The Arachim administration has presented its annual report of activities which shows a pronounced increase of Kiruv seminars for the year 5772. Over 21,100 people participated in over 112 seminars held in Israel and throughout the world of which 17,000 attended 82 seminars throughout Israel alone. These include special seminars in English and Russian, for families and singles.
Concurrently, the organization held 30 seminars throughout the world with over 4,500 attendees, taking place in the U.S., South Africa, Holland, Italy, Canada, France, Argentina and Russia. There were special trips to Poland to boost the communities there as well. This is a marked growth compared to the previous year which hosted only 103 seminars with 19,845 participants.
These major activities almost pale in the face of the thousands of lectures, parlor meetings and rallies throughout Israel and the world, serving as the forerunners for Arachim seminars and/or follow-ups and exposing tens of thousands of Jews to their heritage. The report also showed that during the past two years of activities, thanks to a focus on intensive follow-ups through personal guidance, study partners, house visits etc., there is a record success rate of 70% of shomrei Shabbos among the participants of the organization's seminars; 80% of them now keep Kashrus, 75% put on tefillin and 40% maintain daily regimens of Torah study.
The follow-up activities are carried on through a whole country-wide network of activists, a setup of ongoing parlor meetings and home based study groups and volunteer work. Arachim's Pe'imot arm organizes weekly telephone chavrusa study partners for over 600 avreichim and 1,200 women which cover a wide range of Jewish subjects. This translated to over 100,000 phone discussions via the Pe'imot project during the past year.
