AJC Sends Israeli Children to eCamp

NEW YORK, July 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee
(AJC) is sponsoring scholarships for 40 children from the embattled cities of
Sderot, Ashkleon, and the surrounding area for eCamp, the first international
technology summer camp in Israel. The scholarships are made possible through
AJC's Israel Emergency Assistance Fund.

"We could not think of a more meaningful way to touch the lives of these
children, especially with the trauma they've experienced from rocket and
mortar attacks from Gaza," said AJC Executive Director David A. Harris.

More than 300 young people with high-tech aspirations, ages 10-18, will gather
together in Israel for eCamp, an initiative officially supported by the
President of Israel, Israeli Ministry of Tourism, and the Minister for
Diaspora Affairs.

AJC designated that its scholarships be especially for children from the
beleaguered region, in the south, near the Gaza border.

"The anguished requests from these children, as well as their parents and
teachers, were a chilling reminder of the plight of Israelis living on the
front lines under constant threat of violence," said Harris.

AJC's Israel Emergency Assistance Fund, which raised more than $2 million
since 2006, has provided funding for a resiliency center in Sderot, medical
equipment to three hospitals in Israel's north damaged by Hezbollah rocket
attacks, and two cardiac care ambulances for Magen David Adom, the Israeli
affiliate of the Red Cross.

During the Second Lebanon War, AJC delivered 500 first-aid kits to bomb
shelters, hundreds of packages of toys and baby supplies to Jewish and Arab
communities in the north, and completed a bomb shelter at a Haifa synagogue.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Kenneth Bandler, Director of Public Relations and Communications,
+1-212-891-6771, bandlerk@ajc.org, or Michael Geller, Assistant Director of
Public Relations, +1-212-891-1385, gellerm@ajc.org, both of American Jewish
Committee