The kibbutz is the ideal supportive setting for a long range program aimed at closing the social gap in Israel and intergrating Oriental Jewish youth into Israeli society, according to Dr. Ivan Frank, a Ph.D. who is an education specialist in Pittsburgh.
Frank, who has worked with high risk and juvenile delinquents at Kibbutz Nachal Oz in Israel, is the author of “The Cycle of Learning: A Unique Educational Approach in Kibbutz” just published by the Project for Kibbutz Studies at Harvard University.
He states that “The kibbutz can create constructive citizens of what we call welfare cases or slum youth.” He added that various American programs are initiating unique peer group methods such as the ones employed on the kibbutz to further integration of underprivileged cases in American urban environments.
According to Frank, new programs and reforms must continually be initiated and evaluated in order to close the social gap in Israel. The drive for social integration of Oriental youth “is a means to strengthen the democratic institutions of the young Israeli state, since assimilation and acculturation have not yet succeeded as witnessed by fears of growing violence in Israeli society,” Frank said.
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