Jewish Agency adds to immigrant budgets

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
The Jewish Agency on Thursday added an additional $200,000 to the budgets allocated to immigrant associations in Israel following complaints that budget cuts were threatening to shut down some of the organizations. The Agency had allocated $1.6 million this year to the associations, as opposed to $2.1 million in 2005. Leon Amiras, president of the association for Latin American immigrants, complained that the additional money wasn't sufficient. He estimated that his organization needs NIS 800,000 to continue operating, but he only expected to see an extra NIS 100,000 from Thursday's decision.