Aliyah and Klita Page

Aliyah and Kilta Page

Potential immigrants worldwide can now find answers to their aliyah queries through a new 24-hour, toll-free number with multi-lingual operators. Launched by the Jewish Agency, the Global Center for Israel began operating this week after a six-week test run.

The center received hundreds of calls in its first week. Each is routed to an operator who speaks the caller's language. "There's a wide range of questions people ask me," Batia Erlich, a former emissary in Argentina who fields phone calls from South America, said. "People call with real questions and want to know serious things like the coverage of artificial insemination in Israel. People have immediate questions," she added, "and our goal is to give immediate answers."

The center is part of a Jewish Agency effort to reduce spending on sending emissaries abroad. The operators can also communicate with potential immigrants through email, fax, or instant messaging. Tourists planning a trip to Israel can also use the service before or during their travels. "We have lots of knowledge spread across many different people. This is a place to concentrate all that knowledge in a way that is user-friendly," Yair Redl, director of the agency's aliyah division, explained. "People can call the center to open an aliyah file, but they can also call and ask what the weather is like, or if they should bring a sweater on their next trip."

For more information, contact GCI@jafi.org.il

or visit their website at www.jafi.org.il