The Jewish Agency has informed that the capacity of Ulpan Etzion on its Beit Canada (Armon HaNatziv) campus in Jerusalem has been tripled and will open summer and fall sessions with up to 270 students.
Hey everyone! As you know, Ulpan Etzion moved to Beit Canada and we wish the program nothing but the best. An idea for this website is to serve as a meeting point for the Ulpan Etzion community built throughout the years, but I really don’t have the time to devote to it right now.
Nevertheless, I’ve seen on the statistics of the website that many people that googles Ulpan Etzion reach this website and I thought it would be nice to publish any interesting information for them.
This time I received an e-mail with the Facebook group that was opened to gather all those people that are getting to Ulpan Etzion on July 2009. If you are making aliyah and coming to Ulpan Etzion, I recommend you joining this Facebook group.
I attach an e-mail I received from Ulpan Etzion staff. All the graduates are invited, pass the voice, let’s have a nice last evening at Ulpan Etzion. Hag Sameach to everyone.
שלום לבוגרי אולפן עציון
בואו להדליק איתנו נר רביעי של חנוכה ולהפרד מהמרכז ההיסטורי של אולפן עציון.
יום רביעי 24.12.2008 בין השעות 1800-2200.
* בית פתוח ומפגש חברים החל מ- 1800
* הדלקת נר רביעי - בשעה 1930
* סיפורים, תמונות, זכרונות, דברי פרידה - עד שעה 2200.
* ואז הכל עובר לבית קנדה….
תתקשרו/תשלחו אי מייל לומר כן/לא/אולי…להתראות - צוות אולפן עציון
Dear Ulpan Etzion Graduates
You are invited to lit the 4th Hanouka Cnadle and to say goodbye to our Historic Ulpan Etzion Campus.
Wednesday 24/12/2008 between 1800-2200
* Open House and Reunion - starting at 1800.
* 4th Candle Lighting - at 1930
* stories, pictures, memories, final words - till 2200.
and then all moves to Bet Canada….
Call/e-mail us to say yes/no/maybe….Lehitraot - Ulpan Etzion Staff
This may sound ironic because we know that the Baka campus of Ulpan Etzion is closing, but our efforts to let the public audience know about what is going on and save the campus are being quite successful.
We are on both JPost and Haaretz English paper edition this Friday. On Haaretz we are on page A5 and on the Jerusalem Post we are the cover of “In Jerusalem” edition covering the first page and 4 more pages of content.
Thanks to Michael Green from the Jerusalem Post and Raphael Ahren from Haaretz for your interest on our story, the time devoted to get to know it and their publications on the pre-Shabat editions of their respective newspapers.
Dan Brown from the eJewish Philanthropy also wrote an interesting opinion post about our story.
Just a comment: We were supposed to show up on TV, I talked to the reporter in charge of the story but because of the ending of class 118 on December the 15th and the time that takes to get the authorization needed to shoot the story inside the Ulpan, we didn’t have time to do it. We’ll leave the TV stars part for our next struggle 
Hey everyone, I haven’t written for some days.
This is not intended to be a sad post but an informative one: Ulpan Etzion Baka campus is closing, the decision has been taken and the next majzor (class) will be in Beit Canada.
The decision is final despite all the efforts we conducted. Apparently the Sojnut thinks that in Beit Canada they will be able to host more people and they are going to open the next majzor there also if the miraculous million dollar shows up in 2 weeks. They say that they’ll consider to reopen Ulpan Etzion in Baka only for the next class (majzor 120) if the money is raised but that is another tricky phrase.
The truth is that what was done is not going to be undone. The lease of the big building in Baka campus that was used since 1949 finished and the Sojnut didn’t renew it nor bought it. We’ll never go back to that building. Ulpan Etzion will be moved to Beit Canada and we will never go back to Baka, those affirmations are only targeted to keep open a very naive window of hope.
As I said this two weeks, we are not against the Sojnut but with them, we have the same goal. Nevertheless, I strongly criticize their lack of strategical view. The reality with Ulpan Etzion this last years sadly reminds me about Argentina, my former homeland. Decisions seems not be based on a mid-term or long-term plan but on a contingency, an always emergency decision that for sure you’ll regret in the future. Some of our friends tell me that Israeli politics are also about that, specially on these days of campaigning for the elections, but for now I’ll stick to my idealistic view of Israel and its democracy.
With this post I wanted to inform everyone that was involved on this struggle about the situation and really thank everyone and each one of you for your big effort.
Some minutes ago one of my roommates had the pleasure to deliver 3 letters on the hands of Eli Cohen’s secretary. After putting on paper all what Ulpan Etzion means to you, you can have the same good feeling as Orly simply heading to office number 238 of the main building of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.
Ynet, one of the most popular Israeli news websites, owned and operated by Yediot Ahronot, the country’s leading daily newspaper, published a story about the closing of absorption centers.
I’ve just spoke on the phone with a reporter of the Jerusalem Post. He interviewed me for getting to know the ideas of the Ulpan’s graduates and the efforts we are conducting. The Jerusalem Post had already published an article about the closing of UIpan Etzion mainly citing the Sojnut spokesman, now they want to go deeper.
It is important to have in mind that there are a lot of olim who reads the Jerusalem Post because it is their local source of information on more accesible language, for many of them their mother tongue. Many of these olim lives in Baka and the closing of Ulpan Etzion would be a big lost for them.
These are good news! After no more than 24 hours an article was published in the Jerusalem Post.
Written by Ruth Eglash the article describes the situation and cites a Sojnut spokesman as well as Ulpan Etzion students.
We still haven’t be able to verify if the article was published on the printed version of the newspaper.
Thanks everyone for your effort!
As you would know, we don’t have time so we are acting as quickly as we can.
This Thursday December the 4th at 20:30 we are gathering again at the Ulpan to review the status of our initiatives and decide how to go on. If you can, please try to be there.
Only 24 hours passed from our first meeting and many people are writing and are about to send their letter. Please please WRITE AND SEND YOURS!, it is very important that they’ll feel the impact of their decision.
Contacts were made with the media for getting them to come to Ulpan Etzion and find about what is going on. Also, if you know people involved in media, tell them about the situation.
Comment on the situation and encourage people to act. Send your letter and if you are in Jerusalem near downtown, you can even deliver it yourself.
Thanks to everyone! Let’s push this thing!, we can make it!