Zionist Summer Camps Boosting Aliyah By At Least 0%

The number of Jews moving to Israel from the US without Moshava would be different by a statistically insignificant margin.

Honesdale, Pennsylvania, July 9 – Staff and administration at the largest Bnei Akiva summer program in the US expressed satisfaction today at the release figures showing that their work to instill Zionist values in American orthodox Jewish youth has played an outsize role in increasing eventual immigration to Israel by as much as zero percent.

Camp Moshava, the flagship summer camp for the religious Zionist movement in the US, occupies a prominent place in Zionist Organization of America statistics released this week showing that former campers and staff members of Bnei Akiva’s multiple such programs are up to zero times more likely to move to Israel once they reach independence than are orthodox Jews who do not attend or work at such camps.

Moshava Director Alan Silverman, who has headed the program for more than three decades, described the impact of the five Moshava camps across North America on American Aliyah.

“We’re proud to play such an important role in shaping the future of our people and their attachment to Israel,” he stated in a telephone interview. “Without Moshava nurturing the seeds of Zionist outlook they may or may not get in their communities at home, the number of Jews moving to Israel from the US could possibly be different by a statistically insignificant margin.”

Staff members agreed. “This is a precious opportunity to convey the importance of moving to Israel,” proclaimed Ezra Sofer, a counselor for ten- and eleven-year-old boys in the Eidah Alef division. “Hundreds of children come through this camp each summer in the bucolic Pocono Mountains, to experience life that in no way resembles what it’s like to live in Israel, except for the presence of Americans speaking Hebrew with awful accents.”

Zionist values play such a central role in the various Moshava programs that dozens of native Israelis flock to them to serve as staff, seizing the opportunity to spend a summer out of Israel. “I can get paid to impress American girls with my army stories,” gushed Iddo, who will spend the next seven weeks working in the cafeteria kitchen at Moshava of Wild Rose, Wisconsin. “I’ve heard so much about how easy it is to live in America and how rich you can get here. I’m thinking of coming to stay eventually. I know American girls are easy because of the Birthright groups I meet, but there are just so many more of them here.”

Silverman and other senior Bnei Akiva figures aim to double the documented 0% Aliyah increase among their constituency by the year 2025.

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