On the New Border with Lebanon at Kibbutz Misgav Am with: Jewish Agency Treasurer Chaim Chesler, Jewish Agency Director General Aaron Abramovich with members of Knesset Avshalom Vilan, Shalom Simchon, Anat Maor, and the advisor for the Defense Minister on settlement Yossi Vardy

Withdrawal from Lebanon without agreement may result in Hizbollah and Palestinian attacks on the north of Israel, encouraged by Damascus. This was the assessment of senior security officials expressed on a tour of the border settlements organized this week by leaders of the settlement movements.

Participants in the tour included MKs Eli Goldschmidt and Shalom Simchon (One Israel), Avshalom Vilan and Anat Maor (Meretz), Jewish Agency Treasurer Chaim Chesler, Director General Aaron Abramovich, Director of the Jewish Agency's Israel Department Meir Nitzan, and Northern Region Director Zvi Kahana.

Security officials expressed concern that as the border between Israel and Lebanon has never been settled, Damascus will exploit the presence of Hizbollah and Palestinian terror organizations, in order to attack IDF troops and create trouble along the northern border, on the grounds that Israel has not totally withdrawn from Lebanon.

Against this backdrop, local settlement leaders have demanded that security arrangements be improved immediately, that the quality of life in the area be improved, and investments in industry and agriculture increased. Local residents have also asked for their debts to the government and the Jewish Agency be settled.

Regarding the security issues, they stressed that an emergency wireless communications system should be immediately set up, by-pass roads constructed and existing roads improved, school classrooms and buses protected, and security upgraded.

The participants in the tour, who were accompanied by Yossi Vardi, advisor to the Minister of Defense on settlement affairs, were briefed by the head of the Northern Command Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, head of the Upper Galilee regional council Aharon Valencey, and, head of the Mateh Asher regional council Yehuda Shavit.

MKs Eli Goldschmidt and Avshalom Vilan called on the government to prepare immediate aid packages for the settlements, to be approved by the Knesset by the end of the month, in order minimize the risk to civilian settlements. They called on the settlements to apply themselves to the overall effort: "This could be the Jewish Agency's finest hour, an opportunity to return to the center of settlement activity and strengthen ties with Israeli society at large."

Jewish Agency Treasurer Chaim Chesler presented the Jewish Agency's investments for the front-line settlements and emphasized that the Jewish Agency has over the last year invested $19 million in a variety of activities, and more than $45 million over the last three years. He promised that if the government approaches the Jewish Agency, and thus the Jewish people, with a request for assistance for the border settlements in anticipation of the withdrawal, the subject would be given due consideration and every effort would be made to help: "The residents of the northern border are Israel's pioneering force and Israeli society's front-line soldiers," said Chesler.

On the eve of the opening of the trial of the Jews accused of espionage in Iran, the international community is intensifying diplomatic pressure for their release. In New York, a solidarity rally took place yesterday opposite the Iranian mission to the United Nation. Mass prayer services are taking place for their release throughout the US. The Executive Vice Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, yesterday reported that as of then permission was still denied to Western observers to enter Iran to monitor the trial. He stated pressure was being exerted on the families to agree to the appointment of defense attorneys by the court.

From news that reached the west, it appears that today only the opening of the trial will take place and that the trial itself will begin only this coming Tuesday or after Passover.

Chairman of the Russian Jewish Congress, Vladimir Goussinsky, last week contacted the Iranian ambassador in Moscow asking for permission to allow him and a delegation of senior Jewish legal experts in Russia to visit Shiraz and follow the trial of the Jewish prisoners. Last weekend hundreds of Russian Jews demonstrated outside the Russian embassy in Moscow demanding an open, fair trial for the innocent Jewish prisoners.

The demonstration was organized by the Russian Jewish Congress together with the Jewish community in Moscow, as part of widespread protests organized by the European Jewish Congress. Participants in the demonstration included Moscow's Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Roman Spector, Vice President of the Va'ad, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, Moscow's Jewish community leaders, rabbis, Jewish students and members of anti-fascist youth movements.

According to Alla Levy, head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Russia, this is the first time in many years that Russian Jews have freely participated in open activities on behalf of another Jewish community. "Until now, Russia Jewry was itself the object of such activity and was at the receiving end of assistance from the better-off communities in the Diaspora. What we are seeing now is that the Jewish community here is learning to be part of the wider family of the Jewish people and knows how to identify with another community in crisis."

