Youth Aliya Expansion Poses New Financial Burdens on Movement

The expansion of Youth Aliya to take on as wards 4600 disadvantaged children whose parents live in Israel and are Israeli citizens, will impose severe new financial burdens on the movement, Yosef Klarman, head of Youth Aliya and a member of the Jewish Agency executive, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview this week. He said that the fact that Youth Aliya is embarking on a new course on the basis of the decisions taken at the recent 28th World Zionist Congress, did not mean that it has abandoned its established policy of caring for Jewish orphans and other children from abroad.

He said that in addition to the Israeli wards, Youth Aliya has 10,700 youngsters under its care from all over the globe. Some of them are not orphaned but were placed with Youth Aliya by their parents because of the economic or social upheaval in their respective countries. Klarman said that of the 4600 wards from Israeli families, 1500 will attend boarding schools, 2100 will be cared for in youth day centers and 1000 will reside in kibbutzim.

“Naturally, taking these children in means being responsible for their welfare and education wherever they are placed,” Klarman said. “Apart from the new financial burden, it should be remembered that we have to increase the maintenance fees paid to the boarding schools and the kibbutzim and that the youth centers are more expensive now than they used to be,” he said.

Klarman said Youth Aliya has “made a decisive move to improve the quality of education” received by its wards to meet the changing times. He said he was glad that the Minister of Education has loaned Youth Aliya the services of its deputy director general, Shraga Adiel, who was chairman of the committee for educational reform which has reshaped education in Israeli schools.