Organizers of the Taglit (Discovery) program, designed to fight the ignorance that leads to assimilation, held a press conference in Jerusalem this morning, marking the start of an intensive week of getting-to-know-Israel. The program is currently hosting 400 Jewish students who arrived here last week from North America. The students have never been to Israel before, and will be treated to ten intensive days of Eretz Yisrael and Jewish culture. \"Despite the security situation here and the State Department advisories regarding travel to Israel,\" says Taglit director Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, \"the students continue to come.\" Another 3,000 students are scheduled to arrive by the end of June, and despite a number of security-related cancellations, over 10,000 students from 100 universities in 15 countries are still expected to arrive by the end of the year. The students will visit important sites in the history of the nation and the country, and will meet Israeli soldiers, students, and new immigrants of their age
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert expressed his outrage yesterday at the decision by U.S. leaders of Reform Judaism to cancel youth summer trips due to perceived security dangers. He said the decision was tantamount to \"spitting in Israel\'s face,\" and called for its retraction. Olmert said his office would cut off its ties with the Reform Movement. Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh was even stronger, saying, \"The behavior of these Jews, who have talked to us for all these years over piles of bagels and lox about unity and solidarity of the Jewish people, is disgraceful… Those who do come here express their identification with us and participate with Israel\'s citizens in the risk we all take by living here. If they aren\'t prepared to make this minimal effort, then their words are empty.\" Opposition leader Meretz party leader Yossi Sarid also called on the U.S. Reform Movement to change its decision. Sarid and colleague MK Ran Cohen will meet with Reform Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, and plan to tell him that the cancellation may place the Reform Movement outside of the circle of those who identify with Israel in such a difficult period.
The Shas party says that the bonds between the Reform movement and the Land of Israel are weak, and that its announcement is an expression of forbidden cowardliness: \"Israel must remember the Reform\'s desertion of the Jewish front during these times of trouble.\"
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert expressed his outrage yesterday at the decision by U.S. leaders of Reform Judaism to cancel youth summer trips due to perceived security dangers. He said the decision was tantamount to \"spitting in Israel\'s face,\" and called for its retraction. Olmert said his office would cut off its ties with the Reform Movement. Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh was even stronger, saying, \"The behavior of these Jews, who have talked to us for all these years over piles of bagels and lox about unity and solidarity of the Jewish people, is disgraceful… Those who do come here express their identification with us and participate with Israel\'s citizens in the risk we all take by living here. If they aren\'t prepared to make this minimal effort, then their words are empty.\" Opposition leader Meretz party leader Yossi Sarid also called on the U.S. Reform Movement to change its decision. Sarid and colleague MK Ran Cohen will meet with Reform Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, and plan to tell him that the cancellation may place the Reform Movement outside of the circle of those who identify with Israel in such a difficult period.
The Shas party says that the bonds between the Reform movement and the Land of Israel are weak, and that its announcement is an expression of forbidden cowardliness: \"Israel must remember the Reform\'s desertion of the Jewish front during these times of trouble.\"