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1. Advancing Israeli Society - US$95.4 M
2. Aliyah, Rescue, Absorption - US$23.7 M
3. Jewish / Zionist Education - US$19.7 M
4. Some Facts & Figures
5. Breakdown of 2007 Budget
1. Advancing Israeli society - Creating social and economic Opportunity
US $95.4 M
Social and Peripheral Development:
Israel’s Southern communities are characterized by low income populations – as much as 42% of Sderot residents are new immigrants. The everyday social and economic problems facing these communities were severely exacerbated during 2007 by a massive escalation of rocket attacks. Over the course of 2007, more than 1,600 rockets landed in Western Negev communities and towns from Ashkelon to Sderot, inflicting death and injury and causing extensive damage to schools, private and public property and businesses. By the end of the year one third of Sderot’s school children were suffering from trauma.
Over 2,000 public bomb shelters were renovated and made fit for emergency shelter in the North and South by the Government of Israel with assistance from Keren Hayesod.
Keren Hayesod helped to support public housing for Sderot’s acutely underprivileged residents, many of whom suffered badly from the worsening security situation.
For many residents of the Western Negev, whose lives fell apart as a result of terror, the victims of Terror Fund, supported by Keren Hayesod – UIA, provided critical assistance. The Victims of Terror Fund began providing immediate relief to those whose lives and property were damaged by terror.
The Fund helps finance:
Bringing opportunity and care to communities in need
Advancing Israel’s border towns and disadvantaged communities is one of the central goals of Keren Hayesod. During 2007, Tzafona and Daroma – two non- profit companies set up in partnership with the Government of Israel, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency – began making strategic plans to develop the Negev and Galilee. They are focused on closing social and economic gaps between these regions and Israel’s central metropolises, creating educational and employment opportunities, and encouraging migration of higher socio-economic populations to these areas.
Real social change can only come about with effective long-term investment in the children and youth of Israel’s disadvantaged communities. Keren Hayesod supports four Youth Villages (live-in high schools) that have been highly successful in nurturing underprivileged and orphaned children -giving them the tools they need to lead productive,fulfilled lives as part of mainstream Israeli society.
Keren Hayesod also supports effective extracurricular programs. These include: Net@, an intensive hi-tech program that trains high school youth in various areas of hi-tech, and Sparks of Science, a program designed to expose motivated young olim from Ethiopia to the world of science and assist them with their studies.
Youth Futures is a dynamic one-on-one mentoring program, that provides junior and high school aged children from severely deprived backgrounds and broken homes with the support, hope and tools they need to build brighter futures. Each child in the program is assigned a nurturing post-army age ‘trustee’, trained to help them redirect their energies into defining and developing their strengths and overcoming social, behavioral and scholastic difficulties. This program has taken off in 27 border towns and low-income communities in the Negev and Galilee, with spectacular results in 2007.
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Raised in the same impoverished town as those he now mentors, Shauli Kabesa of Hazor Haglilit (Galilee) says “There are young people in my town with great potential, but they need ongoing guidance… that’s why I’m so ecxited about ‘Youth Futures’. My friends and I mentor and guide individual ‘children-at-risk’..”“We want to make a difference and to make sure the children in our town have equal opportunity for a better future.” |
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Shauli Kabesa - Youth Futures |
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| Caring for Israel’s elderly and vulnerable
V.K. is a retired medical professor from the Former Soviet Union who came to Israel following her children in 1995. Today she lives an independent and dignified life in sheltered Amigour housing for the elderly |
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2. Aliyah, Rescue, Absorption - US$23.7 M
Israel holds the world record for the highest rate of immigrant absorption in the developed world. With the assistance of Keren Hayesod, over 3 million Jews have made their way to Israel since 1948 – with more than one million arriving from the Soviet Union since 1990. During 2007, close to 20,000 new immigrants embarked on new lives in Israel – the equivalent of one or more ‘olim’ arriving every half an hour.
6,500 Jews arrived in Israel from the Former Soviet Union during 2007 and 3,500 were brought to Israel from Ethiopia.
200 Jews were rescued from threatened communities where their lives were felt to be in peril. Some were joyfully reunited with family after years of little or no contact.
Once in Israel, ‘olim’ from countries of distress require support and ducational opportunity in order to succeed in their new homes. Keren Hayesod assists them in taking their first steps in absorption centers, providing them with intensive Hebrew language instruction and other tools they need for successful integration in modern-day Israeli life and culture.
Ibim Absorption Center for young immigrants -Located on the outskirts of Sderot, the absorption center provides 400 young olim with their first home in Israel. With the assistance of Keren Hayesod,Ibim provides programs to help young olim integrate culturally and educationally:
 
Ibim Absorption Center for young immigrants
Working with parents and children newly arrived from Ethiopia, Keren Hayesod is implementing an Etgarim computer learning program that allows parents and children to discover the world of electronic learning as a family – creating opportunity for parents to assist their children and be a part of their educational world. This helps to reinforce family bonds and ease family integration into modern-day Israel.
3. Jewish and Zionist Education in the Diaspora - US$19.7 M
The prolonged period of totalitarian communist regime in the Soviet Union effectively deprived a generation of post-World War II Jews of their Jewish and Zionist heritage.
During 2007, over 7,000 youth and students from the Former Soviet Union were immersed in all encompassing Jewish learning experiences that connected them to Israel and their Jewish heritage, through professionally-run Jewish Agency summer camps and Jewish clubs, supported by Keren Hayesod-UIA.
Born to an assimilated family in the FSU, Kirill Demidov, 26, was exposed to his Jewish heritage for the first time at a Jewish summer camp when he was 13. Kirill’s counselor enthusiastically prepared him for his Bar Mitzva, which was celebrated at the camp. “ At that moment I understood what it was to be Jewish”. At 16 Kirill himself became a youth counselor. He went on to make aliyah and serve in the elite paratrooper unit of the IDF. Today Kirill has a B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and continues to work as a counselor at Jewish Agency summer camps in the FSU.
MASA – ISRAEL JOURNEY Long-term Israel programs
Inspired by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,who believed that “every young Jewish person should spend a year in Israel”, MASA is often a life-altering experience that bonds young people to Israel for a lifetime. MASA offers a broad range of over 150 long-term Israel programs to young Diaspora Jews aged 18-30, from all over the world.Since its inception in 2004, MASA has succeeded in inspiring thousands of young Diaspora Jews with a sense of Jewish and Israel identity.
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MASA participant Carolina Meyer took part in the Merhavim program for Jewish educators.This is what she is taking home with her: “I want to encourage young Argentinean Jews to bemore educated through a meaningful experience.There are many different programs that enable Jewish youth to visit Israel such as Taglit, Masa,etc. My idea would be to start working with potential candidates for those programs to make sure that they arrive in Israel with more information and,hopefully, a stronger reason for coming rather than just having fun.” |
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Carolina Meyer - Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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4. Some Facts & Figures
2007 - A YEAR OF RESCUE, REBUILDING AND CREATING OPPORTUNITY
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In 2007, 1,453 youngsters from Israel’s periphery participated in the Net@ program, an intensive three-year hi-tech course that teaches computer and hi- tech skills to high school students.
These are just some of the Jewish Agency programs supported
by Keren Hayesod - UIA in 2007 thanks to you !
5. Breakdown of 2007 Budget
Total US$ 176.9 M
THANK YOU…
…FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE
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