“Back to the Fatherland?” looks at the psychological, socio-economic and emotional factors influencing the new wave of young Israelis emigrating to former Nazi countries, in particular Germany and Austria. Since 2008 approximately 15,000 Israelis have immigrated to Germany alone which is a 40% increase from 2006. Why? Are they escaping the stress and pressure of living in an embattled region? Is it a simple pragmatic and economic decision? Are they looking for their families’ roots? Do they feel a connection to their German/Austrian ancestry? And how do their grandparents, who once lost their homeland due to brutal persecution, feel about their young moving away from the Israel they helped to build?
How does this brain drain affect Israel, a young country, not only fighting a war on the outside but a social war on the inside? Or does this new wave of immigration bring hope for nations that are longing not for forgiveness or forgetting, but for healing?