March 30 1999
Nissan 13 5759
Jerusalem

Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) preparations for Passover:
750 new immigrants will arrive by Seder night on 18 flights from the Former Soviet Union (FSU). About 17,000 Jews will partake in central Passover Seders throughout the FSU organized by JAFI.

During the first three days of this week 750 new immigrants will arrive in Israel on 18 direct flights from the FSU and will celebrate the Passover Seder this year in Israel. Jewish Agency emissaries made special efforts to ensure that all Jews wishing to arrive in Israel before Passover would be able to do so. 7 Jewish refugees from Kosovo and Belgrade who have fled the war will arrive from Budapest, Hungary.

According to Amos Hermon, Co-Chair of the Education Committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel, 17,000 Jews will participate throughout the FSU in some 60 towns in communal Seders organized by JAFI. In the town of Belgovshinsky on the Russia-China border in the Russian Far East a special Seder will be held for the 70 remaining Jews in the town. Hermon added that a communal Seder will also be held in Birobidjan, and other towns in the Russian Far East.

The Jewish Zionist Education Department of JAFI edited and published a special Haggada in Russian which was distributed to 10,000 households in the FSU. 3 Families of Hesder Yeshiva graduates left for Russia in order to prepare local activists to carry out Passover Seders in 32 towns where communal Seders have never before been held.

In Israel, the Jewish Agency will enable all new immigrants to participate in a Passover Seder. 500 young immigrants whose families are not in Israel will be hosted by veteran Israeli families on the Passover Seder night in the framework of the "Together For Seder" project initiated by the JAFI Immigration and Absorption Department. 5,000 new immigrants will hold their first Passover Seder in Israel in 12 Jewish Agency absorption centers, Ulpanim (Hebrew language learning centers), Army bases, and Kibbuzim. In some of the absorption centers traditional themes of Ethiopian Jewry will be included and Haggadas will be in the Amaharic language.

For more information contact:

Michael Jankelowitz
Liaison to Foreign Press and Media, JAFI
Tel: 972-2-6202780
Fax: 972-2-6202708
Mobile:972-51-601-706