The cabinet approved on Sunday the allocation of NIS 180 million ($55.9 million) to projects connecting Diaspora Jewish youth to Israel and their Jewish identity.
The funding, to be spread over two years, is part of the government’s partnership in the Mosaic-United project together with Jewish philanthropists and foundations around the world.
The funds, approved in a government resolution following the recent Diaspora Week celebrations, will be used to support programs which strengthen Jewish identity and affinity to Israel in the Diaspora, and which will help bolster ties between Israel and the Jewish world.
“We have witnessed an erosion in relations between Israel and Diaspora Jewry in recent years,” said Minister of Diaspora Affairs Dr. Nachman Shai following approval of the funding.
“Israel, as the state of the Jewish people, is committed to helping world Jewry face new challenges including antisemitism and the weakening of connections between Jewish communities themselves, as well as between these communities and Israel. We are dealing with the future of the Jewish people."
The total budget for the program will be NIS 360 million ($111.8 million) over the next two years, with half the funds coming from the government and half from philanthropic foundations.
Within this framework, the funding will be used to support educational and extra-curricular activities focused on Judaism and Israel on college campuses around the world, as well as fund volunteering programs in Jewish communities, and the provision of humanitarian aid in the developing world.
The funding will also be used to help Jewish communities around the world impart knowledge about Israel and Zionism, and will in the coming years bring thousands of high school students from the Jewish world on meaningful educational trips to Israel.
The Mosaic United project was launched in 2014 and will now be able to continue to develop projects that will address the new challenges facing Jewish communities around the world.