— Brig. Gen. Nathan Nir, chairman of the Association for the Welfare of Soldiers in Israel said that his organization hopes to raise some $3.5 million in the United States to meet its 1981-82 budget of $18 million.
Speaking at a press conference at the Israeli Consulate here yesterday, Nir said that special fundraising dinners are scheduled to be held in the next few weeks in New York, Los Angeles and Miami to raise that sum. He said that the Soldiers Association obtains 60 percent of its budget from contributions outside of Israel.
“As a result of inflation in Israel we have to increase our fund-raising efforts here and elsewhere,” Nir said, noting that the Soldiers Association is providing housing, cultural centers, education and other services to soldiers in Israel. He said that a major challenge for his organization is to provide basic education to some 14,000 illiterate Israeli soldiers.
On Israel’s Independence Day this year, May 7, the Soldiers Association will have a special “Song and Donate” program on a local Radio station here. Nir said. The program will enable the listening audience to call in their requests for Hebrew songs accompanied with regards to their relatives in Israel, and to pledge what he termed modest donations. The requested songs and the messages will later be broadcast by Israel’s army radio station.
According to Nir, the Soldiers Association is also undertaking an estimated $45 million project for the establishment in Galilee of an education center for soldiers. The project is to be completed in 1986-87, Nir said.
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