An Israeli Government initiative slated for next week will highlight Israel’s connection to Jewish communities abroad, with educational and social programs aimed at strengthening those ties, announced the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.
“Diaspora Week” will kick off the 2nd of April 2022, with programs planned for museums, schools, and elsewhere.
“World Jewry is our flesh and blood. Today more than ever we can see how important this connection is, as well as the critical need for mutual support among the two parts of the Jewish people,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai said in a statement.
This is not the first time that the Israeli government has held a “Diaspora Week,” though the 2022 edition is being billed as the largest such event.
During the course of the week, the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv — once known as Beit Hatfutsot — will be open to the public free of charge, along with the Herzl Museum in Jerusalem
Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, a memorial to Israel’s second president devoted to research on Jewish Diaspora communities, will hold a number of walking tours around Jerusalem about the role of Jews from overseas in the city’s history.
The Diaspora Affairs Ministry is also working with the Education Ministry to hold a number of events in Israeli schools and educational programs and with the Israel Defense Forces.
As part of the weeklong event, 500 recent high school graduates from Israel will go on a hike with 500 Jewish teenagers from abroad along the Israel National Trail to “get to know each other better and understand each other’s mutual backgrounds,” the ministry said.
The initiative will launch with an event at the President’s Residence, attended by President Isaac Herzog, Diaspora Affairs Minister Shai, and Jewish leaders from around the world, who will discuss Israel’s relationships with Jewish communities abroad.
“We need to underline the importance of these ties the whole year round and celebrate them during Diaspora Week. The events this year are truly a celebration and so I invite everyone to take part and take the opportunity to get to know our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora,” Shai said in a statement.
“For Diaspora Week this year we want to emphasize and show appreciation for this special relationship within the Jewish people, a connection which crosses continents and which underlines the fact that the Jewish people is stronger than ever and is able to assist its brothers and sisters at any time and in any place, in times of crisis and in more routine times as well,” sai Director-general of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, Tziona Koenig-Yair
