroad for post -PhD studies decide to migrate Israel.
According to the study, doctors who travel abroad to obtain fellowships and make specialties, their position is a little better, so that the fellowship period is relatively short, does not exceed two years or 3 years, and that means that doctors tend to stabilize abroad less.
But due to the reforms of the judicial apparatus and the war, and although the job opportunities available to them in Israel are many and good, due to the great shortage of doctors in Israel, however, the 31% of those who did not rush to return to Israel are an worrying number, according to the study of Galbou and behavior.
A gap with the positions of scholars
In an effort to monitor the phenomenon of brain migration from Israel, the “Science Abroad” is conducting opinion polls between the members of its societies, including doctors, scientists and researchers, staying abroad, and the polls show a gap between the positions of scientists before they leave the country to study abroad, and their positions after they settled abroad, and after they passed the operations of assimilation and organization, and open their eyes to the capabilities that the great world opens In front of them.
In the latest survey summarized the reality in 2024, 61% of those wishing to continue their education reported their intention to return to Israel, while only 9.5% of them thought of immigration abroad. But after completing the procedures for assimilation and organizing the stability process abroad, the percentage of those wishing to return to Israel decreased from 61% to only 16%. On the other hand, a percentage of those who dreamed of migration increased from 9.5% to 31%.
52% of the poll replied that they still do not know where to live 5 years from now, but nearly half of them tend to stay abroad. In general, while a large percentage of those who intended to return to Israel changed after completing their studies, no one changed his opinion among those who intend to immigrate, and on the contrary, their decision to stay abroad was strengthened.
45% of the scientists reported that it was the reforms of the judicial system that prompted them to stay abroad, and 47% reported that it was the war that prompted them to stay abroad, while 5.4% reported that they decided to return to Israel because of what they called “hostile positions of Israel” adopted by faculty members in leading universities, which causes great harm to the position of the Israeli academic circles in general and the status of scholars and researchers Israelis.
The repercussions of brain migration
Regarding the repercussions of brain migration on the economy in Israel, the results of research by Professor Dan bin David, a professor of public policies at Tel Aviv University, showed that there are about 287 thousand Israelis known as brains, and they are only responsible for the country’s economic growth.
Bin David, who is the general manager of the “Shorish” Institute for Social and Economic Research for the Haaretz newspaper, said that the brains in Israel constitute 0.6% of the population who work as doctors, and they are 10% of the participants in academic research, and they are 6% in the field of high technology and the “Hayek”, and they are responsible for at least half of Israel’s exports.
According to the research, during the nine months of judicial reforms that preceded the war in 2023, the number of people born in Israel who left 42% was 42% of the average number of those who left in previous years, and the number of people born in Israel who had returned 7% than previous years was.
With absolute numbers, this means that during the 13th years until 2023, he left the country on average 17,529 people born in Israel annually, and on average, 12 thousand and 214 returned, a loss of 5315 Israelis. In the nine months before the war, the country left 24,900 Israelis, born in the country, and only 11,000 of them were, that is, a loss of 13 thousand and 900 Israelis, born in the country.
Bin David warned Israel of the “spiral of collapse”, saying that “those who train doctors, engineers and great lecturers are only 9 thousand people who consider the brightest Israeli brains, and if hundreds or thousands leave, this means that we lose those who keep Israel in the advanced world with an advanced economy. Brain migration may be crucial for the future of Israel economically and socially.”
