 According to a report shared in Weinet today, Israel is on a push to encourage more immigrants, olimhadashim in Hebrew, to live and stay in Jerusalem. According to Ofer Sofer, who is the minister for Aliyah, the Jerusalem Municipalities Plan aims to provide olim with incentives to move to Jerusalem, quote, in order to strengthen the city's economy, social fabric, and Zionist character. This piece of news caught my attention because I live in Jerusalem and I also support Aliyah to the city. However, I also believe that Jerusalem continues to offer would-be immigrants with an unattractive value proposition. The city of Jerusalem is relatively expensive, both in terms of the cost of goods and services and especially the cost of buying property, which is astronomically high in the city. Jerusalem has historically had difficulty retaining its young immigrants, a fact reflected both in statistics and in my personal experience. Over the course of my eight years living here, I've seen countless friends move to Tel Aviv in order to take advantage of the much better job opportunities that can be found in that city and in the center of the country. According to statistics from the CBS, since 2018, more than 18,000 new olim moved to Jerusalem, half of whom were in the 18-35 age bracket. However, about 30% of that cohort had left the city within the first five years. So what could this plan be suggesting that might change that, I wondered? The plan involves a cooperation between the Aliyah Ministry, the Education Ministry, and various other government stakeholders. Together, they've earmarked a budget of 95 million shackles, about 26 million US dollars at today's rate, to execute on the plan over the next three years. So again, I was wondering, well, what's the plan? So here's the meat of the article, and I'm quoting more or less directly from the English news coverage. The ministry will run special events overseas promoting Aliyah, establishing youth centers for olim in Jerusalem, and launch special programs to integrate new students and finding their way to Israeli institutions. Additionally, the Aliyah Ministry will assist olim in occupational training, professional licensing, and proper job placement. Special educational programs will be set up for children and families who have made Aliyah to Jerusalem. The Education Ministry will hold training programs for teachers in Jerusalem, so that they can be prepared to help children who made Aliyah feel comfortable and integrate into Israeli schools. Ministries will hold after-school study groups and programs to help new olim better acclimate into their schools and develop important skills. There will also be projects to support integration into Israeli communities, which will include cultural events and tours of Jerusalem and the holy sites, especially for olim and overseen by the integration and Aliyah ministry. This will include increased funding to aid new olim in the city. The National Civic Service Authority will set up a dedicated office that will promote national service volunteers in Jerusalem, with a special focus on volunteering olim in particular, who will work in Jerusalem to assist other olim in their integration process. And here's what I think of the plan in one word. It's stupid. And here's what I think of it in more words. It's a stupid waste of taxpayer resources. Having participated in some of the Jerusalem municipality's job placement efforts in the past, I can offer a hopefully somewhat informed opinion that they're mostly ineffective. The reason, in my view, is because there just aren't that many decent job opportunities in Jerusalem. According to 2017 data from Startup Nation Finder, which tracks the Israeli startup ecosystem, there were 1,817 startups operating in Tel Aviv, compared to only 390 in Jerusalem. That's a multiple of 4.6-fold. Admittedly, these figures are now a few years out of date, so I tried to get some updated figures. I ran a search on Startup Nation Central today. Of the more than 7,000 companies tracked in their database, I only found 350 matches for Jerusalem. For Tel Aviv by comparison, the database returned more than 2,800 results. Again, the differences are pretty stark, and I remember also that the Tel Aviv geographical descriptor doesn't include the joining cities that together form part of the Ghoutan nucleus. So here's my hot take on the Jerusalem Aliyah plan, and the almost 100 million shekels worth of taxpayer money that's going to back it. In order to stay in Jerusalem and strengthen the city's Zionist character, prospective immigrants need a better reason than it's the Zionist thing to do. In order to narrow the wide gap that exists between professional opportunities in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Jerusalem needs one thing above all else, and that is job creation. Not tours of the holy sites of Jerusalem and not career workshops. These are all things which are nice to have, but so long as the startup and employment ecosystem in Jerusalem remains what it is today, the fundamental dynamic driving immigration out of the city will continue. To lay the groundwork for success, Jerusalem should focus, in my opinion, on incentivizing job creation in the city, and helping entrepreneurs to set up thriving businesses that can employ others, and funding affordable co-working spaces to support the needs of those living in the city, but working in Tel Aviv in the center of the country. And in increasing the supply of affordable real estate in the city, and not luxury housing so the companies which want to open offices here actually can find places to let. That's my take on the plan, what's yours? Consider leaving a comment and if you'd like to get more videos from me, please like and subscribe to the channel.