World Jewish News

Russian-speaking Jewish children from America.

Israel: new program of free education for
The "Sokhnut" Jewish agency and the Ministry of Education of Israel are initiating a new program for tikhon (high school) students of Russian descent living in the USA, giving them an opportunity to study in Israel at the state's expense.
There are 700,000 Jews living in the USA who immigrated to this country between 1970 and 1990 and preferred moving to the USA over repatriating to Israel. Approximately half of them live in Brooklyn.
There is not doubt that the majority of children of Jewish descent are being assimilated into American society, for, unlike other Jewish families living in the USA, these children's families take no part in the life of the Jewish community and the majority of kids attend neither Jewish schools nor additional classes on Jewish history.
It is obvious that the "Sokhnut" employees, and not only them, are not happy with the situation. Ninety percent of Russian-speaking Jews have relatives in Israel, one third of Russian-Jewish-Americans have visited Israel at least once and many of them participate in acts of support for the Jewish state. However, representatives of the Jewish agency are afraid that the children of Russian-speaking Jews will not identify themselves with their parents' nationality.
The Ministry of Education has created a program of free education for Russian-speaking Jewish children in America, hoping that the parents will follow their children's suit.

Источник: jnews.co.il