Only “a miracle” could keep Ulpan Etzion in its current Jerusalem location, the upscale neighborhood of Baka, a senior Jewish Agency official told Anglo File this week. For decades the popular intensive Hebrew-language study program has been the first home in Israel for thousands of Western immigrants.

Earlier this month the Jewish Agency announced that after Monday, when the current session ends, Ulpan Etzion will move to Beit Canada, a larger property in the close but less attractive area of Armon Hanatziv, or East Talpiot, to save expenses.

The next session begins January 15 at Beit Canada. The official stressed that Etzion will maintain its format in the new location, offering on- and off-campus students a five-month absorption program.
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After the announcement, students and alumni began trying to raise funds to keep the program in Baka, an area popular with Western immigrants.

Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Colette Avital (Labor), a member of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, told Anglo File Wednesday that while the most important thing about Ulpan Etzion is the program itself, “if new immigrants think they need to be in a place where they can best integrate into Israeli society, every effort should be made to prevent [it] from being moved.” Avital said she would call Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski to discuss ways to keep the ulpan in Baka.

“If we receive new donations, we will calculate the costs and if we can continue Ulpan Etzion and Beit Canada at the same time I will be more than happy to do it,” the director-general of the agency’s department of immigration and absorption, Eli Cohen, said. Both agency officials and activists, however, thought it was unlikely that the necessary sum of about $1 million could be raised before January 15.

“Some of us spoke with our communities in our countries of origin,” said Ariel Kogan, an Argentinean-born alumnus. “Some contacts were made with people who can donate significant amounts,” he said.

Cohen said he appreciates the activism and is himself searching for funding. Nevertheless, he said the move was unavoidable and would actually benefit immigrants in the long run. About two years ago the campus was forced to contract after the buildings’ owners decided not to renew the agency’s lease for some of the facilities. In a telephone interview from Chicago, Cohen said that cut on-campus housing from about 160 beds to 79, while Beit Canada has dorm space for 250 students.

Established in 1949, Ulpan Etzion is Israel’s oldest ulpan. All of its students are Jewish, single, college graduates between 21 and 35. Their shared experiences have resulted in countless long-term friendships and several marriages.

Ex-Londoner Louise (nee Angel) Szczerb, 28, and her husband Wolf, 25, a Rio de Janeiro native, met at Ulpan Etzion. Wolf almost didn’t get there due to a bureaucratic glitch, and ended up starting the January 2007 semester one month late.

“We met on his first day,” Louise recalled this week. “He lived on campus and I lived off-campus, and we weren’t in the same class, but we met and have been together ever since,” she said. They were married two months ago in Jerusalem and live in Modi’in. “That is just one of the reasons why Ulpan Etzion is so special, because it brings people together from all around the world,” Louise said.

“I was looking forward to seeing all of the new people coming in - now it’s going to be completely abandoned and depressing here,” said Mimi Borowich, 26, who came from New York in July for the current term. She said she heard about the move right after renting an apartment next to the Baka campus.

Borowich wrote letters to the Jewish Agency, joined the fund raising campaign and also contacted Jerusalem’s new Mayor, Nir Barkat, who has promised to make the capital attractive to young people again.

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reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO