Giving Chais
The Chais Family Foundation helps recruit and support the best and the brightest
For years, two flagship programs for FSU youth, Selah and TAKA, have churned out successful graduates. Yet with refining, tweaking and some generous help from the
Chais Family Foundation, the Immigration and Absorption Department’s Excellence in Education project is making these programs even more attractive to exceptional, eligible
young adults from the FSU.
| Marina, a Selah student from the Ukraine plans to continue on to an engineering degree. |
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The Selah Technion track targets students who show outstanding abilities in mathematics and the pure sciences. Whereas, the regular Selah program combines five months of Hebrew study followed by five months of academics; Selah Technion students enter the Technion ten month preparatory program after the Hebrew component. Upon completion of these rigorous studies, students enter the Technion as full-fledged students.
FSU students who have already started university there, and want to come to Israel may be candidates for TAKA Ashkelon. Intensive Hebrew classes, in addition to advanced English, computers, statistics and math, prepares them for Israeli universities’ rigorous entrance exams. The Excellence in Education Program makes it possible for students to devote all their energies to their studies, rather than having to work. A generation of educated young immigrants can be found or lost; the Chais Foundation is seeing to it that the Jewish Agency safety net stretches as wide as it can.
I am personally saddened by Michael Horowitz’s departure as
Co-chair of the Aliyah Subcommittee. A truly impassioned voice in the search for continued Aliyah from the FSU, Michael put his heart and soul into the lifesaving task of identifying potential olim in the FSU and rescuing them by bringing them to the State of Israel. His passion and involvement will be missed by the Aliyah Department. We can but hope that his efforts on behalf of bringing Jews to Israel will continue and be redirected by JAFI in other arenas.
Sondra Sokal, Co-Chair, Aliyah Subcommittee |
Reforming the Outreach
With lively synagogues scattered throughout the country, the impressive Hebrew Union complex in Jerusalem, as well as Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv, the Reform Movement in Israel hopes to draw immigrants from the ranks of its North American counterparts.
‘Reformim,’ once a puzzle to the average Israeli, is now becoming de rigueur for many looking for a way to connect to religious Judaism outside the Orthodox framework. Many North American Jews from the Reform tradition would find a warm welcome in the vibrant life of the community in Israel. Liran Avisar, the Israeli emissary to the Reform Movement in New York, aims to fortify the vital connections with US cohorts in order for the Reform Movement to become a partner in the Jewish Agency’s efforts to attract aliyah.
Liran views aliyah as key to a vibrant connection, and a consequent strengthening of both the Israeli
and the North American communities. There is something of a snowball effect. “The more olim, the more Israel awareness and more cross-pollination which results in enriching both the Israel and US components.”
Working with the existing Reform community in Modi’in represented by their rabbi, Kinneret Shiryon, Liran headed a delegation to Reform communities and leaders around the US. Supported by the delegation, which was comprised of the highly supportive mayor of Modi’in, Moshe Spektor, Arza (Reform Aliyah Movement) representatives—Marlene Dudenbol and Claire Landers, Jewish Agency emissaries Wendy Keter and Neil Gilman, and interested parties in the US Reform community, Liran set out to pry open the ice with a direct and structured push for aliyah. “These are first steps,” cautions Liran, prefacing her description of the recent delegation to the US. “Rabbi Shiryon and the Mayor are placing the community welcome mat out to the Reform Jews of the US. With Modi’in’s strong Reform community, a large number of English-speakers, and some of the best Israel has to offer in terms of education and services, we hope it will be an attractive option for Reform Jews.”
The delegation traveled to several venues in New York, as well as to Chicago, Baltimore and Washington DC. In each spot there were public forums, private meetings and quite a bit of press coverage. In New York, the Mayor and Liran met with the head of the Reform Movement Rabbi Eric Joffe and Rabbi Andrew Davids. The Mayor suggested positioning Modi’in as a Reform Center in Israel in the hope that this would encourage Rabbi Joffe to place the topic of aliyah solidly on the Reform agenda.