The Mizrachi, founded a century ago in Vilna, celebrates this year 100 years of religious Zionism.
The opening evening of the 27th World Conference of Mizrachi, held recently in Jerusalem, was devoted to the 100th anniversary of the movement. The evening’s program included dramatic presentations and films about Mizrachi’s history, activities and achievements. The speakers included Minister Efraim Eitam and Ehud Olmert, mayor of Jerusalem.
The large hall of Jerusalem’s International Convention Center was packed to capacity. The enthusiastic audience joined from time to time in singing with the performers. It was an evening that will be remembered for a long time.
On the occasion of the conference and the celebration of the 100th anniversary , the World Mizrachi organization put out a beautiful, richly illustrated brochure featuring greetings and congratulations by various personalities, organizations and institutions from Israel and abroad. The Mizrachi has branches in 35 countries. Many pages of the brochure are filled with messages and good wishes from Mizrachi organizations in various countries of the Diaspora. You can read in it greetings and words of encouragement from Mizrachi of Belarus, Mizrachi of Bukhara, Mizrachi of Chile, Mizrachi of Croatia )*Our small community is proud to be included in the Mizrachi family”), Mizrachi of Italy, Mizrachi of New Zealand (“From the farthest corer of the world, we are delighted to send our warm wishes to the World Center and other branches participating in the World Conference”), Mizrachi of Italy, Mizrachi of Norway, Mizrachi of Turkey, Mizrachi of Ukraine (“We look forward to working hard together to increase Jewish activities and Zionist education in the Ukraine”), Emunah, Switzerland, Mizrachi of Peru, Mizrachi of Spain, Mizrachi of South Africa (“We have a long tradition of providing Religious Zionist education and programming to the South African Jewish community”) as well as from other branches of the movement.
The reports of activities of various movements and institutions affiliate with the Mizrachi and of Mizrachi organizations in some of the cities and countries are very impressive. Only a few of these can be mentioned here.
World Emunah’s numerous projects in Israel include: A teachers’ training college in computer technology, graphics, fine arts and drama; a child adoption service; advisory centers for Agunot; golden age clubs; children’s day care centers; distribution of food and clothing for the needy; and Jewish study programs.
In an article about AMIT, we read inter alia: “Amit cares for over 16,000 youths at risk in nearly 60 schools, youth villages and child havens throughout Israel. Many of AMIT’s students are children from immigrant families (particularly Russian and Ethiopian) from severely dysfunction, abusive or violent families and from families living at or below the poverty line.”
Bnei Akiva is active in more than 30 countries, maintaining about 100 branches in which 50,000 young people are educatied to a life of Torah VeAvodah and Aliyah to Israel. One thousand members of Bnei of the Diaspora spend the summer in camps in Israel.
During the last 50 years, tens of thousands of young men have studied in Hesder Yeshivot. They participated in Israel’s wars and are now active in all spheres of Israeli life. There are now 35 Hesder Yeshivot in Israel, attended by 6,000 students.
Yavneh Olami, the international Orthodox student organziation, strives to provide a religous Zionist educational cultural and social framework for Jewish students all over the world.
Let us conclude with a small item from the lengthy report of the Mizrachi World Center in Jerusalem: “Answering the call from our branches, we are very proud to have hosted many solidarity missions numbering hundreds of participants. These missions began immediately after the outbreak of Intifada II and our latest one took place on Shavuot 2002. Two missions of note were: 45 South African rabbis led by Chief Rabbi Harris and 130 Canadians led by the President of the Mizrachi of Canada, Jack Kahn. Mission participates had many amazing experiences, including meeting victims of terror. We have had many more inquiries from our branches and hope to bring many more missions to Israel in the near future.”
The Mizrachi World Center published a short time ago, a new volume in the series Kovetz HaTziyonut HaDatit. This volume is dedicated to the centenary of the movement. It was edited by the well known writer, Simha Raz — author of two famous books on the late Rabbi Aryeh Levin, a biography of Rabbi A.Y. HaKohen Kook, and other works — and contains about 70 studies and essays by rabbis, scholars, writers and educators.
Mossad HaRav Kook, too is to publish shortly a volume on the occasion of the centenary of the Mizrachi movement.
The Jewish Press, Friday, July 5, 2002