The demonstration was uneventful, with the authorization of the Moscow authorities and under protection by the local police force. A representative of the Iranian embassy informed the demonstrators that all their demands would be passed on to the government in Teheran. A few days before the demonstration, the Iranian embassy had asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to prevent Jewish protest activity but the request was rejected.

Russian Jews Demonstrating outside the Iranian Embassy in Moscow call for the release of Jews imprisoned in Iran. The sign reads "Free Iranian Jews". Photcredit: Igor Stomchin, "Inostranetz"

Seventy five percent of Israel's Jewish population believes that the Jewish Agency is doing its job well in encouraging aliyah and in bringing olim to Israel. Seventy one percent believe that the Jewish Agency is doing a good job dealing with Jewish education in the Diaspora and bringing the younger generation closer to Israel. These are the results of a recent survey taken of a representative sample of the adult Jewish population in Israel. Jewish Agency Chairman, Sallai Meridor, said that this is an unprecedented achievement for a public body engaged in daily activity.

The figures were published this week at a press conference held by Jewish Agency Chairman, Sallai Meridor, Treasurer, Chaim Chesler, and Director General, Aaron Abramovich, on the occasion of the publication of the 1999 Annual Report on Jewish Agency Activities. Sallai Meridor initiated the preparation and publication of the annual report among the Jewish public in Israel and abroad when he took office last year. The report is circulated among government ministers, senior civil servants, MKs, business and judicial leaders and senior media personalities in Israel.

The survey, which was prepared by the Dahaf Institute, also shows that 57% of the Jewish public in Israel considers the Jewish Agency to be a necessary organization and does not believe that the Israeli government should perform the Jewish Agency's functions. Thirty eight percent of those polled believed that the government of Israel could carry out the functions of the Jewish Agency.

Although 58% of those responding erroneously thought that the government funds Jewish Agency activities, 52% of them still believe that the Jewish Agency is necessary and that the government could not take over its functions.

Regarding the public's perception of the areas in which the Jewish Agency operates: 87% of the public identify the Jewish Agency as the body which acts to encourage aliyah and to bring olim to Israel. 82% identifies the Jewish Agency as the body engaged in Jewish education in the Diaspora and bringing Jewish youth closer to Israel. 73% identify the Jewish Agency as the body which links Jews in the Diaspora with those in Israel, and 64% identify the Jewish Agency as the body engaged in aliyah absorption.

From the data presented at the press conference on Jewish Agency activities for 1999, it emerges that 77,921 olim from all over the world arrived in Israel in 1999 - a 35% increase over 1998 . The most significant increase in aliyah was from the FSU, with 66,907 olim compared with 46,000 in 1998 . The report also shows that in 1999, 16,800 Jews visited Israel, including youth that came as part of the Jewish Agency's "Israel Experience" programs, training and long-term programs, and Jewish teachers and educators who took part in-service training in Israel. This compares with 15,390 people who visited Israel in 1998 . The number of youth and students who participated in summer and winter camps in the FSU in 1999 was 18,210 compared with 17,000 in 1998.

• $150,000 -This is the cost to the Jewish Agency for preparatory programs for about 260 potential immigrants from 6 Eastern European countries. The target population is students and young adults.

• $250,000 -This covers the cost of bringing 210 former Soviet Union advisors and activists to Israel for a 10-day Jewish Agency training program.

• $120,000 -The Jewish Agency will spend this amount on 15,000 tourists from the former Soviet Union who will come to Israel for pilot trips in the year 2000. They will participate in day tours and seminars.

• $160,000 -The amount that will be spent in the current year on Aliyah preparation activities in Latin America, Western Europe and the USA and Canada.

• $249,000 -This is the budget for the Jewish Agency's one year Young Leadership training institute. Designed for 17 to 19 year olds, the group this year consists of 120 participants from Latin America, 10 from France and 75 from England.

• 1,060 new immigrants from all over the world arrived this week in Israel, 949 of them from the former Soviet Union.

