Approximately 1,370 doctors left Israel for at least a year between 2023 and 2025, nearly double the number who departed during the same three-year period a decade earlier, according to a new study by researchers at Tel Aviv University.
The study found a 94% increase in departures compared to 2013-2015, when 705 doctors left the country. The trend was recorded across virtually all medical specialties and included a sharp increase in the number of experienced physicians leaving Israel.
More than 20% of doctors who left during the past three years were experienced physicians, compared with approximately 14% a decade earlier. Among doctors under 60, the highest departure rate was recorded among ophthalmologists, dermatologists and ENT specialists, at 9.4%, followed by surgeons at 8.8% and pediatricians at 6.4%.
The Tel Aviv District recorded the largest number of departures, with 429 doctors leaving between 2023 and 2025. Another 290 left from the Central District, 190 from Haifa, 132 from Jerusalem and 125 from southern Israel.
Even after accounting for doctors who returned to Israel, researchers found that the country suffered a net loss of 509 physicians during 2023 and 2024 — an average of roughly 255 doctors per year. By comparison, Israel lost an average of just 54 doctors annually between 2010 and 2019.
Researchers cautioned that spending at least a year abroad does not necessarily mean a doctor has permanently left Israel, as physicians frequently travel overseas for fellowships, research or advanced training. However, they said the sharp rise in departures among veteran doctors raises concern that a growing number are choosing to remain abroad permanently.
Prof. Itay Ater warned that the loss of nearly 1,400 doctors could have a direct impact on Israel’s healthcare system, including longer waits for surgeries and other medical treatment.
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5 Responses
Maybe because socialized medicine doesn’t pay so well?
Frum doctors are very uncommon in Israel, unlike in the U.S., the UK, Canada, and wherever else there are large Jewish communities. If you find a frum doctor in Israel 90% of the time he made aliyah and got his degree before that. The secular Israelis who make up most of the Israeli professionals are less and less likely to want to stay in Israel and raise their kids there, the giyus issue being just one of many issues they’re fed up with. There’s been a lot of yerida since October 7 and I predict we’ll see those numbers rise if Netanyahu forms another right wing government.
Paying doctors (and other medical professional who are in short supply) higher wages will resolve the problem.
And that’s why the entire hospital is Arab staff
Israel has had a terrible brain drain for decades. Also, Israel is going through a giant transition as (hopefully) more and more leftists leave (back to azazel), who are also the richest class, and more and more poorer spiritual Jews ascend. Problem is tansitioning the good and therefore poor Jews from just being poor and studying Torah to becoming professionals and rich as the new rulers of the country. That’s really Israel’s biggest test and concern, integrating the poor religious into the advanced rich professions.