July 2, 2008

By HAVIV RETTIG

The WUJS Arad program will not shut down, but merely relocate from the southern desert town to the Central region, Hadassah spokeswoman Barbara Sofer said on Tuesday.

Sofer was responding to a Jerusalem Post report on Monday that the Arad program was ending operations because the Jewish Agency was going to close the town's immigrant absorption center that had provided housing for WUJS program participants.

According to Sofer, the program will move to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on September 1 for the fall session, which is expected to draw 50 participants from overseas. The five-month program will be extended by a month for that term.

All applicants agreed to participate in the relocated program when informed of the change last Tuesday, Sofer said.

When she learned she would not be going to Arad only last week, fall semester participant, Aliyah Schneider, thought the change could be "beneficial," a feeling she said was shared by other participants with whom she had spoken.

"The housing situation will be a better picture of life in Israel - living in a big-city apartment instead of an absorption center," Schneider said. "It's a shame we won't be in Arad, because there is something to be said for the desert life, but it's also an amazing opportunity to get plugged in [to Jerusalem]. And we're still going to hike the desert and study the desert subcultures."