Israeli Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Moshe Katzav, expressed satisfaction today with his just-concluded discussions with top Administration officials in Washington regarding the extension of cooperation in the fields of labor and social welfare between Israel and the United States.
Katzav, addressing a press conference at the Israeli Consulate here, said that he met yesterday in Washington with Labor Secretary William Brock and that the two of them agreed to sign shortly a Memorandum of Understanding on future cooperation between the two countries in areas of labor and social affairs.
“We decided to continue the ongoing joint programs and to identify and define mutually beneficial areas for exchanges of information and experiences,” Katzav said. He said that Brock agreed to visit Jerusalem next June and that the Memorandum of Understanding between the two Ministries will probably be signed then.
Katzav said that the major topic of discussion with his American counterpart were women’s affairs unemployment, vocational training and problems of the handicapped, and employment. He said that they also discussed a joint seminar on women’s affairs which is scheduled to be held in Israel this spring, and a joint project between Temple University in Philadelphia and Haifa University on the vocational evaluation of the handicapped.
Katzav also met with Secretary of Health and Human Services Otis Bowen and discussed with him forms of mutual cooperation in the area of human development and mutual services. Noting that two years ago the two Ministries signed a Memorandum of Understanding, Katzav said that he and Bowen expressed mutual satisfaction with the progress of a Binational Children at Risk Task Force, the coordination of programs for special visitors to Israel and the U.S., involvement of non-governmental organizations such as the Council of Jewish Federations in the facilitation of activities, and the progress to date in many other cooperative areas.
In another meeting, with Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Dorcas Hardy, Katzav said he discussed the possible creation of a Joint Task Force on Aging and the exploration of involvement of corporations and foundations in activities conducted under the Memorandum of Understanding.
Turning to another issue, Katzav said that earlier in the week he met in New York with a group of “yordim” –Israelis who emigrated to the U.S. “I came out of the meeting convinced that many of the yordim are not happy in America and that they feel estranged and alien. Israel must increase its effort to prevent further yerida. At the same time we must stop treating the yordim with understanding and forgiveness. We must treat the issue with severity and at the same time create the right conditions to bring back the yordim.”
In reply to a JTA question, he said his Ministry estimates that there are some 320,000 Israelis living in America.
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