The Israeli Government released figures that Jewish immigration to Israel continued to slide in 2007 with the number of newcomers at just 19,700, the lowest level in 20 years, according to figures published on Monday.

The number of immigrants from former Soviet countries, which made up 30 percent of all newcomers, dropped 15 percent from 2006. Less then half of the new immigrants were from the FSU.

Zeev Bielsky, the head of the Jewish Agency in charge of bringing in immigrants to the Jewish state, expressed concern over the falling numbers.

Diaspora Jews today “have fewer reasons to leave their countries of origin” as Israel has become “less attractive as a land of immigration,” he told army radio.

Numbers from former Soviet countries have declined because the economic situation in Russia has improved and Jewish communities there are flourishing, he added.

In a BBC interview with Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish communities of the CIS, BBC presenter Julian Marshall discusses the factors of Jewish life and immigration from the Former Soviet Union.