This week the United Jewish Communities initiated the National Jewish Population Survey 2000, the most detailed study of American Jewry ever conducted.

"NJPS 2000 will be the definitive source of data on the American Jewish community for the next decade," said Louise Stoll, UJC Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. 5,000 people across the United States will be interviewed.

The resulting profile of American Jewry will include the communities' size, geographic distribution, socio-economic characteristics, family structure, marriage patterns, religious practices and attitudes, levels of Jewish education, philanthropic behavior, perceptions of anti-Semitism, fertility, political orientation, mobility patterns, and relationship to Israel, among many other areas. Findings are expected next year.

Results of NJPS 2000 will help UJC, Jewish community federations and national agencies to reshape the Jewish communal agenda. "NJPS 2000 will deliver much of the data we all need to strengthen and grow Jewish life in the 21^st century," Stoll said.

Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor called for the enactment of a Basic Law to ensure that the State of Israel continues to be a Jewish state, before the enactment of government proposals for civic reform and a constitution. Meridor was speaking on the Galei Zahal program "Yesh Im Mi Ledaber" (Someone to Speak With), as part of a special day of broadcasts dedicated to Jewish youth around the world.

"I don't know if this is a serious suggestion or just another political exercise, but this is no way of going about things and laws should not be enacted in this manner. An initiative of this kind requires broad national consensus and is not something to be pulled out of a hat. Before embarking on such legislation we must ensure that our state is not 'stolen' from us," said Meridor. "This country was established as a Jewish state for the Jewish people and we must beware of trends among the Arab and post-Zionist Jews who wish to establish a civilian state instead of a Jewish one. This is a great danger to the future of the Jewish people," warned Meridor.

The Jewish Agency chairman emphasized that this Basic Law which he proposes be passed before the civic reform must include the Law of Return, and the right of Jewish settlement, and guarantee that the national holidays are the Jewish festivals, that the national flag is the blue and white flag with the Star of David, that the national anthem remains Hatikvah and that Hebrew is the country's official language.

Meridor made this statement during a special broadcast aired by the Jewish Agency this week, in cooperation with Galei Zahal, entitled "The Jewish Agency - an Israel Experience for World Jewish Youth." Jewish Agency Treasurer Chaim Chesler said during the broadcast that the Jewish Agency had assumed leadership in the fight against assimilation. He emphasized that, in his opinion, the aliyah from Russia would accelerate in the next four years and that following a peace agreement, aliyah from the West would also increase.

"I first came to Israel with a group of Australian teenagers in 1969, to participate in a Jewish Agency Israel Experience program. This visit made a profound impression on me." These comments were made by US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk, during a day of special radio broadcasts organized by the Jewish Agency and Galei Zahal (the IDF radio station).

Indyk said that he had grown up in Australia in a not-particularly Jewish environment. "I knew that I was not part of the Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment, but I had no positive Jewish identity either. The synagogue cricket games were fun but that was about the extent of my Judaism."

"Coming to Israel at that time gave me a completely different and positive dimension to my Jewishness. I came back from Israel very excited and became active in Jewish affairs on campus," said Indyk.

In 1973 Indyk returned to Israel to study Hebrew and start a Masters degree in International Relations at the Hebrew University: "I certainly had no expectations that a war was going to break out and I was in Israel during the Yom Kippur war. The Yom Kippur war convinced me that the only way to secure Israel's existence as a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people was through peace with its Arab neighbors. From that moment on, I was seized with the idea that I should do whatever I could to promote peace. Over time this became an obsession. When I came to Israel from Australia in 1969 it did not occur to me that life would lead me to become the US ambassador to Israel, but this is undoubtedly an excellent way to contribute to achieving peace in the Middle East," concluded Indyk.

• $24.5 million - the Jewish Agency's budget for the year 2000 for bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel and assisting in their successful absorption and integration into Israeli society.

