There are over 250 urgently needed capital projects and
scholarships waiting for funding through Israel Education Fund.

CAPITAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITY:
Connecting Israel's Immigrant
Soldiers to Their Jewish Identity



Every year, thousands of young men and women from immigrant families enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. Despite growing up detached from Israeli society and from Jewish heritage—with roots in the Former Soviet Union and other countries where Jewish education is very limited—this brave new generation is contributing at the highest level to the Jewish state that they now call home.

In an ironic twist, many of these soldiers are not recognized as Jews by the governmental and rabbinic agencies of Israel. Their ambiguous status clearly compromises their sense of connection to their Israeli peers and their overall Jewish learning experience.

Addressing this impossible status quo is the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Nativ program, designed to strengthen the Jewish identity of Israel’s immigrant soldiers. Nativ students participate in a seven-week program that enriches their knowledge of both Jewish and Israeli history and culture, Jewish laws, values, and tradition, current events and the Land of Israel. Upon completion, interested soldiers can opt to participate in two additional courses to help them prepare for their formal conversion to Judaism.

Each year, some 2,500 immigrant soldiers participate in the program at the Jewish Agency’s Kiryat Moriah educational campus in Jerusalem and the Givat Haviva military campus in the center of Israel. The proper infrastructure is critical to provide these young people with the building blocks for a successful Jewish future; but to do so, we must expand the Kiryat Moriah facilities. Naming opportunities are available.

Together, we can ensure that a new generation is welcomed into the Israeli family.

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For more information on how you can be a partner in securing Israel's future,
contact: Overseas Supplemental Giving/IEF at 212 284-6970
or supplemental.giving@JewishFederations.org

The donor-centered mission of JFNA Overseas Supplemental Giving/Israel Education Fund is to provide personalized, named opportunities that directly align with specific philanthropic objectives of donors in the Jewish Federations family.