About 29,500 new olim immigrated to Israel from 97 different countries in the past Jewish year – a rise of about 13 percent when compared to the year before (26,000). This, according to statistics published Wednesday by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Jewish agency, ahead of Rosh Hashanah.

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Most olim in the previous Jewish year came from former USSR states (about 14,100) and Europe (over 9,000). North America saw about 3,600 olim leave for Israel, with 1,200 coming from Latin America. The two leading countries as far as number of olim are France (7,350) and Ukraine (6,900). The number of olim from Russia grew by 23 percent, to 5,900. About 690 olim came from Britain, 400 from Italy, and around 290 from Belgium.

New olim. The past Jewish year saw a ten-year high in their numbers (Photo: Shutterstock)

Thousands of these new olim are academics and young people whose aliyah was arranged through special projects run by the immigrant absorption ministry and the Jewish agency. Around 3,000 of the olim have training and/or experience in the technology and engineering fields, and over 1,000 are doctors or other medical professionals. Around 70 percent of the olim from the past Jewish year were under the age of 44, and they include about 7,800 who are 19 and under, and about 12,000 between the ages of 20-44.

There were six countries from which just one ole came to Israel in the past Jewish year: Angola, Andorra, Namibia, Slovakia, The Philippines, and Paraguay. The largest wave of olim (about 8,350) came to Israel during the summer months. The three most popular destination cities for olim were Tel Aviv (about 3,500), Netanya (3,400), and Jerusalem (3,000).

Olim from the US (Video: Lior Paz) (צילום: ליאור פז)

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"These figures, showing a significant rise in number of olim, corroborate the overall idea that 2015 is turning out to be this decade's record year as far as number of olim," said Minister of Immigrant Absorption Ze'ev Elkin.

"We estimate that at this rate, we will reach 30,000-35,000 by the end of 2015. This is a window of opportunity that Israel must not miss. We stand before a fascinating challenge and must both take care of absorbing (the olim) in the best way, and increase activities that promote aliyah."

Jewish Agency Chairperson Natan Sharansky said, "In recent years, the vast majority of olim are coming from democratic states. These olim's free choice to live in Israel, and preference for it over other countries, is the real victory of Zionism."