A record number of 15,000 youths from 14 countries are currently visiting Israel as part of the summer camp program of the World Zionist Organization. The WZO Youth and Hechalutz Department has organized a series of activities involving some 10,000 youths in various projects related to their backgrounds and interests.
One such activity involves having youngsters from France of North African origin assigned to development towns where large segments of the population are of the same origin. The youths can be seen in such places as Maalot, Karmiel, Beit Shean, Dimona and Kiryat Gat where they participate as volunteers in local projects. For the second year a group of French youth has “adopted” the town of Shlomi on the Lebanese border.
Other groups work in Nahal settlements, kibbutzim, archaeological sites and hospitals. At a recent convention in Jerusalem. WZO chairman Yosef Almogi called on the youth volunteers to return to Israel as immigrants.
The aliya movement also has a record number of 3000 participants, double the amount from last year. Many of the youths, students and young couples, are active throughout the country. For the first time a group of 25 Jewish students arrived here this year. Some of them are athletes who participated in the recent Maccabiah. Four of them have decided to remain in Israel and II returned to India but intend to return as immigrants in a few months. The rest of the group plan to set up a “garin aliya” (aliya nucleus) in India.
OTHER FIRSTS NOTED
The number of visitors organized this year by the Diaspora Education and Culture Department has reached 1724, almost double the number from last year. The department organized for the first
The Torah and Education Department organized 410 visitors, among them, for the first time, a group of “hozrim bitshuva” (repentants) who study in Jerusalem in a special yeshiva. The Spanish Communities Department organized 300 visitors, among them 40 academicians from Iran who are members of the Academic Jewish Club.
The Information and Organization Department organized 150 visitors, among them 20 leaders of Hapoel Hamizrachi Women. The “continuation generation” unit of the WZO organized a two-week seminar at Bar Ilan University with leaders of the Mizrachi movement’s younger generation. Most of the participants in the summer projects spend some 50 days in Israel. During weekends they stay with Israeli families.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
