Thousands of physicians, medical students, and scientists have abandoned Israel for supposedly greener pastures abroad in the last three years, leaving vacancies in hospitals, health fund clinics, and laboratories with empty seats. The Likud government’s would-be judicial reform and the risk to the country’s checks and balances and democracy have been cited as triggering this exodus, as well as the October 7 war, high prices for homes, and the rising cost of living.
How can we bring them back home? The antisemitism and anti-Israeli demonstrations could help. The cancellation of billions of dollars for scientific research grants by the Trump administration – including a $1 billion clean-energy grant; hundreds of grants from the Department of Justice related to public safety, court access, and victim services; university research at the National Science Foundation; STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), education, and environmental justice programs’ and most programs run by the US Agency for International Development – have certainly affected these Israelis living abroad, and can make them think seriously about returning.
There is also a more proactive approach.
“This is a time of opportunity for them to come home,” said Nadav Douani, director of ScienceAbroad (www.scienceabroad.org.il) – a 19-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to this challenge. We don’t know exactly how many have left, because they just buy airline tickets, pack up, and go – usually young professionals with a wife or husband, often with children. They leave without an announcement. But we know of at least 12,000 who have left in recent years. Singles might also be intermarrying abroad. Some of their children return to Israel to join the IDF and stay here,” he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.
ScienceAbroad is an Israel-based nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of senior Israeli scientists living abroad. Through its wide-reaching professional and social network, ScienceAbroad inspires connections with local communities, international scientists, and Israel. Since its inception in 2006, ScienceAbroad has grown to over 4,500 members across 300 campuses and has established 34 branches worldwide run by scientists who volunteer their time and expertise.
The American branches are located in cities including Baltimore, Berkeley, Chicago, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington, DC, Seattle, Princeton, and Pittsburgh. Outside the US, there are offices in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, Cambridge, Oxford, and London in the UK, Paris, Toronto, Melbourne, Zurich, Vienna, and more.
The volunteers in the branches foster international communities of Israeli scientists and their families and coordinate professional events for members. Professional and social meetings with key figures from the Israeli industry, academia, and government are organized to help researchers become familiar with the employment market here and enable them to consult on furthering their career paths and create professional networks.
Employment fairs that arrange local job interviews with Israeli employers are held, and subsidized flights home are available if required. The branches also hold workshops that introduce support tools and present success stories relating to technological entrepreneurship.
They organize webinars featuring an introduction to employment in Israel, job-hunting tools, tips for transitioning from academia to industry, technological entrepreneurship promotion, and exposure to projects recruiting scientists in academia, industry, and government. A job center within the organization’s website allows Israelis with a doctorate to search for industry-based and academic positions, as well as contact potential employers.
A ”Women in Science Program” was launched to empower Israeli researchers at the start of their careers and to strengthen their scientific contacts with Israel so they can return to Israel and conduct their research here, while an information center offers an active blog and contact person in Israel. It also provides support and guidance on questions relating to overcoming any “red tape.”
“We aim to build inclusive and diverse communities representing all Israeli backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing scientific and social leading skills,” Douani added. “We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our network will be. We welcome and invite Israeli scientists from all walks of life to join our community, regardless of their characteristics and/or fields of knowledge.”
MOST SETTLE in the northeastern US, where the Ivy League universities are located, but others go to Canada or the UK, where they don’t have to learn a new language.
“Hundreds have emigrated to Germany, despite our sad history with that country, where they have to learn the language,” Douani noted. “Everyone is different. Their loss affects the Israeli economy, scientific advancement, and medical care. They are absent all over Israel. There may not be suitable jobs here for all of them, but there are for many.”
The organization conducted a poll of emigrant doctors and scientists with whom it’s in contact and asked what factors most influenced them about whether to return.
“Career was number one, followed by family. As for the antisemitism, many claimed it would pass; it’s not yet a deal-breaker, but it could become one.”
The October 7 massacre deeply affected emigrés
Douani asserted, however, that the horrendous October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists affected the emigrés. “Our people, with leftist or rightist views, became very worried about Israel. Some even came back to volunteer. They said: ‘We won’t leave our relatives and friends alone.’ ”
ScienceAbroad gets its budget from donations, various government ministries, and all academic institutions in Israel.
“It’s the only organization in the world that tries to bring home Israeli scientists and physicians. We have built a community of professionals who are abroad,” the organization’s director said. “We create a support network for researchers and their families to ease their stay abroad and allow them to focus and succeed in their research; encourage the return of Israeli scientists to industry-based research tracks and entrepreneurial opportunities in Israel; assist Israeli researchers who want to return to Israel; and boost the number of research positions available in Israeli academia and industry.”
One of the returnees is Dr. Lior Shaltiel, a researcher and CEO of the Israeli start-up NurExone Biologic, who lived in Germany for eight years before coming home as a returning scientist. His maternal grandmother survived Auschwitz and other concentration camps, but she didn’t oppose his going to live in Munich in 2006. She had already passed away when he and his family returned in 2014.
The Haifa-based company is working on “nanosized exosome-based therapies and a drug-delivery platform.” Exosomes are tiny, naturally occurring vesicles released by cells that act as messengers, carrying proteins, RNA, and other molecules to other cells; they are involved in cell-to-cell communication in both healthy and disease. They cross the blood-brain barrier and, in rats, have been shown to be able to regenerate nerves to reverse acute spinal cord injury and optic-nerve injury caused by glaucoma that results in blindness. Treatment involves only two to four injections to the spinal area. No harmful side effects were observed.
He said in an interview that the minimally invasive treatment amazingly reconnects nerves that were cut. The technology was developed by Tel Aviv University Prof. Daniel Offen and Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, who are both world-renowned leaders in regenerative medicine.
“We hope to launch clinical trials at the end of 2026. If successful, it will be a boon to the many soldiers who have become disabled during the war in Gaza,” Shaltiel said.
If he had remained a scientist in Germany, Israel would have lost the opportunity to present NurExone Biologic’s discovery to the world.