• $23,000 - Jewish Agency support in the year 2000 for the "Follow Me" program, run by the "Youth Making A Change" organization, which operates in Israel's periphery and development towns, encouraging youngsters to enlist in the IDF in general, and in combat units in particular.

• $9,000 - Jewish Agency budget for annual maintenance of a student in the Selah program in Israel.

• 150 olim from the FSU arrived in Israel this week, as part of the Jewish Agency's Selah and Chalom programs, designed to absorb teenagers through academic and vocational study programs. By September, an additional 850 young people will join these programs.

• 1,310 new immigrants arrived in Israel this week. 1,068 of them were from the FSU and the others were from France, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, England, South Africa, Holland, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, India, the US and Canada.

• 60,000 new immigrants from the FSU were absorbed in Haifa in the past decade.

Life in the town of Tirni Aus in Russia's northern Caucasus region is returning to normal after the town was paralyzed by heavy flooding at the end of last month. A strong flow of mud and stones, up to 50 feet high, resulted in dozens of deaths and left thousands of the town's residents homeless. The 50 Jewish families in the town are all well.

Abba Faigin, head of the Jewish Agency's delegation in neighboring Pyatigorsk, reports that residents had no electricity and telephone lines were down for several weeks. A state of emergency was declared in the area and the town was sealed off, accessible only to rescue forces.

A short time after the floods began, Faigin sent the local aliyah coordinator, Borris Shuvayev, to the disaster area to investigate the situation of the Jews who were trapped in the ruined town. Shuvayev managed to locate some of the Jewish families through Jewish Agency records. From his meeting with the Jews of Tirni Aus it would appear that no Jews were injured and that there was no serious damage to their homes.

Local authorities have restored order in recent days in some parts of the town. The electricity supply has been renewed and lines of communication have been reconnected. Renovation work is underway all over the town. At the same time, some Jewish families told Shuvayev that they wish to make aliyah and he has begun processing their applications.

Tirni Aus lies on the northern slopes of the Great Caucasus in the center of the autonomous Kabardino Balkarsky republic.

A Jewish boy from Nizhni Novgorod in Russia, who was due to make aliyah at the end of the month, was attacked by a local thug last week and suffered severe stab wounds. Daniel Deitch, who was scheduled to join the Jewish Agency's Chalom vocational training program, was admitted to the municipal hospital's intensive care unit in serious condition with deep cuts in his abdomen. Two days ago, after his condition stabilized, the boy was transferred to the surgical ward.

Yosef Yuval, head of the Jewish Agency's delegation in Nizhni Novgorod, reports that the attack took place last Saturday, close to midnight, when an unidentified person attempted to break into the Deitch family home. During the break-in, his mother was attacked with a knife. Daniel ran to protect her and was severely wounded in the struggle. Mrs. Deitch's screams woke the neighbors, who came at the same time as the police who arrested the attacker, who had a criminal record for drugs and other offenses. The police believe that this was probably not an anti-Semitic attack, although the accused will be interrogated and indicted.

A short time after the event, Yuval visited Daniel in the hospital and offered him and his mother every possible assistance. At Mrs. Deitchs's request, Yuval financed the purchase of the medical equipment and medication required for the boy's treatment. "We are monitoring the boy's condition and will make every effort to help the family overcome this tragic event," said Yuval.

Amos Lahat, director of the Jewish Agency's FSU Department, said that he will make every effort to bring Daniel to Israel for further medical treatment as soon as his condition permits. Lahat expressed the hope that Daniel will be able to come to Israel shortly and that after a period of recuperation will be able to begin his studies in the Chalom program.

Nizhni Novgorod (formerly Gorky) is situated on the banks of the Volga River in central Russia and is Russia's third largest city, according to most recent estimates by the FSU Department. The city has a Jewish population of 8,000 out of an overall population of 2.5 million.

