Author: mixer

The Alma pre-military academy for girls opened in 2013, with a special, first-of-its-kind program to train and promote leadership among girls from the periphery. Many of the graduates assume significant positions in the IDF and later, in Israeli society. The main aim of the academy is to encourage the girls to understand just how far they can go, and to instill in them the strength to lead change. Keren Hayesod, through the Jewish Agency for Israel, supports the Alma academy along with another 22 pre-military academies around the country that help diverse sectors of the population prepare for meaningful positions in the IDF and contribute their skills to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

These academies enable thousands of young people – new immigrants, youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Druse, Arabs and Bedouins as well as Diaspora Jews – to realize their potential, which, without frameworks like this, might not be fulfilled. For Keren Hayesod, an investment in young people is an investment in everyone’s future.

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Photo: Alma pre-military academy, class of 2020

“For me, the Ethiopian Jews are a model of true Zionism”, says Micha Feldman, the man who was the Jewish Agency for Israel’s main emissary in Ethiopia. “Entire families with their old and their young didn’t wait and didn’t ask anyone, and set out on the dangerous road to Sudan in order to realize their dream to make aliyah to the Land of Israel”. In 1970 Micha Feldman began working as an absorption center director. He later became a youth movement shaliach in Germany, and subsequently, an aliyah shaliach in San Francisco. In 1982, he began volunteering on behalf of the Jews of Ethiopia and since then, has devoted a large part of his life to helping them. He witnessed the arrival of the first olim to Israel, even before Operation Moses, something that he, as the son of Holocaust survivors, found very moving. Feldman worked in Ethiopia for several years before becoming one of the leaders of Operation Solomon in 1991 – the operation that brought 14,310 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 24 hours. 43 aircrafts carried out the largest airlift in history. During those 24 hours, eight babies were born, on the ground and in the air. “I didn’t sleep or eat for two days”, recalls Feldman. “After landing, I ran over to the last immigrants, who were completely exhausted. When they saw me they said: ‘Thank you, Abba Mika'”. Micha Feldman shared his experiences during this historic event in his book, Exodus from Ethiopia, which was published in 1998. He was subsequently sent to many countries by Keren Hayesod. Among other places, he went to Germany, where, while standing in front of the crematoria in Dachau, he said: “I thank God and the Jews of Ethiopia for the privilege of being part of history”. “I have been involved in aliyah from Ethiopia for 37 years already and am with them in times of distress and times of happiness”, he says. “I feel tremendous pride when I see young people of Ethiopian origin who become lawyers or officers, or graduate with honors from the Technion”.

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Photo: Micha Feldman, Gondar, Ethiopia, 2006

The Bedouin youth village Neve Midbar (oasis) is an excellent example of Keren Hayesod’s activities on behalf of various population groups in Israeli society. “Every chapter in a person’s life is accompanied by a dream”, says Tamer Abu-Jafar, a young Bedouin graduate of and instructor at the Bedouin youth village in Nitzana, who recently received the President’s Award for Volunteering. “The dream of this chapter in my life is to improve the socio-economic situation of Bedouin society”. Tamer joined the “Desert Stars” association, which helps the Bedouins of the Negev. He then became a homeroom teacher in the Neve Midbar Bedouin youth village in Nitzana. At the age of 17, Tamer already understood that he wanted to achieve something. He decided to take responsibility for his life and to work to improve the lives of the next generation of Bedouin. The Neve Midbar youth village, the first of its kind in Israel, was established in 2015 in Nitzana in the Negev, with the support of Keren Hayesod, in order to create a new generation of change agents to promote coexistence and equality for members of all religions in Israel – whether Jewish, Christian, Druse, Muslim or Bedouin. The following year, over 100 students were already studying at the village. Demand is high, and the programs grow from year to year. Keren Hayesod has many programs, such as Net@, Youth Futures and pre-army academies, that support disadvantaged communities from different sectors of Israeli society, out of a true sense of mission and deep belief that the next generation will determine what our future looks like.

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Photo: Students at the Bedouin youth village Neve Midbar, 2018