"The Jewish Agency will help the Interior Ministry speed up the processing of aliyah applications by the Falash Mura and bring all those who are eligible, under the Law of Return, to Israel within the shortest time possible." That is what Mike Rosenberg, Director General of the Jewish Agency's Aliyah Department, said when he returned this week from a three-day visit to Ethiopia. Rosenberg had accompanied a delegation of the Interior Ministry, headed by Minister Natan Sharansky, which traveled to Ethiopia to look into the matter of bringing the Falash Mura to Israel. The Falash Mura are presently concentrated in compounds in Addis Ababa and Gondar.

Next week, officials of the Jewish Agency and the Interior Ministry will meet to work out a new plan of action to deal with the concentrations of Falash Mura. Among other things, they will discuss the possibilities of placing Interior Ministry representatives from Israel in Ethiopia, and enlarge the teams that determine eligibility operating in Israel.

On his return to Israel, Sharansky announced he would expedite the immigration of the eligible Falash Mura, in view of their severe distress due to hunger and infant mortality. At the same time, the minister stressed he would not grant sweeping immigration permits, adding that only those who meet the criteria set by the Law of Return and the Law of Entry will be allowed to immigrate to Israel. A few hours after arriving in Israel, Sharansky spoke to representatives of the United Jewish Communities (UJC) in the United States, updating them on the details of his visit and possible directions for future decisions. Sharansky called on the UJC to support the efforts of the Jewish Agency.

Twenty-five Falash Mura immigrants who were found eligible for immigration were also on the return flight to Israel with the Interior Ministry delegation. The immigrants were sent to live in a new absorption center at Kibbutz Kramim which the Jewish Agency opened at the beginning of this month. To date, 100 new immigrants from Ethiopia have been absorbed at the new center. In light of the efforts to expedite Falash Mura aliyah, the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Absorption are preparing to open additional absorption centers throughout the country where the new immigrants would be sent.

The vast majority of Georgian Jews voted for Eduard Shevardnadze in the presidential elections held in Georgia at the beginning of the week. This is the estimate of Victor Kaplansky, head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Georgia. The 72-year old Shevardnadze, was this week elected to a second term in the presidency with an 80% majority.

For the last decade, the Jews of Georgia have held President Shevardnadze in high regard due to his warn relations with the Jewish community. The president always emphasizes that he considers himself to be an old friend of the Jewish people. He maintains close ties with public figures in Israel and makes occasional visits to Israel.

Last year Shevardnadze participated in the celebrations marking 2,600 years of Jewish settlement in Georgia and expressed his support for activities organized by the Jewish Agency and other Jewish organizations operating in his country.

According to Jewish Agency estimates, there are currently 8,000 Jews in Georgia, mostly in the capital, Tbilisi. The Georgian Jews are generally strict in maintaining Jewish tradition and customs.

Two main synagogues operate in Tbilisi - an Ashkenazi and a Georgian synagogue, at which the Sephardi tradition. According to Kaplansky, more than 1,000 people gathered at the Georgian synagogue last Yom Kippur. The city also boasts a Jewish school - Tiferet Zvi - directed by Georgia's Chief Rabbi Ariel Levin. Most of the pupils at the school are involved in Jewish Agency educational activities and many graduates of the school make aliyah within the framework of JAFI youth programs.

The Jewish Agency runs a youth club and three Hebrew learning centers in Georgia, which together cater to 400 students. In 1999 1045 olim arrived in Israel from Georgia.

When the Ezer Mizion bone marrow bank was in its infancy, a young Israeli man traveled to the US in search of a match. His efforts to find a match in Israel were unsuccessful. Once he arrived in the US, a national / international search lead him back to his home country. A match was found for him in Ezer Mizion's bank, with a young woman donor who had recently made Aliyah from the US. Her bone marrow sent to the US where it saved the life of this young Israeli.

The Ezer Mizion database is available free of charge to Israel's health funds. The organization's database contains the genetic profiles of more than 50,000 potential donors.

The greater the number of people that share their genetic profile, the greater the chances of finding matching donors for patients throughout the country who are suffering from cancer.

Furthermore, Israel is a participant the International Bank in Holland, and all data banks are linked to each other.

"Ezer Mizion is dedicated to assisting Israel's sick and handicapped," says Uri Ezrachi, director of international affairs, "and we realize that when people are in need of medical assistance, often their first stop is their health fund. By providing these funds with free access to our database, we'll have the potential to help thousands of people find matching donors."

