Haim Ben Yakov, EAJC Deputy Secretary General spoke at a session of the Knesset Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora Committee. The Committee session was dedicated to Israel's policy on Jewish communities of the world.

Right now the extremely important question of how the Jewish world is to develop, and how the relationship between the state of Israel and the Diaspora communities will develop both in the near and far perspective, is being decided.

Most states where Jews currently live allow their children the freedom to repatriate to Israel and the ability to develop their community life. Integration and assimilation are both available as options for Jews. It is hard to call such circumstanced “Galut,” and many Jews do not believe themselves to live in exile. In democratic countries, where every Jew can choose where he or she will live, it is most important to keep strong cultural ties between Israel and the Jewish communities. The Congress believes that it is most important to attract leaders of Jewish communities in post-Soviet territory into global Jewish structures, where they can understand the seriousness of the problems Jews of the world face and to take part in their solution. It is also important to establish a two-sided dialogue between the Israeli offices of state and the leaders of the Jewish community of the Diaspora.

The EAJC representative stressed that the relations with Diaspora Jews can and should be maintained through existing Jewish organizations that know the real state of affairs in each particular country, which have experienced leaders that care for the interests of Israel, and that it has been time-proven that the Euro-Asian region has such structures.