Israeli President-elect Shimon Peres opened the annual assembly of
the Jewish Agency for Israel on Sunday in Jerusalem.
The three-day assembly will be followed by the annual
meeting of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency, which will consider
policy issues ranging from how to increase aliyah from Western countries to how
to deploy more assistance to war-weary Israeli cities like Sderot, near the
Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, opposition leader and Likud
Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, and various other government ministers and
leaders are slated to address the delegates.
Philanthropist Richard Pearlstone, a scion of the
Baltimore-based Meyerhoff family, will be sworn in this week as the board
of governors’ new chairman.
