Dayan and Eban to Promote Aliya

Former Israeli Cabinet Ministers Moshe Dayan and Abba Eban will highlight the upcoming aliya drive scheduled to begin in the U.S. and Canada Feb. 25 and which will continue until March 25. Israel’s outgoing Ambassador Yosef Tekoah will also be among the speakers during “Aliya Month.” The goal set by the World Zionist Organization is to double Israel’s Jewish population within 25 years, with the hope that 25,000 people from the U.S. and Canada will immigrate to Israel per year. In a letter addressed to Pinhas Sapir, WZO chairman, Israel’s Premier Yitzhak Rabin said:

“Aliya is the lifeblood of the Jewish State. The story of the rebirth and building of Israel is, in essence, the story of aliya. Western immigration is one of its chapters. It must be made a larger one because of what immigrants from the West can contribute to Israel and because of what Israel can contribute to them. Aliya was never an easy act. But to any Jew, conscious of his heritage and faith, and sensitive to the major Jewish responsibilities of our times, it is the ultimate challenge. With each passing year, the centrality of Israel to Jewish life and the universality of Jewish responsibility towards it became ever more self-evident. In the end, the strength and peace of Israel, and hence of the Jewish world, depend upon the growth of Israel and the quality of its life.”

Over 3000 meetings will be conducted during “Aliya Month” by the regional Israel Aliya Centers in the U.S. and Canada. Every major Jewish organization and all three religious movements, have already pledged their cooperation with the centers during “Aliya Month.”