Kol Yisroel, Israel’s radio network, and the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds are cooperating to develop a pilot radio program which, if successful, will represent the first in a series to be broadcast in Israel on Jewish life in North America, it was reported here today.
Israeli radio executives are completing this pilot project in an attempt to answer some of their listeners’ questions about the United States and Canada–about American-Jewish identification, Jewish commitment, Jewish communal organization and Jewish youth.
Work on this project began late in January when an Israeli program representative in this country met with executives of the CJFWF in New York. Early in February, the Council contacted two organizations in Essex County, New Jersey–the Jewish Community Council and the Jewish Education Association. These, in turn, developed a program plan involving students enrolled in local Jewish and Hebrew schools and a group studying at various nearby colleges.
Actual taping began about three weeks ago. Childish voices sang Hebrew songs, older children discussed life in Israel, a still older group demonstrated its knowledge of some of the ethical questions posed in the Bible, and Hebrew teachers-in-training discussed the work of a distinguished Hebrew poet. All of the above scenes were produced in Hebrew.
But a single segment was prepared in English with Hebrew narration to be added. This was a discussion among several college students concerning Jewish identification in America in 1965. The Jewish college students were all members of Atid, the college youth group of the United Synagogue of America. They considered such matters as assimilation, mixed marriages and the question of the relationship to Israel of American Jewry.
This English portion will be reproduced and distributed to student and parent groups as an aid to further community discussions of these questions. The different segments of the program will be united through a running “Huntley-Brinkley” type of exchange between Dr. Elijan Bortnicker, executive director of the Jewish Education Association, and a staff member of Kol Yisroel stationed in this country. If this pilot is successful, the remainder of the series will be produced on location in communities throughout the United States and Canada.
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