The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Deputy Secretary General, EAJC Representative in Israel Haim Ben Yakov has taken part in the work of the Knesset Subcommittee for the Relations of Israel with World Jewish Communities.

The Subcomittee discussed the strengthening of relations between the Jewish state and Israelis who are successful in academic, research, and scientific activity and live abroad.

The Director of the Knesset Research and Information Center, Dr. Shirley Avrami presented the results of studies that showed the number of Israelis abroad - 560 to 750 thousand.

Subcommittee Chairman Einat Wilif called for a change of attitude towards those Israelis that chose to live and worka abroad. "Our connection with them must be equal and non-condemning," she stressed.

As the Vice President of the Reut Institute, Netaly Ophir-Flint noted, "In the past, official Israeli administration paid almost no attention to Israeli communities of the Diaspora, but that has changed for the better now."

According to EAJC Secretary General, Professor Michael Chlenov, "It is important that the Israelis of the Diaspora, and most importantly - their children and grandchildren - did not lost their deep tie with the Jewish state. It is important that they were both seen by Israel and felt themselves not as the weak links, but the knots tying Israel to other countries, with the Jewish communities of the Diaspora."