Summary For June – September, 2006

There were many plans for this particularly dynamic time of the year, with programs ending, new ones beginning and much more comings and goings.

However, the difficulties that the war brought on the country this past summer, not only extended our activities, but stretched our resourcefulness as well.  We made every effort to maintain our previous goals, while meeting the unique needs of our populations during this trying time.

Aliyah Statistics
During the first eight months of the year more than 13,800 people immigrated to Israel. Among these, were approximately 4,800 olim from the FSU, 2,085 from France, 114 from South America (an increase of 12%), 2,435 from Ethiopia, 3,050 from Western Europe and 2,160 from North America (an increase of 12%).

The War in the North
Olim are a particularly vulnerable group during a war period.  Due to their lack of language skills and their unfamiliarity with Israeli culture, many olim experience fear and anxiety at levels far greater than the population at large. Our activities and programs were devised to meet the needs of particular target populations; those who remained in Absorption Centers, children and youth residing in youth villages, olim families who went to live with relatives or were relocated to Absorption Centers in the center and south of the country, as well as wounded lone soldiers and their families.

Our Response
Absorption Centers: Psychologists were allocated to support staff and offer guidance in dealing with the oleh population and the situations created by the war.

A hot-line was established to provide workers with counseling and advice.
Individual counseling sessions were facilitated, while additional Amharic-speaking counselors were employed to support olim, offer guidance and provide coping skills.

In the attempt to maintain a sense of normalcy during the war, many cultural and social activities took place. Volunteers, entertainers and groups from the Ethiopian community performed and organized activities in bomb shelters and protected areas.

Families were provided with food and drink and necessary supplies. Bomb shelters were cleaned, air conditioning and ventilation was installed, and they were fitted with portable toilets. After the war, the repairing of structures and Absorption Centers damaged by missiles, was initiated.
Olim families from the North were also given a short break. They were provided with a stay at Absorption Centers in the South and the Center, as well as organized tours.

Youth Villages: Counselors from the Absorption Centers provided children with ongoing support and a permanent social worker was allocated to each Youth Village.

At the start of the summer, there were some 3,500 children aged 3-18 residing in Absorption Centers around the country. The Northern children were moved to safety, and participated in camps in the Center and South of the county. They were provided with a rich and interesting program, focusing on fun, as well as closing educational gaps. The summer camps continued for seven weeks, thus enabling the parents to pursue their ulpan studies.

Relocated Families: Home visits were carried out to olim staying with family or at Absorption Centers throughout the country.

Wounded Lone Soldiers: In cooperation with the IDF, intense efforts were made to provide every form of assistance to lone soldiers wounded in the war. This included identifying their needs, and providing special care and support for their families.

162 volunteers were dispatched to various locations around the country during the fighting, according to need. In addition, about 150 tourists volunteered for two days to help pack battle rations for soldiers in the North.

Ongoing Programs and New Initiatives

Closing the Gap: Special preparatory program and camp for young olim
Young olim around the country and their parents were part of a program initiated by the Jewish Agency to reduce educational gaps prior to entering elementary school.

The program, which began in early 2006, included learning in small groups with a professional teacher and a computer-assisted course. The children learned numbers and colors, phonological expression and beginners' reading skills, in order to increase their readiness for 1st Grade. A similar program to strengthen learning skills was implemented among 1st and 2nd Grade pupils. A total of 900 children in 77 study groups participated.

In light of the program’s success and the reactions of parents and teachers, it will be continued. An external evaluation, which will assess the effects of the program on its participants, will be carried out this year. This program is funded by a partnership of communities in North America and Europe, corporations in Israel and the Jewish Agency.

In an additional program, young olim from around the country spent seven weeks this past summer, attending a special camp to help prepare them for 1st Grade. They were provided with enrichment and recreational programming that included touring, sports, music and introduction to the computer.

36 courses were implemented for youth with the goal of introducing them to computer applications. In addition, an intensive individual study program called “My Private Teacher” was likewise implemented for youth.

450 children of olim participated for the first time in a summer camp in the Neot Kedumim forest. The children went on hikes, slept under the stars and participated in outdoor and camping activities.

Opening of the 2006-7 School Year
In what has become a tradition, the school year opened with the Olim Kita Project, in which Federations and communities in North America, together with Office Depot, provided each oleh child with a coupon to purchase school supplies.

