Hadassah will underwrite the first Youth Aliya settlement in Israel since the early days of the movement which was founded in 1934 to rescue Jewish children from the impending Holocaust in Europe. The project was announced by Sylvia Doppelt, of Hollis, N.Y., national Youth Aliya chairman of Hadassah at the organization’s National Board meeting at the Concord Hotel here.
Doppelt said the new settlement would be built near Zippori, in Lower Gililee, 10 miles from Nazareth by a group of Youth Aliya graduates, mainly from Iran. It will be a moshav type collective based on industrial and other enterprises because of the scarcity of arable land in the region, she reported.
She said that an important adjunct of the new settlement would be a seminar center to provide historical and educational enrichment and to encourage young people to settle in Galilee. The Board voted an allocation of $750,000 for the Center which will be named in honor of Frieda Lewis, national president of Hadassah.
Doppelt said the center would accommodate 50 students initially for week-long visits, later expanded to 100. All will be Youth Aliya graduates but eventually high school students from outside the movement will be accommodated. Youth Aliya, a major project of Hadassah, is no longer a rescue movement but concentrates on the education of Israeli-born youngsters who are potential school drop-outs. It also assists refugee children from the Soviet Union and various Arab and African countries.
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