At the end of the month a group of 40 Jewish teenagers from the Nizhni Novgorod region will make aliyah as part of the Jewish Agency's Selah and Chalom programs for young people. These programs provide teenagers from the FSU with pre-academic and vocational and technological training needed in Israel.

The cornerstone for a new synagogue in Dresden was officially laid two months ago, on the very same location where the city's Semper Synagogue stood before it was destroyed by the Nazis on Kristallnacht in 1938. The ceremony in the east German city was held exactly 162 years after the cornerstone was laid for the original synagogue on June 21, 1838.

The synagogue served the Dresden Jewish community for nearly 100 years until it, together with the Jewish community, fell victim to the Nazis and was burned down. The modern, cube-like building - which is expected to revive Jewish life in east Germany - is set to open on the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 2001.

Among its participants in the cornerstone ceremony were: Roman Koenig, Chairman of the Jewish Community in Dresden; Dr. Herbert Wagner, Mayor of Dresden; and Prof. Henry A. Landesberger from North Carolina, the grandchild of the synagogue's last rabbi. Also participating were Bishop Joachim Reinelt and Father Siegfriend Reimann of the Evangelic Lutheran Church of Sachsen, under whose initiative an association was set up to help build the new synagogue.

The city of Dresden and the Sachsen state government are contributing millions of dollars to rebuild the synagogue, which will also include a community center. A significant amount has also been raised from donations.

Jewish life returned to Dresden from 1945 to 1950, when the community had 200 members. In the beginning of the 1950s many members left the community due to the Stalinist regime. Since 1990 the community has enjoyed a growth, and there 300 Jews now live in Dresden.

82 Jewish students from North America arrived in Israel this week for a 10-month period of voluntary work as part of the Otzma program, run jointly by the Jewish Agency, the United Jewish Communities of North America and the Israel Forum.

In the first stage of the program the students will reside at Jewish Agency absorption centers to learn Hebrew at ulpans. They will then participate in a variety of tracks, helping and volunteering in the community, working with new immigrants, the elderly and youngsters.

According to Amos Hermon, chairman of the Jewish Agency's Education Committee, the project is designed to strengthen the Jewish identity of the younger generation in the Diaspora. During their period of service in Israel, the youngsters from the Diaspora will volunteer in their partnered communities, through the UJC-Jewish Agency's Partnership 2000 project. In an effort to ease their stay in Israel, the students will be "adopted" by Israeli families during their stay.

Ten single-parent families from Moldova will immigrate to Carmiel this year in an innovative Jewish Agency pilot project to absorb single parent families from the former Soviet Union. The year-long project is made possible through a contribution by the Pittsburgh Federation.

Moldova was chosen for the pilot project because 2,250 of the 25,000 individuals eligible for aliyah are women, mostly single parents. Jewish Agency statistics show that 4% of the eligible population makes aliyah each year -- in this case 125 single parent families.

The program will begin with special regional orientation seminars for the families in Moldova. Upon immigrating to Israel, the families will live in rental apartments in Carmiel. The JAFI absorption center in the city will provide a supportive package of educational, social, cultural services to ease their integration into Israeli society. A specific staff member will coordinate the project, taking into account the special needs of this population.

In addition to equipping each woman with the language, cultural, acculturation and job skills necessary for successful integration, the program is designed to promote a feeling of mutual support and reinforce the sense that "I am not alone." Pre-aliyah preparation of both the women and children greatly increases their chances of successful absorption.

Ulpan classes, workshops, seminars and job training/retraining in professions applicable to the Israeli job market or development of private small business initiatives will be offered.

The program will also provide numerous workshops and seminars in management of culture shock, basic rights in Israel, the educational system, banking system, etc. Additionally, the immigrant women and their children will enjoy field trips and recreational activities and participation in Jewish/Israeli life cycle celebrations. Holiday celebrations will also be included as part of the acculturation process. For the first few months, informational seminars will be held in Russian, with a gradual move to Hebrew. The women will then begin to learn about the employment and retraining options. Emphasis will be placed on vocations and professions suitable for working from the home.

