The Jewish Agency Executive decided today to stop supporting Kedma, a "hippy-hasidic" commune in the northern Negev, into which, the Agency says, it poured $68,571 during the past two years. The commune, near Kiryat Gat, was set up at the end of 1970 by Reuven and Sara Mandel who were described as an American hippy couple. Mrs. Mandel is a convert to Judaism. They intended Kedma as a center for overseas Jewish youth with identity problems.
But the project was called a dismal and costly failure by the Jewish Agency today which said it would cut off funds to Kedma in Oct. Agency sources say privately that they were dubious about the project and the Mandels from the start but were persuaded to support the commune because of public sympathy engendered by the Israeli press.
The American couple had ambitious plans. They said they were going to teach fundamental Judaism and Hebrew to rootless Jewish youths who were to emerge eventually as useful citizens of Israel. The press touted Kedma as an avant-garde immigrant absorption center and the Jewish Agency says it spent large sums renovating the old buildings of an abandoned kibbutz and supplied agricultural equipment for what was to be a work-study center.
But a Jewish Agency committee investigating Kedma reported to the Executive recently that the Mandels "had failed to realize the aims they outlined," The average population of the place never exceeded 20 and the committee found there was a constant turn-over as people drifted in and out. The classroom that was to have served as an ulpan and Judaism center was always empty, the committee reported. The report did not confirm press allegations of drug-taking and "free love" at Kedma.
The Mandels now reportedly want to turn Kedma into an occupational therapy center for delinquent and handicapped youth. The Jewish Agency has refused to go along with the plan unless the ministries of health and welfare are prepared to shoulder full responsibility. At this juncture it appears that the government will have nothing to do with the Mandels who have reportedly lost the trust and sympathy of many of the youths they originally appealed to.
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