Israel Leadership Missions

Since its establishment in 1948, Israel has created a vibrant country in the Middle East, taking in Jewish refugees from all over the world, seeing her population grow by over a factor of ten in a mere seventy years, all the while fighting over five wars for her survival and several other major operations to ensure the peace of her citizens. Her robust parliamentary democracy encourages rich debate among her dozens of political parties. Arabs even enjoy the fruits of democracy, having more rights than in any Arab country in the region, with their own political parties and representatives. 
 
Israel has today one of the leading economies of the world, with a robust high tech research and development infrastructure that has a worldwide impact on medicine and technology. Despite the headlines which feed us a diet of catastrophe and doom, Israel has today a vibrant and dynamic culture.
 
We encourage our membership to develop a close relationship with Israel- the Land of Israel, Eretz Yisrael and her people. The local Jewish Federation of North East Pennsylvania conducts tours to Israel each year, for both the first time visitors and the seasoned repeat visitor. We are proud to have had many participants from the ranks of Temple Israel of the Poconos over the last several years.

Love of Israel in the Community

Many of our members are also members of Hadassah, the national women's Zionist organization, which actively supports many fine medical and educational initiatives within Israel, as well as youth groups and summer camps which foster Zionism and love of Israel.
 
Our children are encouraged to enroll in Jewish summer camps such as Camp Ramah as well PineMere Camp, which are located in our own backyard. Both of these camps have a strong Israel educational component and include many Israelis on staff.  Israel is featured in our Hebrew school curriculum and all of our students are taught to read Hebrew fluently. Our adult education program also features Hebrew language education and many of our members have recently become fluent readers of Hebrew.
 
Today, the majority of the Jewish people is equally balanced between those living in Israel and those living in the lands of dispersion (the diaspora). Demographers strongly hint that by the next generation the majority of the world's Jews will be living in Israel. Hence to be Anti-Zionist is tantamount to being against the Jewish people's continued existence, all protestations aside.