It was one of the pillars on which the state of Israel was founded, encouraging successive waves of immigration, raising funds and acting as a powerful advocate for international Zionism.
Now, however, the Jewish Agency -- founded in 1929 by the World Zionist Organization -- is facing the greatest crisis of its existence, amid proposals that it should no longer be involved in its traditional business of encouraging immigration, but function only as an educational body.
The agency, which raises most of its donations in dollars, is facing an acute financial crisis. The drop in the value of the US dollar has led it to consider closing down its operation organizing aliyah -- the return of Jews to Israel -- regarded as one of Zionism's overriding historic priorities. At present almost half the agency's US$320 million budget goes on encouraging aliyah. The agency has also been struck by a drop in funds from its pool of donors -- largely from the US -- who are concerned that it is over-politicized.
The background of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which after World War II became known as the Jewish Agency for Israel, is synonymous with the controversial history of the foundation of Israel itself.
Recognized internationally as the official representative of world Jewry after the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, it helped organize the escape of 50,000 German Jews in the 1930s under the Transfer Agreement negotiated with the Nazis. Later, as the plight of European Jews worsened -- and faced with tightening immigration restrictions to Palestine under British Mandate rule -- the agency continued to rescue European Jews by organizing illegal immigration.
After the war it became a key organization in the fight for a Jewish state, with its leadership arrested for resistance to British Mandate rule. Following independence, the agency's head, David Ben-Gurion, became the country's first prime minister.
Since then the agency has acted as the focus of successive mass immigrations, including the 1951 evacuation of 110,000 Iraqi Jews and the airlift of Ethiopia's Jews in 1991.
The disclosure of problems and divisions within the agency, emerged last week in a leak to Haaretz newspaper, which revealed in a report that the agency was planning to close one of its most historically important branches, the Immigration and Absorption Department, as part of a radical restructuring.
The newspaper said that efforts to find alternative sources of funding have not succeeded.
"The new plan can either give it a new identity or signal the end of the road. In any case, we have no choice," a Jewish Agency official said, commenting on plans for swingeing budget cuts.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS