page_title: Yishai Fleisher
section_title: Aliyah (Immigration to Israel) advocacy
hierarchical_section_title: Yishai Fleisher / Aliyah (Immigration to Israel) advocacy
caption_attribution_description: Yishai and Malkah Fleisher on their porch in Jerusalem.
context_page_description: Yishai Fleisher is the international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron and a broadcaster with a weekly podcast on The Land of Israel Network. He is a frequent columnist for the Daily Wire and Jewish Press, and has been published in the New York Times. He has been featured on CNN, Al Jazeera, Fox, Vice, and BBC.
  In 2016, Fleisher argued against UNESCO’s attempt to recognize the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage site. The protest against the move eventually brought both the US Administration and Israel to withdraw from UNESCO.
  Fleisher is the founder of Kumah, a pro-Israel organization educating about Israel and encouraging aliyah, and works closely with US and Israeli legislators on issues such as fighting BDS, recognizing Israeli indigenous rights, fighting historical appropriation, advocating for immigration to Israel, and strengthening the Jewish people's presence in the West Bank / Judea and Samaria. He lives in Israel with his wife and kids.
context_section_description: At Yeshiva University, he co-founded Kumah [Arise], an organization  who’s mission was to enhance awareness about Jewish repatriation to Israel.
  In this capacity, Fleisher helped create the Aliyah Revolution CD, a compilation of songs by major Israeli artists in 2009. In 2006 Fleisher co-created the Free Your Mind, an animated short feature promoting aliyah to Americans. A take-off of the popular Matrix series, the animation was created by Gil Ronen.
  Fleisher conceptualized and helped write the original bill that created Yom HaAliyah, or Aliyah Day, which acknowledges Aliyah, immigration to the Jewish state, as a core value of the State of Israel, and honors the ongoing contributions of Olim, Jewish immigrants, to Israeli society. 
  The roots of Aliyah Day come from a 2008 session at the Knesset and later in 2010 at an event held by MK Yaakov Katz.
  
  At the event Fleisher was quoted by Haaretz as stating:
  "'It's very important to me that this law will also be exported to the Diaspora, so that [Jewish] schools will celebrate this day like they celebrate Independence day,' explained Fleisher, who runs Kumah, an organization encouraging immigration by distributing pro-Israel CDs and movies and through its widely read blog."
  In the bill’s introductory passage, Fleisher wrote, “Aliyah stands at the foundation of the State of Israel... and Israel strives to continue the process of immigration and the Ingathering of the Exiles. Public awareness is critical to this end… It is hereby proposed to establish Aliyah Day, designed to strengthen public awareness, especially among the young, as to the centrality of this value, via educational activities, public broadcasts, and public ceremonies. On this day, Aliyah will be discussed, commemorated and celebrated in schools, the Knesset and in the public arena. The State will thus commemorate the importance of past and future Aliyah, the elements that help it along, and of course the Olim themselves.”
  The bill eventually became law in 2016.
caption: Yishai and Malkah Fleisher in Jerusalem
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