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CHAIRMAN OF KNESSET ALIYAH AND ABSORPTION COMMITTEE ZVI HENDEL WELCOMES JEWISH AGENCY INITIATIVE TO COORDINATE HANDLING OF YOUNGSTERS The Jewish Agency has undertaken to coordinate efforts on behalf of the children from the former Soviet Union who were placed at the Zefunot hostel in Jerusalem under extremely severe conditions, thereby ensuring their placement in suitable educational frameworks enabling them to study in Israel at a reasonable level. Jerusalem's Municipal Welfare Bureau has so far located three of the fifty youngsters who were forcibly held at the Zefunot hostel, as efforts to find the others continue. Amos Lahat, Director-General of the Jewish Agency's Department for the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, said that two youngsters were already absorbed by an educational institution in northern Israel, where they will receive psychological and medical attention withheld from them for several months. At the same time, the Jewish Agency will examine the possibility of organizing a visit home to their parents, for all the youngsters found so far. The youngsters, who today met with Jewish Agency officials in Jerusalem, said that they were tricked and their documents confiscated by Zefunot officials against their will, and that their visas for staying in Israel were not dealt with at all. Furthermore, they received no medical treatment and were not allowed to contact their parents in the FSU. The Jewish Agency is currently dealing with immediate assistance and arranging the youngsters' documents. This terrible story was revealed last week, following intervention by the Council for the Welfare of the Child, after a spot check at one of the Zefunot apartments by Jerusalem Welfare Bureau officials. Inspectors found dozens of youngsters from the FSU, who had made aliyah alone after being promised a "warm home" and Jewish education in dormitory conditions, were living in disgraceful conditions of overcrowding and malnutrition at an institution lacking any Ministry of Education authorization. As a result, the police launched an investigation against Mark and Slava Shifrin, who ran the institution and are now suspected of having tricked the children's parents into sending them to Israel after making empty promises. As a result of coverage of the story by the press, the Knesset Aliyah and Absorption Committee this week held a special discussion on the policy of issuing entry visas to minors coming to Israel alone from the FSU. |
