Sapir Calls for New Aliya from North America

It is important “not only for the sake of Israel, but also in order to strengthen and deepen its own Jewish identity, so intrinsically linked with Israel’s destiny,” that North American Jewry “develop a consensus on the desirability and necessity of aliya,” Pinhas Sapir declared in Jerusalem as he announced the second annual “Aliya Month” scheduled to begin in February.

Spearheaded by the Israel Aliya Center of the World Zionist Organization-American Section and the American Zionist Federation, last year’s Aliya Month reached audiences of from ten to a thousand persons at more than 2500 meetings in 300 communities throughout the United States.

Characterizing last year’s program as “a major educational effort on behalf of aliya,” Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, Chairman of the WZO-American Section, pointed out that last year’s meetings “were not expected to result in immediate immigration by large numbers of individual American Jews but to stimulate thinking about Israel, to give practical information on aliya and to create a better understanding of what Israel is prepared to offer.”

The program this year, Mrs. Jacobson indicated, is more ambitious: “We hope to harvest the crop we sowed last year in our educational drive and at the same time stimulate hitherto uncommitted American Jews to consider aliya as a viable option in their lives.”

In his proclamation, Sapir pointed out that “the very future of Israel is being challenged,” and that is important, therefore, for Jews in the free world “to make a personal commitment by supporting aliya and accepting this call for Jewish self-fulfillment.”

“The 40,000 North American olim already living in Israel have made a significant contribution to its development, far in excess of their numerical strength,” he said, adding a call to every Jewish organization and every individual Jew, “to make aliya a major objective in the lives of large numbers of American Jews.”