Today’s Arutz Sheva email had three aliyah-themed stories, all playing along the same theme: the Jewish Agency (the government sponsored organization whose mission statement used to be directed towards encouraging aliyah) doesn’t really care about olim from North America (read: the US) anymore. And Nefesh b’Nefesh does.
1) Is Aliyah from American being Shunted Aside:
A different kind of “aliyah revolution” is in the making, and according to aliyah activists as well as officials of the Absorption Ministry, it’s a regressive revolution, one that will damage – perhaps severely – the aliyah effort, especially from North America.
At a meeting this week, the Jewish Agency ratified a plan it approved last summer that would change the focus of the organization from encouraging aliyah to encouraging Disapora-Israel ties – in the hope that education on Israel would lead to those inclined to do so to make aliyah…
With the shift in focus, though, a number of programs that had been in place to provide assistance to North American Jews to make aliyah have been off-loaded from the Jewish Agency. Some of these programs had been moved to the Absorption Ministry. A veteran of the aliyah movement told Israel National News, that one result will be that North American Jews seeking to make aliyah are destined to “fall through the safety net” of aliyah, getting shunted aside by both the Jewish Agency and the Absorption Ministry.
It’s kind of chaval. However, remembering our aliyah (almost five years ago, when we still had to go to the Jewish Agency and open a tik, and we actually signed paper forms from Misrad haPnim) I don’t remember the Jewish Agency doing so much to help us. Much more came from Nefesh B’Nefesh and from our the person in charge of helping olim in the yishuv where we first made aliyah (Kochav Yaakov – thanks Veronique!).
2) Education Ministry Dumps Program to Certify U.S. Olim Teachers
Israel National News has been informed that a program that retrains licensed teachers from the United States who make aliyah for work in the Israeli school system has been canceled, jeopardizing the prospective immigration of possibly hundreds of teachers in the coming years.
According to aliyah aid group Nefesh b’Nefesh, the closing of the “Morim Olim” (Immigrant teachers) program takes away what had been a valuable resource that teachers who wished to immigrate to Israel have used in the past to get themselves acclimated to the country. The closure of the Morim Olim program program, says Yael Katsman of NBN, means that “there is no longer an address within the system for teachers’ questions and concerns, and assistance in helping them find jobs.”…
A higher-up in the Education Ministry who spoke anonymously to Israel National News hinted at this as well, saying that “there has been a lot of back and forth here in recent months, and money is definitely not the only reason for the program cut.”
If this was done for political reasons (as the article implies) then it is another chaval. From what I have heard, Israel is not exactly overflowing with qualified English subject teachers, and the more that Israel can do to encourage skilled English speaking teachers to make aliyah and to continue here in their profession, the better off it will be (for both the olim, and the students who benefit from their experience).
3) Nefesh B’Nefesh Focuses on Careers. Read the story for a good PR piece on how NBN is helping olim with their klitah both before and after aliyah. At least someone still cares about the American olim.
