Contributions and pledges to the Israel Education Fund of the United Jewish Appeal are making possible the creation of 111 institutions and facilities in Israel, including 67 high schools, which will serve an eventual enrollment of 50.000 students, it was reported here today.
Reports on the achievements of the Israel Education Fund since it was created in September, 1964. were made to 150 Jewish community leaders at the office of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York, who were making telephone solicitations for the UJA 1969 general campaign and its Israel Emergency Fund. The reports were made by Charles J. Bensley, president of the Fund, Theodore R. Racoosin, the Fund’s New York chairman, Aryeh Nesher, its executive director, Mrs. Alexander Sack, chairman of the Fund committee of the New York UJA women’s division, and Dr. Yael Posener, director of construction for Israel’s Education Ministry.
Mr. Racoosin reported that of some $30 million in commitments already obtained by the Israel Education Fund, more than $15 million had come from New York residents, as capital commitments in addition to their contributions to the general UJA campaigns and the IEF drives.
The institutions and facilities in Israel made possible by the contributions, it was reported, include 18 high schools already open and serving nearly 7,000 students; 49 more high schools now under design and construction, nine public libraries, 17 community centers, and 18 pre-kindergartens, of which eight are now open with an enrollment of 450 children. These facilities are all located in Israel’s development towns and other areas of heavy concentration of immigrants.
Dr. Posener, predicting a major expansion into the community center field in Israel in the next three years, said that in towns where Israel Education Fund schools have been established, “the percentage of elementary school graduates entering high school has soared from about ten percent to more than 90 percent. The dropout rate has been reduced drastically and previously fluid populations have become relatively stable. While high school construction is expected to continue at a rapid pace during the IEF’s new three-year plan period, we expect even greater progress in providing our towns with other facilities vital to their total cultural and recreational lives.”
She reported that “we are going to build more than 40 master community centers in the next several years, mostly with IEF funds. They will include libraries, youth centers, cultural facilities, and sports facilities, combined to meet each community’s individual needs. They will help finish the job of stabilizing our immigrant towns and help them come of age.”
Mrs. Sacks described two special projects which the New York UJA women’s division has undertaken for the Education Fund. One, already completed, was provision of a comprehensive high school for Dimona in the Negev. The other, now in progress, she said, is development of a high school and a number of pre-kindergarten facilities in Bet Shean, in northeast Israel a few miles from the Jordan River.
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