In the FSU, there is a very high percentage of single parent families, explains Mike Rosenberg, Director-General of JAFI's Immigration and Absorption Department. In Israel, however, the single-parent families encounter tremendous problems in virtually every aspect of absorption. Having sole responsibility for children, combined with the lack of a support system often limits the single parent's ability to work as well as to participate in ulpan or job skills training programs. Once the absorption basket period expires, the women are often unable to find a job and become dependent on unemployment benefits and ultimately welfare.

One hundred and forty-eight newcomers, mainly from the former Soviet Union, this month completed the Jewish Agency's TAKA university preparation course for academics. The students, who are living in absorption centers in Ashkelon and Nazareth Illith, this week finished a nine-month academic preparatory program.

The TAKA program, which celebrated its Bar Mitzvah year this past June, is open to young adults who have completed at least two semesters of academic study prior to coming to Israel.

The program, which is very much in demand, begins each October and March. TAKA offers a five-month ulpan in Hebrew and a four-month university preparation course. In addition, there is a rich course of cultural activities, designed to strengthen Jewish identity and familiarize the students with Israel.

Some of the participants want to complete their studies, others pursue an advanced academic degree, and some decide to make career changes.

Olga Shabayev, aged 23, who came to Israel in September, spent the year in Ashkelon at the Agency's Calanit Absorption Center where she was one of 110 students participating in the TAKA course. A graduate in Economics from the University of Moscow, the 23 year-old student decided to immigrate to Israel. She has been accepted to Tel Aviv University where she will pursue a Master's Degree in Business Administration.

New immigrant students in a pre-academic program

An innovative three-month academic preparatory program for adults from moshavim in five southern regions began last month at the Sapir College in the Negev. This Jewish Agency initiative is designed to offer an opportunity to residents of Israel's periphery areas who did not have the chance to pursue higher education when they were younger. The program is open to residents of moshavim in the following regions: Eshkol, Merhavim, Bnei Shimon, Azatta, and Ashkelon Coast.

The purpose of the preparatory course is to give support, necessary tools and encouragement to adults aged 26 to 40 from these settlements, enabling them to participate in post secondary school and academic studies, each according to his or her needs and talents. The three-month preparatory program, will include tutorials in: English, mathematics, computers, Israeli history and social studies. There will also be workshops aimed at developing each individual's potential.

Some 120 adults and children from Ukraine just finished a 12-day summer camp devoted to the study of Judaism, Zionism, and Jewish identity. The camp was sponsored by the Metro-West Federation of New Jersey with the support of the Jewish Agency and the JDC.

Participants were activists from the Jewish community of Cherkassy in Ukraine, and surrounding areas of Uman, Berdichev, and other towns who traveled some 12-15 hours by train through the Crimean Peninsula to reach the summer retreat in Evpatoria, on the banks of the Black Sea.

The camp was staffed by four counselors - two from Metro-West and two from its partner community within the Jewish Agency-UJC Partnership 2000 framework, Ofakim-Merchavim. The entire group, lead by Israel coordinator Julien deVries, was trained together in Israel before leaving for the camp.

Highlights of the camp session included Shabbat activities, a moving Tisha B'Av ceremony and a farewell havdala concert.

The partnership between Ofakim-Merchavim, Metro-West, and Cherkassy is one of the first three-way relationships between Israel, the US, and the FSU now being developed by Partnership 2000.

Thirty Bulgarian Jewish young adults came to Israel this week on a ten-day Jewish Agency pilot trip to enable them to explore specific aliyah and absorption possibilities.

The tourists engage in a variety of occupations -- doctors, nurses, engineers, economists -- and even an opera singer -- visited various absorption frameworks throughout Israel and met with professionals in their fields. A number of them went for specific job interviews.

