It may take as long as four generations before the 61 nationalities now represented in the Israeli population will be integrated into a common culture, Mrs. Abraham Harman, wife of the Councillor to the Israel Embassy in Washington, today told a session of the International Council of Jewish Women, which is holding its first conference in the United States since its founding in 1912.
“There is a common misconception in America that as soon as an immigrant enters Israel he becomes an Israeli,” Mrs. Harmon stated. “This is not so. The Oriental peoples flooding into the country need to bridge a gap of centuries of civilization before they can really become a part of Israel’s modern culture. In the meantime, there is a tendency for numbers of them to exist in a cultural vacuum.”
She pointed out that there is urgent need for trained personnel in the fields of education, social work and medical work to rehabilitate the newcomers, and declared that the scholarship program of the National Council of Jewish Women of the United States, which brings outstanding students in these fields from Israel for advanced training in American universities, is helping to solve the need for personnel.
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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.
