A regular meeting of representatives of the CIS natives' communities was held in Jerusalem It was as part of the forum of deputy mayors responsible for absorption. The forum was organized under the aegis of the Local Authority Center in February 2001. Its sessions are held once in 2-3 months.

Ashdod Shimon Katsenelson, Prime Deputy Mayor, and his colleagues Mikhail Raif and Petr Gomon from Natsrat-Ilit addressed the public and stressed the importance of such sessions, of their "purely professional and nonpolitical nature".

Larisa Gershtein, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor, said that the community of "Russian" deputies is a natural form of "mutual support and patronage".

"During the time of its existence the forum proved its viability, - Rina Grinberg, Prime Deputy Mayor of Karmiel and Forum Chairman, said. - This is a sufficiently effective work method that proved its necessity. It allows representatives of the Russian-speaking community, on the one hand, to use the most successful experience of their colleagues and, on the other hand, to contribute their own share into the common cause".

The Embassy of Israel in Ukraine states the decrease of the number of Ukrainian citizens wishing to come to Israel for permanent residence.

According to the embassy representative, the main reason of the decrease is the "physical reduction of the number of people of Jewish origin" living in Ukraine, and the aggravation of the political situation in the Middle East.

According to the Ministry of Absorption of Israel, during the period from January till September 2001 the number of repatriates from Ukraine made up 10.3 thousand people. On the average this is a quarter less than the previous year for the same period.

Today about 300 thousand Ukrainian natives are citizens of Israel.

The administration of the Israeli philharmonic orchestra headed by Zubina Meta decided to donate a part of the takings from the annual gala-concert and musicians' honorariums to families of the perished in the air crash over the Black Sea. As long as there are natives of the former USSR among the orchestra musicians, the IPO administration feels obligated to give Russian-speaking Israelis at least a small piece of what has been donated by these people to the orchestra.

Another charitable action of the musicians is to support families of firemen and rescuers who died in the act of terrorism in New York.

German Sandler, director of the Israeli philharmonic orchestra fund in the USA, was one of the victims.