The Federation Guidance and Employment Service described today a new program for screening applicants for aliya to help determine their suitability for the rigors of life in a different environmental and cultural milieu, Dr, Walter Duckat, guidance director of the FEGS, an agency of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, said, “testing for motivation, emotional capacity and ability to withstand the vexations and hardships which may be encountered in Israel involves a complex amalgam of standard procedures and innovative analysis.”
The program was initiated by the FEGS in cooperation with the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency and the Jewish Occupational Council. Dr, Duokat said that “careful observation of applicants’ reactions to the testing and interviews by staff members knowledgeable of the conditions in Israel” was an important part of the screening process.
The first project involved screening of some 20 families in the New York City area who planned to join an Israeli cooperative. They included engineers, architects, teachers, business executives and other urban-based Jews hoping to find in Israel an ecologically wholesome environment in which to raise their children, FEGS officials said. The officials said those who passed the intricate screening teats are now resettled in Israel and their enterprise, a year round greenhouse to cultivate tomatoes for export, is well underway.
The officials reported an upcoming project for a group of Sabbath observing young American families who want to set up a religious cooperative. Comprised mainly of educators, scientists and psychologists, they want to provide in Israel computerized photo-typesetting, psychological counseling, educational consulting for computer software, manufacture of toys and games, a health spa, needle craft materials manufacturing and social work services.
Most of the first 40 families are going on aliya in the coming summer and will live in an Absorption Center until their homes are completed, the FEGS said.
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