‘ambassadors’ to Be Theme of UJA Mission to Israel March 3-10

The United Jewish Appeal’s March 3-10 mission to Israel will revolve around the theme of “ambassadors,” according to UJA national vice chairman Bernard Borine, who will chair the mission.

“Because our theme operates on several levels, we’re calling this event the ‘Ambassadors’ Mission,’ ” Borine said. “In meetings with top-level Israelis, like the one scheduled with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin, mission participants will serve as unofficial ambassadors of their home communities all over the U.S.”

“When they return home after six intensive days of in-depth study of such programs as the absorption of Ethiopian Jewry and Project Renewal,” he continued, “they will be equipped to function as unofficial ambassadors to those communities, well able to report what they have learned firsthand about the services and programs their annual community campaigns support, and about Israel’s government, economy and security,” Borine added that “this mission will be hosted by several of Israel’s past and present Ambassadors.”

The projected mission itinerary includes meetings with Samuel Lewis, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and Simcha Dinitz, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., and briefings by Chaim Aharon, head of the Jewish Agency’s immigration and absorption department; Gideon Witkon, the Agency’s director-general of Project Renewal; and Menachem Perlmutter, chief engineer for the Negev region for the Agency.

Mission members will visit an absorption center for Ethiopian Jewry, a Youth Aliya village, Project Renewal neighborhoods, and new settlements in the Negev. At Yad Vashem, participants will take part in a special ceremony of remembrance. They will also welcome the Shabbat at the Western Wall.