Ezer Mizion ("Help from Zion") was established in 1979 by eight volunteers working out of a private home, Ezer Mizion has developed into a national Israeli humanitarian paramedical aid organization with 40 branches in 25 cities.

A special program to integrate youngsters and young adults into educational and work frameworks is operating in the city of Ashkelon. According to a report issued last week by the Municipality of Ashkelon 60 youngsters from the Former Soviet Union and 55 youth from Ethiopia are currently taking part in a project operated by the Municipality of Ashkelon in conjunction with the Government of Israel and the Jewish Agency - with the support of the Jewish Federation of Champaign Urbana. The project is designed from school drop outs and young adults who have left their jobs and those who have manifested anti-social behavior such as drinking, drugs, and petty crime. Special clubs that operate as part of the project are designed to provide constructive educational, social and cultural frameworks. Components include tutoring, social and cultural activities, and workshops for parents and preparation for the army,

The program seeks to help young people overcome their problems by giving them an improved self-image, and steering them into productive courses of activity. 620 youth have taken part in the programs, 400 from the FSU and 220 from Ethiopia since they were established six years ago.

The Jewish Agency's Construction Division is now in the process of constructing Beit Hayeled, a unique treatment center at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. The center which will house various types of professional treatment for children from infancy to age 18+ in one location. When completed, some time in September, Beit Hayeled will be Israel's only facility with services that address the broad gamut of problems afflicting youngsters -- organic, psychological, etc. .

The center will encompass psychological and psychiatric services and various therapeutic treatments -- such as art therapy, movement therapy, and occupational therapy. It will also include special units -- an emergency unit dealing with sexual and physical abuse, an eating disturbances unit, and a unit dealing with suicide attempts. The Institute for the Development of the Child that deals with physical problems in early childhood will also be nearby.

Currently the various services and units are located in several locations, and serve several hundred children and youth from all sectors of the population, says Dr. Ilana Bason, Director of Psychiatric Services at Barzilai Hospital. Many of the clients are new immigrants, primarily from Ethiopia and the FSU whose families have settled in Ashkelon and its suburbs. Some of their problems pre-dated their aliyah; others concern difficulties in adapting to a new environment, particularly when their parents are preoccupied with their own problems. Today the center deals with are dozens of cases of eating disturbances each year, 20 to 30 instances of physical and sexual abuse, and 60-70 suicide attempts.

When Beit Hayeled is completed, all diagnostic and treatment units in will be concentrated in one location, enable problem to be addressed more efficiently and effectively notes Dr. Bason. She cites the case of an 11 year old child whose growth had been severely stunted due a diet consisting almost exclusively of candy for six years. The Department of Endocrinology at another hospital had failed to detect that she suffered from an eating disorder. The Psychological Services diagnosed her problem as an eating disorder. Working in tandem with the Department of Endocrinology, they were able to change her eating habits so that within several months she grew several centimeters.

Since 1998, the Jewish Agency's Israel Department Construction Division headed by David Ben Avraham has completed eight treatment centers for youth at risk. One of JAFI's mandates is to address problems of vulnerable populations.

23-year old Ayelet Dasta is the first Ethiopian in Israel who has chosen to register for studies in natural medicine in Israel. Next week, the Jewish Agency will grant Ayelet and 52 other Ethiopian olim, who enrolled in a variety of higher education courses, student grants, intended to encourage and promote higher education among members of the Ethiopian community in Israel.

Ayelet and her family immigrated from Ethiopia in 1981 when she was four years old. Her journey to Israel began on foot in the Sudan and lasted several weeks. The family remained in the Sudan for 2 years, before setting sail for Israel.

After completing her national service as a youth leader working with the Ethiopian community at the Hatzrot Yassaf trailer site and studying at a women's college for Jewish studies, Ayelet registered to study natural medicine at the Tel Aviv College of Natural Medicine. The program is a four-year course at the end of which she will receive a certificate allowing her to practice all forms of natural medicine, including Shiatsu, reflexology, and Bach flowers.

The grants, which are awarded by the Jewish Agency's Israel Education Fund, the Ida Seller Foundation and the Bill Halperin Foundation from Seattle will be given to 53 Ethiopian students, aged 22-40, who did not receive study grants from other bodies. The ceremony will take place in the presence of Jewish Agency Chairman, Sallai Meridor; Micha Feldman, who was among those responsible for the organization of the Ethiopian aliyah; and Shlomo Mulla who currently coordinates the Jewish Agency's Ethiopian activities and himself made aliyah from Gondar via Sudan 16 years ago.

