Israel's 60th Celebration

Hadassah book club reads ‘Exodus’
Mon Jul 28, 2008, 02:44 PM EDT
Salem -

As part of its yearlong celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, the Lynn-Swampscott-Marblehead Chapter of Hadassah’s Israel@60 Book Club will discuss the novel “Exodus” by Leon Uris at its September meeting. The meeting will be held Thursday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m. at the Cornerstone Bookstore, 45 Lafayette St., Salem.

As part of the discussion, Diane Elefson, the Youth Aliyah chairwoman for Hadassah’s Shalom Chapter, will talk about Hadassah’s rescue efforts. Youth Aliyah first started to rescue Jewish youth from Nazi Germany. Some 5,000 teenagers were brought to the country before World War II and educated at Youth Aliyah boarding schools followed, after the war, by an additional 15,000, most of them Holocaust survivors. Today, Youth Aliyah villages continue to play a vital role in the absorption of young newcomers and also offer thousands of disadvantaged Israeli youth a second chance. Since 1934, over 300,000 youngsters from 80 countries have been part of the Youth Aliyah program.