The amount of Jews from the US and Canada that filed applications to immigrate to Israel during April increased by 50% compared with the same month last year according to Nefesh B’Nefesh.
That increase remained stable during the first four days of May as well as the amount of people downloading aliyah application forms, stated Nefesh B’Nefesh, who organizes aliyah (going up to Israel) flights from North America.

The increase in the amount of people looking to move to Israel could be in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the US much harder than Israel, especially in places like New York and New Jersey, who both boast large Jewish populations. The percentage of applications from those two states compared with the rest of the country increased from 46.5% of all applications in 2019 to 50% in 2020.

There could also be something bigger happening within the Jewish community in the diaspora to return to the country that God promised them as written in Jeremiah:

And there is hope for your future —declares Hashem: Your children shall return to their country. (Jeremiah 31:16)

The Jewish Agency, which organizes aliyah in most other countries, projects an increase of roughly 30% in emigration over the next two years due to the pandemic. They are is hoping to obtain government assistance to ready themselves for the influx.

In the following video, Yitzhak Herzog, chairman of the Jewish Agency speaks of an “upsurge” in Jews from the diaspora looking to make Aliyah. In the interview, Herzog makes a loose projection of 150,000-200,000 in the next few years. He also attributes the upsurge to Israel’s impressive performance in their handling of the coronavirus crisis and an uptick in antisemitism worldwide.