According to Vicky Angel, Deputy Director of the Aliyah Department, past experience shows that at least 70% of participants in pilot tours from Bulgaria make aliyah shortly thereafter.

About 200 young French immigrants and tourists to Israel took part in a gala conference in Jerusalem this week sponsored by the Jewish Agency's Aliyah Movement. Earlier, the group had visited a variety of sites in Jerusalem.

The program, which took place at the capital's Gerard Behar Center, included a musical performance and an information fair, at which a variety of organizations provided information about aliyah and tourist programs in Israel for young adults. These included the Jewish Agency, the Student Authority, UNIFAN, the French Association of Immigrants to Israel, universities, the National Insurance Institute, etc. Aryeh Azoulay, head of the Jewish Agency's Aliyah Committee delivered greetings to the participants.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak has proposed a secular revolution: "Civil marriage, abolition of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and National Service for all." The opposition: "It's an election exercise". MK's - "There's no chance of introducing civil reforms. The ultra-orthodox groups must bring Barak down." Commentators: "The Prime Minister has despaired of reaching agreement with the Palestinians, and he is now preparing his election campaign against Shas."

Despite everything, the peace efforts on the Jerusalem - Amman - Cairo - Washington axis continue. King Abdullah of Jordan this week paid a visit to Tel Aviv. Dennis Ross is hopping between his own family vacation, Israeli government ministries and Yasser Arafat's office.

"Judaism and not Zionism. Zionism first and foremost hurt the Jews," said the President of Iran, Khatami, who met this week with the heads of the Jewish community in Iran, calling for co-existence among the religious communities in his country. Khatami claims that the religion of the 10 Jews that were put on trial in Iran did not influence the sentence in Shiraz. Jewish sources told the Reuters reporter in Teheran that internal conflicts within the community complicated the efforts to help the 10 accused Jews.

A strange summer episode: An American intelligence officer who has converted to Judaism, arrived in Israel partly for religious reasons and partly for romantic reasons. The episode which has kept the media busy for several days, ended with the return of Captain Allan Jeremiah Mattis to his base in the US.

Not only is Barak's government shrinking, so is his bureau. This week, bureau chief Haim Mandel Shaked, his deputy Shimon Battat, and speech-writer Yaakov Goldberg all resigned.

Six Israeli high school students, aged 14 to 18, two of them new immigrants, brought home six medals - two gold, one silver and three bronze - from the International Math Olympiad held last month in Korea.

Israel placed 11^th out of more than 80 countries, for its best showing since it began participating in the Math Olympiad 21 years ago. Israel was one of 17 countries to win two gold medals - a first for the country - and one of 15 in which all the team members won medals.

The young people selected to the Math Olympiad undergo a long series of grueling national competitions held at high schools and occasionally junior high schools throughout Israel. Intensive math seminars are also held during school vacations, and outstanding pupils are sent to the Mediterranean Math Olympiad - in which ten countries take part - a couple of months prior to the world competition.

Every year young new immigrants are among those selected to the Israel team. This year was no exception, and two young immigrants received a bronze medal each. Alexey Doctorovitch, 18, who immigrated from Kazahkstan alone less than a year ago and was joined three months ago by his parents. Doctorovitch, who now lives in Haifa, attended a Jewish Agency kibbutz ulpan and is now enrolled in a preparatory course at the Technion. The other new immigrant, Alexey Entin is only 14 years old. He came to Israel with his family four years ago and lives in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli team members were Mark Braverman from Karmiel who received a gold medal; Oren Lang from Kfar Saba who was also awarded gold; Ran Tessler from Herzliya who received a silver medal; and Eran Assaf from Petach Tikva who won a bronze medal.

Prof. Shai Goren of the Mathematics Department at Haifa University has been the team coach since 1987. This year's achievements were impressive, says Goren, especially as Israel placed among countries that invest huge budgets in the systematic training of their teams.

