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School Twinning
The Jewish Agency’s Partnerships Unit is working to create a School Twinning structure for the Nahariya-Northern New Jersey Partnership with the Athens Community
Day School. Plans are in place for one or two teachers from Greece to participate this fall in the yearly faculty seminar (in Nahariya) with teachers from the Partnership, where they
will create a work plan with teachers from Nahariya and Northern New Jersey for the first year. Funding is provided by The Jewish Agency’s Community Services (following a successful P2G campaign), human resources by the Nahariya-Northern New Jersey Partnership, and professional oversight by The Jewish Agency’s Global School Twinning Network.
Taglit-Birthright
Although The Jewish Agency is not a direct provider of Taglit-Birthright in Greece,
our staff have worked closely with the
local community to recruit participants. In December of 2012, we recruited participants for the first Taglit-Birthright trip for Greek participants in many years. In 2013, 39 young people from the small Greek Jewish community took their first peer trips to Israel with Taglit-Birthright, thanks to the recruitment efforts of The Jewish Agency.
Masa Israel Journey
The effects of Masa Israel Journey are profound, with alumni showing highly significant levels of commitment to growing their local Jewish communities and to Israel engagement. Despite the fact that Greece
has only 5,000 Jews, in this current year
has nine young adults are spending one or two semesters in Israel through Masa (the proportional equivalent of more than 9,000 participating from the United States). In the years 2009-2014, a full two dozen young-adult members of the Greek Jewish community have participated in Masa.
Aliyah from Greece
Since the country’s financial crisis, aliyah from Greece has been rising steadily:
Year
No. of Olim from Greece
Approximate US equivalent
6,000+
9,000+ 14,000+ 13,000+
20,000+
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014 (expected)
6 9 14 13 20
Each oleh receives the aliyah services for which The Jewish Agency has become best-known:
>> Pre-aliyah guidance on issues such as education, housing, health, and employ- ment
>> Verification of the oleh’s eligibility for aliyah and facilitation of the aliyah visa
>> Free one-way flight to Israel
>> Opportunity to live in an absorption cen- ter or young-adult absorption program such as Ulpan Etzion, Beit Brodetsky, Ulpan Kinneret, or Kibbutz Ulpan.
>> Five months of intensive Hebrew lan- guage instruction in a Jewish Agency ulpan.
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