The Council of Immigrant Associations in Israel has sharply criticized the Jewish Agency for recently shifting its focus away from immigration and toward fostering Jewish identity.
"Immigration groups protest and condemn the policy of the Jewish Agency, which decided to forfeit the centrality of working to encourage immigration, which for 100 years has been the essence of Zionism," the organization stated yesterday in a letter co-signed by the group's chairman Mario Leib and board member Sidney Shapiro.
"We're convinced this decision could be interpreted as the end of the Zionist mission of the State of Israel, which would cause a drastic decrease in the number of immigrants and subsequently have a negative impact on Israel's demographics," the letter continued.
This Sunday, Agency chairman Natan Sharansky is expected to present a "new vision" for the venerable organization at its board of governors meet in Jerusalem.
"We're not sure what the final outcome of the Jewish Agency's discussions are, but we are upset and concerned that it apparently plans to abolish or drastically cut down its immigration department," the South African-born Shapiro, who is the director of Telfed told Anglo File. "We fear that if the Jewish Agency will focus on education and Jewish identity and no longer on the promotion of immigration, potential immigrants will have no place to go to get information and support. ... We are aware of Nefesh B'Nefesh, which deals with immigrants from the U.S., to some extent from Britain, but the rest of the world will have no one to turn to."
Jewish Agency officials have repeatedly said the organization's new direction does not mean it is turning its back on immigration. Rather, they maintain, the goal is to increase immigration by strengthening Jewish identity.
