Gadi Pickholz emails: "So much for Nefesh B’Nefesh propaganda. The actual 3-5 year later success rate of American aliya has hit abysmal new depths of failure, despite more coming. There was likely a larger contingent of former Americans returning to the States than arriving on Aliya, a situation not seen since the first intifada. This seems to be a major taboo in the community, and cannot be discussed. Less than 20% of American olim work for major Israeli companies, most are small professional practitioners providing services for the AngloSaxon community, as is generally the case for first generation non-native language immigrant populations."
From the Jerusalem Post: The survival rate of small businesses in Israel is dismal. Only 58% of medium and small businesses in the Holy Land are still alive two years after establishment, compared with 71% to 88% in the West and Australia, according to a survey by economist Roby Nathanson of the Macro Center for Political Economics. The survey had been commissioned by Yehuda Talmon, president of the Lahav umbrella organization for the selfemployed. If anything, fewer small businesses (with up to 50 employees) are likely to survive in these stressed times, Talmon commented yesterday. (Haim Bior)