In addition the Jewish Agency will this year provide grants to more than 10,000 olim from all over the world via the Student Authority.

More than 1,100 Jewish youth and students this week completed their entrance exams for the Jewish Agency's Selah and Chalom programs. The exams were held in Russia, Belarus and the Baltic States. Those who pass the exams will arrive in Israel in August to begin their studies. This was reported by Alla Levy, head of the Jewish Agency's Russian delegation, who toured the exam centers.

Six professional teams, including social workers and educational psychologists from Israel, tested the applicants all over Russia - from St. Petersburg to Khabarovsk. The youngsters were examined in English, math, and also underwent a psychometric exam. The selection teams also interviewed each candidate and his/her parents individually. The experience of years past shows that 60% of those tested pass and are accepted for the programs.

The Chalom, Selah and Selah TAKA programs are designed for 16-20 year-olds, who have completed high school or their first semesters at university. When they arrive in Israel, the youngsters live at Jewish Agency absorption centers, where they study Hebrew and attend pre-academic courses. On completing the course, the Selah and Selah TAKA graduates enroll at university and the Chalom graduates enroll at technical colleges all over Israel.

Since the program began operating, the Jewish Agency has brought 4,020 youngsters from the FSU to study in Israel. There are currently 1,200 youngsters at Jewish Agency absorption centers who made aliyah from the FSU last year. Hundreds of graduates of earlier courses have gained academic and professional qualifications by attending these courses and have integrated into the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli workplace. Following the successful aliyah of the youngsters, their parents and other relatives have followed suit and also made aliyah.

During a visit to Chelyabinsk in Russia, Levy met Nikolai Varubiov: the boy had been cut off from his Jewish roots for two generations. Judging by his name, Nikolai should have felt quite at ease among his Russian compatriots, but one thing always gave his ethnic origin away - his marked Jewish countenance inherited from his grandfather, David Tomerkin who was born in the Ukraine and moved to the Urals after the war. As a result of his Jewish appearance Nikolai always suffered from anti-Semitism by his peers. This week he asked to be allowed to study in a country where no one will be hostile towards him on account of his Jewishness.

Over the last 14 years the number of rural Bed and Breakfast guest units in Israel has grown thirteen-fold. This figure was presented at a rural tourism promotion fair in Israel, held at the Yechiam Fort in the north of the country.. The conference was organized by the Jewish Agency's Northern Region, in order to examine the possibilities of developing and promoting this sector in Israel.

The figures show that when this sector began operating in 1986, there were 500 bed and breakfast guest units in Israel. There are now 6,500 such units. Most of the rooms are situated in the north of Israel, just over half in kibbutzim, and the rest in other settlements. In addition, the rural tourism business sector in Israel includes 2,500 other tourist attractions such as restaurants, leisure activities and agriculture-based activities, water parks, rafting and jeep rides.

The conference was attended by Meir Nitzan, Director General of the Jewish Agency's Israel Department, and Zvi Kahana, Northern Region director, as well as all bodies involved in tourism in Israel, including representatives of government ministries, tourism bodies, tourist attraction operators and those engaged in developing Israel's peripheral areas.

Among the other subjects discussed were marketing the Bed and Breakfast sector in Israel and abroad, developing tourist attractions as a lever for promoting this sector, and adapting the sector to meet the expectations of visitors and tourists.

According to Hezi Bechor, responsible for economic development in the Jewish Agency's Northern Region, rural tourism in Israel developed at the beginning of the 1980's with the assistance of the Jewish Agency, in an effort to develop Israel's peripheral areas and find supplementary income for local residents who until then had relied principally on agriculture as their main source of income. The sector simultaneously developed as a result of demand by city residents for family leisure and vacation sites like those in Europe.

"Even now the Jewish Agency continues to be one of the key factors in developing rural tourism, in part by means of financial assistance granted to prepare the guest rooms, providing business consultation services for residents who set up guest rooms and other tourist attractions, assistance in marketing internal and foreign tourism, and in developing the infrastructure required for promoting this sector," said Bechor.

A class in Jewish tradition was recently organized in Ashdod for new immigrants from the FSU by the Aish HaTorah Institute in cooperation with the Jerusalem-based Shvut Ami organization.

