Page 306 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

A reception for new Olim at Ben-Gurion Airport, July 2019. On the left in the photograph Isaac Herzog, Chairman of the Jewish Agency; Third from the right: Sam Grundwerg, World Chairman of Keren Hayesod. On the right: Yaakov Hagoel, Vice Chairman of the World Zionist Organization
After transferring the responsibility for the development and management of the nation to the sovereign government of the new state, the Agency focused upon an unprecedented challenge in human history: The absorption of millions of refugees and immigrants from the entire diaspora into Israeli society, while doubling the local population within a period of three and a half years and then again and again every few years. In the last decade, the Jewish Agency has focused upon a challenge no less dramatic than previous ones: Ensuring the future of a unified Jewish people centered upon Israel as its eternal homeland.
Social, economic and demographic trends in recent years have threatened the vision of a unified Jewish people. These include, among other things, division and schism within the Jewish people that is manifested in increasing tension between communities throughout the Jewish World around issues such as Jewish pluralism, interfaith marriages and the question of who is considered Jewish; Increased alienation towards Israel on the part of progressive youths in the United States and in other communities around the world, which substitutes whole-hearted support for Israel with increasing criticism of its conduct and at times even its very existence; Intergenerational changes stemming from the activity and behavioral patterns ״,millennial generation״ millennial generation” of the generation of the 2000s, the״ of the which has reservations about associating with community institutions and getting involved in leadership positions in the community; Dramatic changes to the landscape of the Jewish communities around the world, which are manifested on the one hand in a slow decline of old communities and on the other hand in the growth of new and renewed communities and
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