Jewish Agency cuts ties with Israeli gov initiative to boost Diaspora relations

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky says he will pull out of an Israeli government program to strengthen ties between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide, saying that the program has become ineffective and monopolized by government officials, Haaretz reports.

The so-called “Initiative for the future of the Jewish people,” with an NIS190-million ($50-million) budget, has been taken over by Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett and the ministry’s CEO, Dvir Kahana, while partner groups such as the Jewish Agency have been squeezed out, Sharansky adds.

In addition, the program has ceased to consult with organized Jewish communities abroad, and instead simply doles out funds to programs as it sees fit, continued Sharansky and fellow Jewish Agency official Charles Ratner, the chairman of the Board of Governors.

“The initiative has become a funding program, run by a single government ministry,” a statement by Sharansky and Ratner read, adding that “all meaningful dialogue with Jewish communities abroad have ceased.”

The principle aim of the program is to find “a strategic solution to the challenge of young Jews who are becoming distant from their Jewish identity and from the State of Israel.”