Participants in the United Jewish Appeal Ambassadors Mission increased their pledges to the 1985 UJA/Federation campaign to $679,295, a 32.3 percent rise over their gifts last year, following a call by Premier Shimon Peres to “make a great hope into a new reality.” In addition, participants pledged $200,310 to Project Renewal.
“We are pleased with the fund-raising results,” said Bernard Borine of Philadelphia, a UJA national vice chairman and chairman of the mission. “And the mission participants are now well able to serve as unofficial ambassadors of the people of Israel to their home communities, to help bring American and Israeli Jews closer together.”
Peres told the 81 participants, who represented 14 local American Jewish communities, that he was confident diaspora Jews will join with Israelis and help Jews everywhere realize a better life.
He acknowledged that Israel has major economic problems, which he said were largely the result of high defense costs. But he noted that the people of Israel were working hard to overcome their problems. He asserted that he is confident they would succeed without endangering national security.
During six days of intensive programming, mission participants were briefed by three former Ambassadors to the U.S.: Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin; Knesset Member Simcha Dinitz; and Avraham Harman, chancellor of the Hebrew University.
They also met with Yaacov Barmore, director of public relations for the Jewish National Fund in Israel, who was Ambassador to the United Nations; Reuven Dafni, vice chairman of Yad Vashem, who was Ambassador to Kenya and Thailand; and Haim Aharon, who was Ambassador to Colombia and is now head of the Immigration and Absorption Department of the Jewish Agency.
The Americans visited Jewish Agency programs in action in Project Renewal neighborhoods directly aided by their home communities; absorption centers for newly arrived immigrants; Youth Aliya villages for distressed teenagers; settlements in the Arava; and facilities of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, all aided by the UJA/Federation campaign.
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