The class quickly swelled from fifteen to 50 individuals, and the number is increasing. The teaching staff is made up of olim from the FSU that seeks to provide an intellectual approach to Jewish tradition. The classes take place in Russian, in accordance with the level of each student. Shvut Ami staff member, former refusenik Shimon Grilius, believes that "these groups are the perfect incubators for Jewish awareness."

The class is just one of a dozen weekly groups that teaches Judaism currently conducted by Shvut Ami across Israel. They teach basics to new-comers while providing advanced materials to those who are better versed in Jewish tradition.

Barak Clinton Summit: The window of opportunity with Damascus has closed; American opposition to surveillance plane deal with China; acceleration of the Palestinian track; renewed hope for the release of Pollard.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Israel yesterday for a six-day historic visit. On the agenda - the deal involving the sale of Israeli surveillance aircraft to China, and agricultural cooperation.

President Ezer Weizman will resign by the end of the year. This decision comes on the heels of the Sarussi affair. The president will announce his decision to quit his post after Independence Day. Weizman was to have ended his term in March 2003.

The Prime Minister of Israel congratulated Prof. Deborah Lipstadt on her victory in the libel suit filed against her by Holocaust denier David Irving: "Israel's strength today ensures that a second Holocaust will not take place and no one in the world will dare rise up against the Jewish people," said Barak. Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor said that Lipstadt's triumph is a victory of the divine over the satanic, and of justice over evil. "The judgment in London brings honor to British law and teaches us that the enlightened world does not buy the venom spread by neo-Nazis trying to legitimize the crimes of the Holocaust."

Betar Jerusalem will play against Hapoel Tel Aviv in the State Soccer Cup Final on May 17 at Ramat Gan Stadium. In the semi-finals this week, Betar Jerusalem beat Hapoel Kfar Saba 3-2 and Hapoel Tel Aviv beat Maccabi Haifa 2-1. _______________________________________________________

Tonight, Thursday night, after midnight, the clocks in Israel will be changed to "summer time." At 2:00 a.m., the clock will be moved ahead by one hour to 3:00. The time difference between Israel and New York will again be 7 hours. Israel time is one hour ahead of Western Europe and two hours ahead of England.

Djoya Rodriguez is finally getting to celebrate the Passover Seder in Israel. She was born 92 years ago in Turkey, and migrated from there to Cuba. Four months ago, she left Cuba and immigrated to Israel with her daughter Sarah, her husband, and her two grandchildren, 12-year-old Jana and 21-year-old Julio. The three generations of the Rodriguez family, who have been settled temporarily at the Jewish Agency's absorption center in Ashkelon, will celebrate Passover eve at the city's Conservative synagogue, Netzach Yisrael.

Joining the Rodriguez family in celebrating the holiday will be 60 other Cuban immigrants, who also live at the Ashkelon Absorption Center. The seder, which is being organized by the Jewish Agency, will be conducted in Spanish by the rabbi of the conservative synagogue. The seder will also be attended by other Spanish speakers, namely immigrants from Peru, Argentina and Brazil who used to live at the Ashkelon Absorption Center and now have permanent housing in the city.

The elderly Djoya has another reason to be excited about Passover eve. Here, in Israel, she has finally reunited with the rest of her relatives who made aliyah many years ago from Turkey.

The other Jewish Agency absorption centers will also be celebrating Passover eve in seders attended by a total of 5,000 immigrants from all over the world. One thousand young people, who are tourists and immigrants studying at kibbutz ulpans, will be celebrating the holiday at kibbutzim. And as part of the Jewish Agency's "Together at the Seder" activity, 250 lone immigrants will be hosted at the homes of veteran Israelis, including Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

This week, most of the absorption centers have conducted model seders in order to teach the immigrants about the holiday's customs and symbols. The immigrants were given Passover haggadahs in Russian, Amharic and English. These haggadahs were produced with the assistance of the Absorption Ministry and the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

From Right to left President and Mrs. Weizman, Arieh Azoulay co- chairman JAFI Immigration Committee greeting an Ethiopian Immigrant from the JAFI Absorption Center in Nahariya.

Some 200 Jews from all over Belarus will celebrate their first Passover at a family seminar being organized by the Jewish Agency in Minsk next weekend. As part of the seminar, the Jewish families will participate in a special program that will focus on learning about Jewish customs and the history of the State of Israel.

