MK seeks to ease aliyah process
Yamina’s Yomtov Kalfon is fighting to cut the red tape
Yamina MK Yomtov Kalfon moved to Israel from France at age 18. He advises young Jews around the world who are considering aliyah to emulate him and immigrate before starting their careers, so that can avoid Israel’s infamous bureaucracy.
Kalfon pointed out that one of the top issues for many olim aged 30-55 from what he called “wealthy” western countries like the US, UK and France, is Israel’s lack of recognition of their foreign degrees.
His mission is to create legislation that helps olim, especially from France, integrate into Israeli society. Kalfon wants to put the issues facing olim back at the top of the political agenda after he said ineffective governments kept it towards the bottom.
“These people don’t want charity, they want to work,” Kalfon told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. “If they have a diploma, let them work with that diploma. If they have talents, don’t place roadblocks that prevent them from exercising their talents here.”
That’s exactly Dr. Jonathan Wiesen’s story. He graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2009, completed his residency in the Cleveland Clinic – the second-best hospital in the world according to Newsweek – and is triple board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases and critical care.
Wiesen, who is in his early 40s, moved to Israel in 2015, but Israel hardly recognized any of his accolades. The easy part was transferring his medical doctor certification, allowing him to work as a family doctor or physician.
However, Wiesen was required to complete a “cumbersome” apprenticeship (stage)/acclimation that would essentially be a repeat of his residency in the US. He hasn’t completed it yet because of the amount of time it would take.
“It’s frustrating for a lot of reasons,” Wiesen said. “Number one it seems sort of random. Number two, why should I, coming from a top institution or even any good institution that’s recognized, have to go through a whole new certification process?”
Wiesen completed his first apprenticeship in internal and pulmonary medicine in three months. Afterward, he became the director of the cardiopulmonary exercise test program at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. However, he still needs to do almost a full-year apprenticeship in critical care, but he said it isn’t financially worth it at this point.
When Wiesen complained that the apprenticeship he hasn’t done is too long, it was shortened by a month. He felt that was proof that the extra month was just bureaucracy at work.
“It didn’t make any sense,” Wiesen said. “I spent a year building up this whole practice, specialty, clinic and expertise, and then what they’re basically telling me is that I’d have to give that entire thing up just because I need to do an ‘acclimation’ in critical care because they decided for whatever reason that doing a fellowship in the Cleveland Clinic wasn’t enough.”
It helps that the new government seems focused on this issue. On July 6, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar and MK Abir Kara (Yamina) presented their plan for reducing regulation and bureaucracy in government.
TWO COMPONENTS of the plan are to set up a regulatory authority to examine, measure, coordinate and report on regulations, and to audit existing regulations. These have the potential to support olim and make their transitions into Israel easier.
Additionally, in 2019, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked posted Yamina’s party platform on Facebook, which stated that they want to “promote Jewish immigration to Israel and remove unnecessary barriers to immigration absorption.”
Kalfon wants to work with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata (Blue and White), as well as the Interior Ministry to advance legislation for olim. He said he feels Tamano-Shata, who is an Ethiopian immigrant, has good intentions for the ministry. He’s also working with organizations like Yad L’Olim to help olim navigate Israeli bureaucracy.
Wiesen did mention that Israel could have a legitimate concern about foreign doctors not speaking Hebrew. He said he’d be open to legislation requiring immigrants to pass a Hebrew fluency test before practicing in Israel.
Kalfon said that the challenge to passing legislation is getting his fellow MKs on board. He’s concerned that many of them don’t consider aliyah and immigration as one of their top priorities. But he felt that Bennett – who is the son of American immigrants – takes these issues seriously.
Aside from the bureaucracy, some adult olim face culture shock when making aliyah. Israel’s mandatory army service has a significant impact on the country’s culture and immigrants like Wiesen who didn’t serve feel left out.
“There are a lot of cultural things that I don’t understand because I didn’t go to the army,”
Wiesen said. “Language issues [are] for sure more pronounced because I never went into that environment where all I [would do] is speak Hebrew quickly [like] my life depended on it for two years.”
Even though Kalfon is an advocate of moving to Israel at a young age, Wiesen said the decision of when to make aliyah isn’t always clear-cut.
“I think that everything is a question of balances, priorities, [as well as] pros and cons,” Wiesen said. “I knew I wanted
to go into medicine. My opinion is that it’s better to train in America, [or] go to school in America because the opportunities that are open to you as an American-trained physician are much better.”
Despite wishing they lived in Israel, Kalfon sent his love to Jews who decide to remain in the diaspora.
“I, as a religious Jew who believes that Israel is ‘the beginning of the sprouting of the redemption,’ think that every Jew should live in Israel,”
Kalfon said. “But I won’t judge Jews who live outside Israel. I’ll embrace them and work so that when they want to come to Israel, they’ll have good lives. I prefer [that] people come here out of a desire to be here, not because they’re running from antisemitism.”
Kalfon said that every place in Israel is a gift, despite any challenges the community faces or its level of religiosity. He’s incredibly proud of Israel, its culture and its new government.