About two million three hundred and fifty…

About two million three hundred and fifty thousand Jewish immigrants have entered Israel between 1949 and 1997; about seven hundred thousand to seven hundred and fifty thousand Jews have left it, although some later returned.

Soviet Jews continue to arrive at the rate of about fifty thousand per year.

One of Israel's more serious internal problems is the cost—economic, social, and cultural—of sustaining a large and growing ultra-religious ("Haredi") population, which draws heavily on educational and welfare programs but contributes little to the economy.

In a 1997 study, economists from the Hebrew University and Boston University find that Israel's workforce participation for men is well below that of Western Europe and the U.S., and declining, as "Ultra-Orthodox non-participation is permanent and increasing at a geometric rate."

If the tendencies persist, they will "make Israel's welfare system insolvent and bankrupt municipalities." (Chomsky, Noam: Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & The Palestinians [South End Press, Cambridge MA, 1999])