The tourist season is over in Israel but scores of Americans continue to arrive in the country every week for more than sightseeing. They are participants in the United Jewish Appeal’s “Operation Israel,” a series of study missions intended to acquaint American Jewish Community leaders and other influential persons with Israel’s economic and social problems at first hand.
This week the UJA’s Women’s Division is represented by a 100-member delegation. They were addressed yesterday by Col. Gershon Rivlin, the Army historian, who stressed the importance of Israel’s ties with Jews all over the world. The Arabs have their rich and powerful allies, but Israel has a stronger, more trustworthy ally–the Jewish People, he said.
Another UJA group visited Beth Shean (Beisan) yesterday where two schools are under construction financed by the Israel Education Fund of the UJA. The Women’s Division of the New York UJA has pledged to raise $1 million in the next two years for the Beth Shean High School, an education center and a pre-kindergarten institution. Beth Shean, the Hebrew name for Beisan, is the central township of the Beisan Valley located west of the Jordan River and South of the Sea of Galilee. The region, with its string of agricultural settlements, has been described as Israel’s “soft underbelly” because of its vulnerability to attacks from Jordanian territory.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
