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April 4, 2003/Nisan 2 5763, Vol. 55, No. 32
Birthright saved from budget ax
STEWARD AIN
New York Jewish Week
NEW YORK - The popular Birthright Israel program, which has brought 40,000 college-age students to Israel in the last three years, narrowly averted a funding crisis last week.
The Israeli Cabinet restored much of the $14 million the Finance Ministry had proposed eliminating as part of the government's emergency budget plan.
Had all the money been cut, it may have forced the end of the project.
"It's encouraging to see that the Israeli leadership recognizes the importance of its role in the Birthright Israel program for world Jewry," said Marlene Post, chairman of the organization.
She credited Natan Sha-ransky, the Israeli minister who overseas Diaspora affairs, with working with the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restore the money.
Sharansky told The Jewish Week that his success came after daylong negotiations during the March 25 Cabinet meeting, which eventually approved by a vote of 21-2 an emergency economic plan that calls for slashing in midyear $2.34 billion from the budget to pull the country from the deepest recession in more than 50 years.
Israel is currently running a deficit of $6 billion.
The Knesset's 17-member Finance Committee must now approve the proposal and then submit it to the full 120-member Knesset, where it must pass three readings to become law; the first reading is expected April 14.
The Finance Ministry had proposed cutting Birthright Israel's budget by more than 25 percent this year and then eliminating it entirely next year.
Instead, Sharansky said he convinced the Cabinet to cut only about $2 million this year and $4 million next year from the $14 million the government had pledged to provide each year for five years.
The government of Israel is one of three equal partners of Birthright Israel. The others are the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for 189 Jewish federations in North America, and a group of 13 individual philanthropists plus Hadassah, each of which pledged to contribute $5 million over five years.
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