Day 5: The OR Movement
Web site in English:https://eng.or1.org.il/Htmls/home.aspx
About The OR Movement (from the OR Movement web site):
The OR Movement’s mission is to populate and develop the Negev and the Galilee regions which represent 80% of Israel’s territory, yet currently house less than 20% of its population.
The OR Movement was formally founded in 2000, but the idea of building new communities and strengthening existing ones began several years before, when a group of four highly motivated teenagers from Petach Tikva dreamed of establishing their own community in the Negev.
After their army service in 1999 they moved to the Negev to build Sansana, the first new community to be established in the region since the beginning of the 80’s.
To date, OR has established 5 new communities in the Negev (Sansana, Givot Bar, Be’er Milka, Merchav-Am and Charuv), and is in the process of establishing 4 more.
In the Galilee OR has already established one new community (Mitzpe Iron) and is in the process of establishing two more.
Over the next 5 years OR plans to relocate 26,750 families to the Negev, and 27,000 families to the Galilee.
In order to achieve these goals, a strategic plan was created focusing on 90 communities: 45 in the Negev, and 45 in the Galilee.
Both the Negev and Galilee strategic plans include Flagship projects with added values and leveraging abilities such as a new community for English-speaking new olim, a community for Army veterans, an ecological community and others.
OR, together with its partners in Israel and around the world is turning the dream of populating the Negev and Galilee into reality.