Many of them heard Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Tourism Minister Benny Elon speak yesterday morning on Aliyah [Jewish immigration to Israel], in a session entitled, "To Be With Israel is to Be In Israel." Israeli representatives of varied institutions such as charity organizations, yeshivot, the media and more, mingled among the delegates, attempting, not always unsuccessfully, to drum up interest in and support for their causes.
The GA participants included rabbis, educators, Federation and lay leaders, volunteers, students, and may others. Over the course of the week they heard speakers such as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, MK and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, and others.
On Monday, the visitors marched through Jerusalem, from their headquarters at the Binyanei HaUmah International Convention Center to Zion Square. The march was a gala affair, replete with marchers waving flags of Israel and their own countries, visitors greeting and embracing shopkeepers and other locals, music, shofar blasts, balloons, dancing and singing, and much more. The message of solidarity and love for the Jewish State was unmistakable.
The march ended downtown in Zion Square, a pedestrian mall area that has seen several murderous suicide bombings in recent years. The delegates spent the hours following the march bringing some well-needed, if brief, economic life to that area. Organizers said that the entire four-day affair injected up to $15 million into Israel's economy.
The GA was not without its negative aspects. Supporters of Jonathan Pollard interrupted the speech by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and were forcibly thrown out not only by the guards but even by participants themselves. Complaints were also heard regarding the disposition of the speakers chosen to address the delegates. MK Yuri Stern (National Union), in a letter of protest to the GA organizers, wrote that he was "deeply disappointed to see that the vast majority of the personalities who make up this year's panels represent left-wing and extreme left-wing Israeli opinion... Fairness and balance is precisely what your conference lacks. Your bias does your attendees, Israel, and its people a disservice."
The GA participants included rabbis, educators, Federation and lay leaders, volunteers, students, and may others. Over the course of the week they heard speakers such as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, MK and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, and others.
On Monday, the visitors marched through Jerusalem, from their headquarters at the Binyanei HaUmah International Convention Center to Zion Square. The march was a gala affair, replete with marchers waving flags of Israel and their own countries, visitors greeting and embracing shopkeepers and other locals, music, shofar blasts, balloons, dancing and singing, and much more. The message of solidarity and love for the Jewish State was unmistakable.
The march ended downtown in Zion Square, a pedestrian mall area that has seen several murderous suicide bombings in recent years. The delegates spent the hours following the march bringing some well-needed, if brief, economic life to that area. Organizers said that the entire four-day affair injected up to $15 million into Israel's economy.
The GA was not without its negative aspects. Supporters of Jonathan Pollard interrupted the speech by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and were forcibly thrown out not only by the guards but even by participants themselves. Complaints were also heard regarding the disposition of the speakers chosen to address the delegates. MK Yuri Stern (National Union), in a letter of protest to the GA organizers, wrote that he was "deeply disappointed to see that the vast majority of the personalities who make up this year's panels represent left-wing and extreme left-wing Israeli opinion... Fairness and balance is precisely what your conference lacks. Your bias does your attendees, Israel, and its people a disservice."