Thinking About Their Future: Youth Aliyah students in a thoughtful mood.

As Youth Aliyah celebrates 70 years since its establishment, the child and youth rescue operation can look back on seven decades in which it has saved hundreds hundreds of thousands of Jewish children. Over the Jewish children. Over the years Youth Aliyah has taken in immigrant youngsters from every continent into the Jewish State and has also played a major role in educating disadvantaged Israelis, whose parents and grandparents were never properly integrated into Israeli society.

Set up seventy years ago by Recha Freier in Germany, Youth Aliyah initially saved thousands of children from Nazi Germany. Youth Aliyah was adopted by Hadassah founder and pre-State leader Henrietta Szold and became a Jewish Agency department. Over the years the organization brought to Israel children from the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Soviet Union and most recently Ethiopia and the Russian speaking republics. Since the 1980’s Youth Aliyah has also been taking in Israeli-born children from severely challenged families. families.

"Youth Aliyah and the Aliyah Department have been the Jewish Agency's flagship activities," said Eli Ofir, Manager, Unit preparatory villages, who has been associated with Youth Aliyah for 40 years.

Countless captains of industry, senior army officers, leading artists and college professors are graduates of Youth Aliyah. President Moshe Katsav studied at the Ben Shemen Youth Aliyah village in the 1950’s.

Nevertheless, despite so many distinguished graduates Youth Aliyah’s essential yardstick for success is more modest.

Tu B'Shvat celebrations

The first measure of success is for graduates to be accepted by the army. Rejection by the IDF because of behavioral or psychological problems will leave a teenager with a stigma for life. Success for a Youth Aliyah graduate is subsequently defined as somebody who can hold a steady job and will one day get married and have children and not abuse or neglect them. Many Youth Aliyah students have been the subject of abuse and neglect and the residential villages help them break out of that vicious circle.

In total today there are more than 10,000 students in over 60 residential schools, day centers and kibbutz schools funded by Youth Aliyah. This includes five Youth Aliyah Institutions – Hadassah Neurim, Ramat Hadassah Szold, Ben Yakir, Kiryat Yearim and Nitzana – which are supported by the Jewish Agency and a worldwide network of friends including Hadassah, Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Hadassah-WIZO Canada, and Youth Aliyah Committees worldwide. In recent years Youth Aliyah has also received generous support from the Spirit of Israel (Haruach Hayisraelit), which receives donations from an increasing number of Israelis, including the business sector and leading figures in high-tech.

With recent statistics from Israel's National Council for the Child showing that 30% of children in Israel – 656,000 in total - now live below the poverty line, clearly Youth Aliyah has much more work to do. This is a 10% increase over 2002 and a more than 300% increase in absolute numbers since 1980.

Shvat 5764 - February 2004