Invitation letters
December 2nd, 2008
Invitations letters to take part on our struggle were written in Hebrew, English, French and Spanish. You can download them from:
Connection with other entities
December 2nd, 2008
One of the ideas proposed at the meeting we had on December the 1st at Ulpan Etzion was get connected to other helpful entities.
One is Nefesh B’Nefesh that today plays an important role on the aliyah of people from North America and the UK.
The other one is Nir Barkat’s party that on their campaign showed their concern about the amount of young people leaving Jerusalem specially to the merkaz area. Ulpan Etzion brings to Jerusalem young professional Zionist highly motivated people that a big group of them statys in Jerusalem after finishing their 5 months Ulpan period.
If you can facilitate the contact with this entities or other ones that will show interest on our struggle, please e-mail save AT ulpanetzion DOT com
Fundraising
December 2nd, 2008
The reason why the Sojnut decided to close Ulpan Etzion’s Baka campus is because of… yes, you can guess… money. That’s why we decided to get involved on fundraising.
We have 2 goals:
- Getting new donations
- Getting letters from the actual donors supporting Ulpan Etzion in its Baka campus as a program they consider important to invest their money on.
If you have contacts that will let achieve this goals, please e-mail fundraising AT ulpanetzion DOT com
Let the media know about the situation
December 2nd, 2008
The decision of closing Ulpan Etzion’s Baka campus has been taken fast and with a very low profile. We need to let everybody know what is going.
We decided to contact the media to let them know that the oldest Ulpan on Israel is about to close. They don’t have more than some days to come and visit the Ulpan that was the first home of hundreds of professionals working nowadays in Israel.
If you can get in touch with a reporter, an editor, anyone who is involved in the media, please let them know about the situation and ask them to ask for an interview on Ulpan Etzion, this can be their last time of knowing the oldest and more successfull Ulpan in Israel.
Getting back in touch
December 2nd, 2008
Ulpan Etzion has been working for almost 60 years holding 2 classes a year with more than 100 living in the campus and about the same ammount of people coming to study each morning.
Our power today lies on our possibility to get in touch with the people that were on Ulpan Etzion and asking them support on our action plan.
If you have Facebook, join this group and let all the people that were with you in Ulpan Etzion know about it.
If you know people that doesn’t have Facebook and were in Ulpan Etzion, please refer them to www.ulpanetzion.com and ask them to send their contact details to save AT ulpanetzion DOT com
URGENT: Letters to JAFI
December 2nd, 2008
One of the very urgent action item is to let the people on the Jewish Agency know the importance of Ulpan Etzion on its Baka campus and that its closure will generate a bad effect on klita (absorption).
That’s why we decided to write individual personal letters to Eli Cohen, Director General of the Jewish Agency’s Department for Aliyah and Absorption.
The letters should be sent asap because otherwise they will simply reach his office after the campus will be closed.
The letters should be addressed to:
Eli Cohen
Director General of the Department for Aliyah and Absorption
Jewish Agency for Israel
P.O.B. 92, Jerusalem 91000
Israel
מר אלי כהן
מנכ”ל המחלקה לעלייה וקליטה
סוכנות היהודית
ת.ד. 92 ירושלים 91000
Some recommendations for it are:
- Be polite, we all have the same goal, this is not something against the JAFI, we just want to show them that this is a mistake.
- If you can, write it in Hebrew, no matter if you make mistakes.
- Tell about your experience on Ulpan Etzion.
- Tell about the impact of Ulpan Etzion on your klita.
- Explain why would you consider that the Baka campus closure will have a negative effect on the absorption efforts of Ulpan Etzion.
Meeting outcome
December 2nd, 2008
Hey everyone.
This evening we had our first meeting about the closing of Ulpan Etzion campus. For those that wasn’t able to be there, I’ll try to summarize it.
The Jewish Agency is going trough a budget cut because of it financial situation. The budget needs to be cut on around a 10% that are like 45 million dollars. The JAFI has another merkaz klita on Jerusalem (Beit Canada) that they own, not like the campus of Ulpan Etzion that is a lease. We are talking about the campus in front of the big building, for those ones who were on Ulpan Etzion a while ago, the building was sold and unfortunately the buyer wasn’t the JAFI.
That’s why they DECIDED to close Ulpan Etzion on its Baka campus and transfer the program to Beit Canada.
Beit Canada is located on Armon HaNatziv, pretty much far from everything in town and it hosts families and young couples, although apparently it won’t be a destination for families anymore.
The decision has been taken, approved on a very low profile and leaving almost no time to act.
For those ones that don’t know what is Ulpan Etzion, it is an absorption center of the Jewish Agency that hosts young single people with a college/university degree that made aliyah. It has 2 classes that opens January the 15th and July the 15th, each one accepting around 90 people living in the Ulpan and another 90 coming to study each morning.
The Ulpan was founded in 1949, it is the first and oldest in Israel and because of the conditions the people that attends meet and the work of its crew with a know-how of years and years, the results achieved are simply excellent and after only 5 months on it, the students success on a great absorption starting to work on their professions, accepted to their phD programs, etc.
That’s why the following action plan was decided:
- Sending of letters to JAFI
- Let the media know about the situation
- Contact as much people as we can that were in Ulpan Etzion
- Fundraising
I’ll write one post to explain each point.
The important thing is that the actions should be done immediately, the class that is now on the Ulpan leaves December the 15th and after that they simply want to close the campus.
So please register to the Facebook group and invite those ones who were in Ulpan Etzion with you. We need to act together and to send those letters in the next days.