We are a grassroots, citizen-run initiative calling on the Jewish Agency for Israel and Nefesh B'Nefesh to immediately establish a national registry: a screener that tells every diaspora Jew, in advance, whether they are eligible under the Law of Return, and hands them the proof.
Independent and citizen-run. Get Out Now is a grassroots initiative. We are not part of, and do not speak for, the Jewish Agency, Nefesh B'Nefesh or the State of Israel, and no arrangement of any kind exists with them today. This is a petition addressed to them.
To the Jewish Agency for Israel and Nefesh B'Nefesh,
When a crisis empties a city, whether through persecution, war or natural disaster, families who may be entitled to come home under the Law of Return should not be starting from nothing. Today nobody can say how many people are entitled to arrive and have not yet moved. Every plan that rests on that number, above all housing, is an estimate.
We, the undersigned, ask you to do three things:
1. Establish a national registry now: a pre-verification screener, in many languages and on the messaging apps people already use, where one core document leads to a clear eligibility answer and a dated credential, including the family members whose eligibility runs through a spouse, parent or grandparent.
2. Own the rule set. The eligibility rules the screener applies should be owned and maintained by the Jewish Agency, which holds the eligibility process today.
3. Agree to review the format of the eligibility dossier the screener produces, so that someone who has passed does not have to build their case again from scratch when they reach you.
The credential would grant nothing and bind no authority: every decision stays exactly where it rests today. Citizens are ready to help build it. We ask you to lead it.
Signatures so far:
A pre-verification and planning program for eligibility under Israel's Law of Return, 1950. It settles, in advance, who is entitled to come home, and hands them the proof, so that the answer already exists on the day it matters. It is built for diaspora Jews who may one day need to move quickly, and for the institutions that will have to receive them.
Where a person's own claim does not stand on its own, the screener does not stop there. It runs a derivative-eligibility check: whether eligibility attaching to a spouse, a parent, a grandparent or another relative extends to that person under the three-generation and spouse rules. To do this it builds out the family trees the Law of Return actually turns on, holding the relationships that carry eligibility and nothing else. One ineligible relative never ends the conversation for a household.
Eligibility rules are not ours to invent, and we do not want them. We propose that the rule set the screener applies is owned and maintained by the Jewish Agency, which holds the eligibility process today. Get Out Now would receive full disclosure of that rule set and review it only for internal consistency and edge cases, as a sanity check, with no veto and no power to vary a rule. The Agency owns what the check is; we run the check at scale.
This is a proposed structure. No such arrangement exists today, and nothing here should be read as an endorsement by, or an agreement with, the Jewish Agency, Nefesh B'Nefesh or any Israeli authority.
The credential records that a person met the eligibility test on a stated date, against a stated rule set. It does not grant entry, asylum, citizenship or Law of Return status, it does not open a border, and it binds no authority. Every one of those decisions stays with the State of Israel and the Jewish Agency.
Documents are checked and not retained. Only the outcome and its date are kept. The credential lives with the person.
The institutions can measure who arrives. Nobody can measure who is entitled to arrive and has not moved. That number does not exist, and every plan resting on it, above all housing, is an estimate. The screener exists to replace the estimate with a count.
Sergio DellaPergola's World Jewish Population 2024 (American Jewish Year Book, current to 1 January 2024) puts the worldwide population eligible for aliyah under the three-generation and spouse rules at 24,735,988, against a core Jewish population of 15.7 million. That figure includes people already living in Israel; removing Israel's resident share on the same basis leaves about 17 million outside the country. We plan against twenty million outside Israel and hold it to be the conservative figure, because core counts are known to undercount. Twenty million is a planning band, not a headcount.
| Country | Core Jewish population | Law of Return eligible |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 6,300,000 | 13,387,500 |
| France | 438,500 | 622,670 |
| Canada | 400,000 | 610,000 |
| United Kingdom | 313,000 | 444,460 |
| Russia | 123,000 | 322,260 |
| Germany | 125,000 | 201,875 |
Source: Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population 2024, American Jewish Year Book. Published data, not our model.
Persecution is not the only event that empties a city. Earthquake, flood, fire, storm and infrastructure collapse produce the same problem on a shorter clock. The eligibility question does not change with the cause of the emergency, so natural disaster is deliberately inside the scope of this program.
Where we are today: get-out-now.org is live in seven languages and still under construction. The screener is being built and is not open yet.
Donations go to a GoFundMe organized by our founder, Ben Friedmann, CFA.
Cost anchor for caravans: Israel's 2022 caravan programme for Ukrainian olim was 2,500 units at NIS 500 million, about NIS 200,000 per unit, or roughly $62,000 at 2022 rates. It is a reference point, not a quote.
Two fields to begin: your first name and your number, then pick the app you want us to reply on. Email is optional.
A volunteer will contact you to help you understand your options under Israel's Law of Return and the official aliyah process. We are volunteers working on a best-efforts basis and cannot guarantee travel or outcomes. Help is free.
In immediate danger? Contact local emergency services or the nearest Israeli embassy or consulate.
We will never ask for money or passport scans over chat. If someone claiming to be us does, it is not us.
Israel's Law of Return covers Jews and their children, grandchildren and spouses, including when only the father or a grandparent is Jewish. One basic document can be enough to start, such as a rabbi's letter, a birth or marriage certificate, a conversion certificate or a community record. We do not decide eligibility; the official process does.