The Jewish Agency is striving to ensure the connection between Israel and the Diaspora remains strong.
By ZEEV BIELSKITheodor Herzl great 88 248(photo credit: Courtesy)
Vazha and Irina Mamisashvili and their sons Nikoloz, 8, and David, 5, celebrated this Rosh Hashana in their new home at Kibbutz Masada in the Jordan Valley.
Just eight weeks ago they were living in the Republic of Georgia when the fighting broke out. They decided it was time to move to Israel.
"We wanted to do what is best for our children," Irina said. Today she is working at the kibbutz guest house and is in ulpan with her husband learning Hebrew; their children are starting school.
As we begin a new year we can be proud that we, the Jewish people, are united together through hard times as well as good; that Israel is there for the Jewish people wherever they are, and the Jewish people are there for Israel.
If we have learned one thing from these recent years when Israel has gone through difficulties, it is how deeply and how viscerally the fate of the State of Israel is intertwined with Jewish people all over the world.
When the bodies of the two missing soldiers - abducted by Hizbullah in an attack that sparked the Second Lebanon War - were finally brought home, the sense of closure, disappointment and acceptance of their fate was felt not only throughout Israel but was shared among Jews in communities everywhere.
And when Jews are in crisis - wherever in the world they are - Israel and the Jewish people are there at their side.
When the fighting broke out in Georgia, the State of Israel and the Jewish people were on hand for the Jews in danger. Hostilities in the Georgian province of South Ossetia broke out on a Thursday night, and by Saturday the Jewish Agency had evacuated the 200 Jews of Gori to the safety of Tbilisi, the capital. Three days later, on Tuesday night, some of those same Jews who had been evacuated from the war zone arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport as new immigrants, beginning a new life in the State of Israel. They were among the 200 Jews from Georgia whom the Jewish Agency will have brought to Israel since the start of the crisis.
However, for this connection to last for generations to come, we must recognize that our underlying challenge is to keep the flame of Zionism burning in the hearts of Jews around the world, the vast majority of whom live in peace and relative prosperity. It is in these places that we need to establish and strengthen an inalienable link between the next generation of Jews and Israel so that, like their grandparents and parents, they will love Israel and view it also as their home.
Our growing involvement in Zionist education among Jews abroad is in keeping with the important recent declaration by Prime Minister Olmert that the government of Israel would take a more active role in forging the Zionist identity and connection to the State of Israel among Jews in communities abroad; the Jewish Agency, in Olmert's view, would serve as a platform for this strengthened connection and relationship between Israelis with Jews abroad.
For the Jewish Agency this means becoming more involved in North America by providing greater and more meaningful Israeli content through education and opportunities in Israel.
It means bringing over 120 Israeli teachers to teach Hebrew in day schools; having (a record) 1,500 Israeli youth come for the summer to serves as counselors in Jewish camps; and bringing dozens of young Israeli shlichim to serve in communities and on college campuses across North America.
It continues after high school, by getting young adults to go to Israel for a semester or a year of studying, volunteering or working. It continues with offering Jewish youth - before, during or after college - opportunities to study and live in Israel. This can range from two-week volunteer programs to semester and year-long study or work programs in the framework of MASA, a joint project of the government of Israel and the Jewish Agency to give Jewish youth abroad a significant life experience in Israel.
On the community level, it comes in the form of nearly 50 partnerships between Jewish communities in North America and towns and local councils in Israel or by communities that want Israel integrated into their synagogues, schools and community centers through the Makom program. It also comes through the financial support we give to the birthright program.
It is these efforts, aimed mostly at people during their formative years, that lead some North American Jews to epitomize their Zionist connection by making aliya. For this very important group we want to ensure that they get the highest level of service and help possible to make their ultimate Zionist dream a reality. That is why we recently announced our new partnership with Nefesh B'Nefesh so that together we can achieve the best possible results in helping olim from North America.
When the Jewish Agency was awarded the Israel Prize, our country's most prestigious honor to organizations and individuals, on Israel's 60th Independence Day in May, we were cited as the "organization that helped realize the vision of the return to Zion."
In 60 years that vision has not been eclipsed; it has not dulled. With our partners in the federations in North America and in Jewish communities all over the world, we will work to see the next 60 years as bright and vital fulfillment of the Zionist ideal as the past six decades.
With that mission at hand, with the unity of the Jewish people with a strong Israel at its heart as our goal - we cannot help but succeed. If we work diligently toward a united, mutually responsible and viscerally connected Am Yisrael, it most certainly will be a wonderful new year.
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