How about renaming NYC to New Israel?
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 Tevet 5, 5763
A million immigrants? Where from exactly?
By Yair Sheleg
Roni Vinikov took up his post as a Jewish Agency emissary in New York three months ago. The Agency already has several emissaries in the Big Apple, but Vinikov will play a unique role: He is coordinating Agency activities among Jews from the former Soviet Union who settled in New York following the collapse of Communist rule.
About 300,000 people in that group opted for the American dream over its Israeli parallel, and a large percentage of them clustered in the New York area. Following a two-year series of discussions, the Agency decided to try to work among these Jews, in an effort to persuade as many as possible to give Israel a "second chance." Even before this, a-year-and-a-half ago, the Agency began a similar initiative in Germany, and soon plans one in Australia.
Vinikov says that his target audience is principally the relatively young, those who see "they will most probably not be able to realize in the United States the dreams they hoped to fulfill when they arrived there, and are, on the other hand, young enough to try a new place."
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haaretzdaily.com |