According to the Jewish Agency emissary in Minsk, Ayala Bukai, some 100 of those participating in the seminar were already introduced to Jewish festivals during their studies at Jewish Agency learning centers. This is within the framework of a project recently initiated in Belarus to intensify Jewish identity. 100 other participants first learnt about Judaism from their children, who spent their last vacation at the Jewish Agency's winter camps.

All the families will now meet at a festive Seder celebration organized by Baruch Kamil, head of the Jewish Agency delegation in Minsk, together with the local Jewish writer Michael Shulman. During the three-day seminar, parents and children will learn about the origins of the Jewish festival of freedom, and holiday customs, and will hear about a range of Jewish Agency aliyah and education programs.

Five thousand individuals are expected to participate in Pesach seders sponsored by the World Zionist Organization's World Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora, headed by Eliezer Sheffer, in remote Jewish communities around the world. The Center is dispatching individuals and couples to make seders in ten locations in the Former Soviet Union -- from Odessa in the west to Birobidjan on the Chinese border -- a distance spanning 11 time zones!

"At least one person sent to each location is a native Russian speaker," notes David Ben-Naeh, Director of the World Center. Some, like former refuseniks Dr. Michael Dashevsky, and his wife Ira, who will be going to Irkutzk, were prominent in disseminating Judaism surreptitiously in the Soviet Union before the fall of the Iron Curtain 11 years ago.

The program is conducted in close cooperation with the Jewish Agency's FSU Department, headed by Amos Lahat.

The Center is also sponsoring a seder in Prague, and in Zagreb, where the program is jointly funded by the WZO, the JDC, and the local community. A Seder is also being held in Bombay in cooperation with JDC.

Are you looking for a Seder conducted in Russian? Would you prefer celebrating with fellow senior citizens? Or college students? Whatever you preference, UJA Toronto Federation's Jewish Information Service (JIS) is your connection to community Seders held throughout the Toronto area.

JIS has compiled a comprehensive list of 12 community Seders, and will also match the needs of individuals to what is available. Volunteers will check the availability, suitability and costs for Seder seekers. Over 600 Jews attended one of the Seders offered by synagogues and organizations in previous years. JIS also provides information on where to buy kosher Passover food, caterers and other contacts for Passover needs.

"This is an extremely positive community outreach effort to newcomers, singles and anyone who doesn't have a family or just wants to be with other Jews for a Seder," says Helen Finder-Guthman, Chairman of UJA Toronto Federation's Community Development Committee.

Bakeries in Moscow and Kiev have been working 24 hours a day for the past several , months to supply matzas for hundreds of seders to be held next week in the Former Soviet Union.. The seders, organized by the Hillel Foundation, will take place in over 300 communities throughout the former Soviet Union, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the Asian republics. This is reported by Susan Bass, of the Pincus Fund which supports the Hillel Foundation's outreach efforts in the FSU.

'Who today remembers when matzohs had to be smuggled into the Soviet Union?. It is estimated that this year 25,000 people will take part in seders sponsored by the local communities with support from the JDC.

The seders, which will be conducted throughout the festival, will be run by 800 student activists from the FSU, 24 one-year American students at the Hebrew University, as well as young adults from Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis.

Rabbi Nachum Amsell of the organization's Jerusalem office left last week for the FSU to train the students and provide them the skills to run the seders.

In a related program run by Hillel, Project Eliahu Hanavi (Elijah the Prophet), Hillel activists will visit elderly Jews on Pesach eve, who are cared for by the JDC, who because of their age, cannot take part in community seders. The students will., made kiddush, and bring a bit of holiday spirit, reports Rabbi Yossef Goldman, director of the Hillel Foundation at the Hebrew University.

Ingredients
About 2 lb. date spread
5. oz. raisins
5 oz. unsalted sesame seeds, roasted
3 oz. pecan nuts
3 oz. walnuts
1 cup ginger
2 cups grape juice

Preparation
Chop the nuts fine and mix with roasted sesame seeds. Mix in a bowl with other dry ingredients, soften with grape juice.

B'Te'avon! Bon Appetit!

The Global Jewish Agenda will not appear for the next two weeks. Our next edition will appear on Thursday May 4, 2000, 29 Nissan 5760.

Happy Pesach!