Goren believes that the purpose of the screening process is not just to win at the Olympiad, but also to foster excellence. Goren, who stays in touch with most of the contestants after the Olympiad. predicts that the team members -- who are creative thinkers, very talented and motivated -- will go far and excel in their fields.

At the Phillip Leone Community Center in Jerusalem three special groups gathered together last week to dance, laugh, and create a communal art mural. The encounter, sponsored by Beit New York-Jerusalem, aimed to create social and cultural connections between both normative young adults and special education adults from Jerusalem and New York. Through the medium of art and dance, the participants created meaningful connections while communicating, not so much by words, as by action.

Following a fun dance workout, the groups began the art project under the direction of Israeli artists Nurit Shani and Dror Eshed, creating individual handprints together in tiles, filled with sand. A large communal ceramic hand, known as 'Hamsa', believed to ward off the evil eye, was also created made up of the small pieces of ceramics according to color schemes. The ceramic art mural will be donated by Beit New York-Jerusalem to the Phillip Leone Community Center in Kiryat Yovel, Jerusalem as evidence of the sharing, learning and memories that were created during this encounter.

Seventy participants from Yad Be'Yad-Yachad of the National Council for the Disabled in New York, Elwyn Israel, a rehabilitation program for Israel adults with mental retardation, and the Bnei Akiva Israel Zionist youth movement, took part in this very unique interactive project.

Beit New York-Jerusalem is a Partnership 2000 Jerusalem-New York program jointly sponsored by the UJA Federation of New York, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Jerusalem municipality.

Adela is a new immigrant from in Brashov, Rumania, a small town in the Carpathian Mountains. When she starts 7^th grade in the local public school next week, 12-year old Adela Negro, who arrived in Israel in late June, will already be well integrated with her peers - thanks largely to the "kefiada" day camp in Arad she took part in this summer.

Adela is one of 1,700 Israeli elementary schoolchildren who participated in kefiada programs this summer -- designed to provide children, many from disadvantaged backgrounds a good time, together with meaningful educational experiences. The kefiadas, run under the aegis of the Jewish Agency-United Jewish Communities Partnership 2000 framework, were staffed by 114 volunteers from 40 Jewish communities across the United States, together with Israeli counselors. The main emphasis is on teaching them English.

A scholarship donated by a member of the Partnership 2000 Steering Committee made it possible for Adela to attend the kefiada.

Adela, who speaks English fluently, had been in the country only one week when she began the program. Identified as a gifted child, she took an active part in the program, communicating easily with her peers as well as the counselors at the Kefiada. "Adela is very outgoing and also very thirsty for knowledge," says Ora Cohen, staff member of the Absorption Center in Arad, where Adela lives with her mother, Monica. After completing the kefiada, she sat in on ulpan classes with her mother, and she now has mastered basic Hebrew.

Ingredients:

3 lbs. onions
2 lbs. beef or veal
2 green peppers
1 hot pepper
2 peeled tomatoes
4 carrots
2 parsnips
1/2 cup dill
olive oil
pinch of salt

Preparation:

• Peel and slice the onions

• In a heavy skillet, fry the hot pepper with 4 tbspns. of olive oil.

• When the pepper is golden add the onion and fry for 12-15 minutes on a medium flame.

• Cut the meat into 1/2 inch cubes, dip in flour and fry lightly in a pan with 2 tbspns. olive oil until the meat is seared but remains rare inside.

• Add the meat to the pan with the onion and mix so that the onion covers the meat.

• Add 2 green peppers cut in half and sliced into thin strips, two grated carrots and 2 parsnips quartered.

• Add 1/2 cup of water and let it all cook on a low flame for two and a half hours.

• Crush the 2 peeled tomatoes and add to the mixture, stir and add 1/2 cup of finely chopped dill.

• Bake in the oven at 3500 for 20 minutes.

• Serve with potatoes or polenta.

B'Te'avon! Bon Appetit!