Advancing Aliyah of Choice

• An aliyah information and promotion seminar was organized for parents of Selah and Naaleh participants from the FSU and Hungary. 
• In the newly initiated "Israel Plus" program, 25 youth from North America spent three weeks in June on a pre-aliyah seminar touring the country and learning about various types of volunteering, such as Magen David Adom and work in the Ye'elim Student Village. 
• Despite the war in the North, in the height of the FSU tourist season, some 2,300 visitors from the FSU toured Israel and participated in aliyah promotion programs.

Keshet: Reunions with a Dual Purpose
Thanks to generous donations from the Washington and Metrowest Federations, about 40 parents of lone soldiers from the FSU were able to visit their children in Israel this past September. The parents were brought over as special gesture to the soldiers, who had served during the war and had not seen their parents for a long time.

At the initiative of the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, 4 bereaved families of soldiers, who had fallen in battle while serving in the Israel Defense Forces, were brought to Israel from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. The parents had wanted to express their support for Israel and to visit the graves of their children.

Volunteer Programs
Sar El - 722 young people volunteered on IDF bases around the country.
Marva - 236 young people from all over the world began Marva in June and September.
Magen David Adom Ambulance Volunteer Program - 201 volunteers from abroad have joined the MDA Program. Many remained in Israel during the fighting in Lebanon to work in Magen David Adom stations in the Center and South of the country.
Professional Internship Program - An additional 214 volunteers have joined this program. An emphasis has been placed on expanding the number of interns from France in cooperation with the Sacta Rashi Fund, resulting in an increase from 26 in 2005 to 88 in 2006. In addition, we are continuing the development of new intern programs and improving the conditions and support for each individual intern.

Lehavot Volunteer Fire Fighters for Israel - 41 young people participated in this relatively new month long program. Between June-September, they volunteered at fire stations throughout the country and took part in an aliyah promotion seminar.

These programs are an integral part of aliyah in stages for young adults, offering the unique experience of volunteer work and becoming familiar with Israeli society.

General

• 53 young olim from North America arrived on the Naaleh Elite Academy Program, marking an increase of 30% over last year.
• For the first time, we are training “Aliyah Messengers” as part of volunteer aliyah shlichut activity in the aliyah offices.
• Despite the war, 283 Selah participants from the FSU have arrived since the beginning of September and were placed in various Absorption Centers around the country. We are expecting a total of 350-400 participants. 
• Two Kedma groups with a total of 104 participants were opened in Haifa and Arad. Another group will be opening shortly in Carmiel.

Assisting Olim in Need – An all encompassing plan has been devised for assisting olim in need. An in-depth research was recently completed on the Ethiopian community to garner better understanding of this special aliyah. Seminars were held for staff in a few of the Absorption Centers to assist them in dealing with misunderstandings, conflicts and violence among Ethiopian olim.

At Home–Together (Babait BeYachad)
During this period, the At Home–Together program continued to assist olim who arrived on charter flights and to pair them up with veteran families. In total, 7,486 new pairs have been created in recent months.

During the war, At Home–Together worked to coordinate the work of volunteers and to place them in Absorption Centers according to need. In addition, they were active in raising and allocating funds for Absorption Centers and youth villages.

In a new initiative, At Home–Together has paired many olim with veteran adoptive families in Israel, prior to their aliyah.

Global Center (GC)
In recent months, we have expanded the marketing activity on behalf of the GC and currently handle over 1,000 enquiries per week from all over the world. We also initiated over 1,500 contacts with clients abroad on behalf of the Jewish Agency.

During the war in Lebanon, we dealt with over 30,000 enquiries related to the “Moving Our Children to Safety” project. We oversaw more than 850 volunteers and assisted in the hosting of innumerable families. In addition, hundreds of links were made between lone oleh soldiers and their families abroad.

We are currently in the midst of a large-scale campaign to provide scholarships to university students who were called up during the war, particularly those studying in the North and oleh students. So far, over 8,000 students have put in requests, with more in the process.

We are currently organizing the Jewish Agency National Volunteer Project whose goal is to assist in the recruitment and processing of candidates for volunteer work of various types in the North.
Meanwhile, our regular activity continues, with hundreds of enquiries about aliyah and programs to promote aliyah and tourism; registration, selection and placement; and requests for information on a variety of general topics.

We host aliyah and absorption professionals and make them available to olim and potential olim. In addition, we are in the process of organizing representatives of the licensed professions to provide free advice and guidance. These include lawyers, real estate agents, accountants, etc.
On the technological front, we are making rapid progress towards adding an additional eight -customer service station by the end of the year, and implementing a system to record conversations in order to improve the quality of service.