First Group of 1,000 Youth Land In Israel

Only three days after the Israeli embassy was bombed in Tashkent, several hundred Jewish teenagers from that city arrived in Israel for a 10-day tour.

The teenagers came with their respective Chabad-Lubavitch representatives as part of Mekorot, a program that will bring one thousand Jewish youth from the Former Soviet Union to Israel over the course of the next two weeks.

Sponsored by Mr. Lev Leviev of Chabad Ohr Avner in the FSU, and coordinated by Chabad’s Mayanot Project in Jerusalem, Mekorot was established to give these youths their first exposure to Jewish life in Israel. “The youths will spend 10 days with their Chabad representatives, and visit many of the Chabad institutions in Israel,” says Rabbi Levi Shmotkin, director of the program.

The intention, he explained, is to strengthen their Jewish connection, and enrich their Jewish identity with the hopes that they will enroll in any of the numerous Chabad educational institutions in the FSU upon their return.