By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

The Jewish Agency and the Defense Ministry plan to offer soldiers an alternative to the self-financed, self-directed journeys of self-discovery that often follow the completion of their army service: a chance to serve as shlihim, emissaries to Jewish communities in the Diaspora.

The Agency said Tuesday that it hopes to recruit hundreds of soldiers, who after their release will work to persuade Jewish youth abroad to come to Israel for a semester or a year of academic studies in the "Masa" program.

Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski said Tuesday he hopes that discharged soldiers, who often travel after being released from the army, will choose to be sent abroad as emissaries through the Jewish Agency rather than venture off "into the unknown."

"Rather than suffer a year in India or working alone in New York, they can receive a traveling program from us which is structured and organized," said Bielski.

The Agency, which already sends emissaries to large Jewish communities in North America and elsewhere, hopes that this new program will help recruit more young Israeli emissaries to travel for a few months abroad to convince young Jewish students in the Diaspora to come to Israel to study for their "year abroad."

The Agency will finance the emissaries' stay abroad and provide them with pocket money.

Under the Masa program, the Agency plans to bring up to 20,000 young Jews from abroad to Israel to study for a semester or a year. The cost of the program is estimated to reach $200 million a year, with $50 million coming from the Agency and an additional $50 million coming from the government.

The Agency also intends to invest $20 million a year on a new project to reduce the educational gap affecting youths in distress, in particular in areas far from central Israel.

The total cost of this program, which will be called "Youth Future" will reach $60 million and will be funded evenly between the Jewish Agency, Jewish communities in the Diaspora and Israeli philanthropy.

Bielski and Jewish Agency treasurer Shai Hermesh said that since funds from abroad have decreased in recent years, the Agency would step up the effort to raise the funds to finance these promised projects.

"We have taken upon ourselves very large commitments and it is necessary for us to run all over the world find the funds," said Bielski. Hermesh said the scope of funds from North America, the Agency's main source of funding, has fallen over the last three years from $175 million to 140 million.

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