For thirty years of blessed activity of the Maccabim Foundation, we have worked to bridge social gaps in Israel through educational activities. Under the motto "Education, Education, and Education," we focused on providing scholarships to students of Iranian descent in higher education institutions. Alongside this, we worked to nurture the heritage of Iranian Jews and assisted in publishing books and research.
We can look back with satisfaction on awarding more than 15,000 scholarships to students studying at all higher education institutions recognized by the Council for Higher Education and in all degrees. Over the years, there has been a significant increase in the volume of donations, the number of scholarship applications, and the number of scholarship recipients from the foundation. Although the foundation was established by Iranian expatriates in the USA and Israel and was primarily intended for Iranian expatriates, in recent years we have dedicated about a quarter of the scholarships to Ethiopian expatriates.
Several upheavals in recent years have forced us to reconsider the foundation's goals and priorities in allocating donations.
The initiative to provide scholarships to Iranian expatriates began after the Islamic Revolution and following the escape of Jews from Iran and the need to assist in their absorption. It was also a period of protests against social gaps in the country, and we felt obligated to contribute to reducing the gaps by assisting students in higher education institutions, which we saw as the most effective means of reducing gaps. Recently, immigration from Iran has significantly decreased, and the potential for immigration has also significantly diminished. More importantly, those who immigrated after the establishment of the state and after the revolution have integrated well into society. It seems to us that today, focusing on expatriates from a particular country is not as important as it once was and even somewhat archaic, and society has other needs in the field of education.
The attack on our settlements in the Gaza envelope, the war in Gaza, and the deadly exchanges of fire on the northern border, and the tightening of the chokehold of the "Resistance Front" established by Iran, the many casualties, the wounded, the evacuees, and the hostages, the many reservists have created a new reality in Israel. We in Israel and the donors from abroad felt obligated to adapt the foundation's goals to these changes.
As a result, we made a joint decision of the donors from abroad and the foundation in Israel to allocate the entire scholarship budget for the academic year 2024 (and probably also in 2025) to scholarships for students in the field of health professions (including mental health) that the country will need in the near future.
We will continue to encourage research on the heritage of Iranian Jewry and give priority to students of Iranian descent in all our activities.
On behalf of the foundation's management, we wish you continued success in your studies, hoping for better days and the swift return of the hostages.
