This year’s Limmud FSU Israel Festival kicked off last night at Kibbutz Ginosar. The opening event featured a special musical performance devoted to singer and songwriter Naomi Shemer, presented by the Beit Zvi School of the Performing Arts, and attended by members of her family.

Earlier in the day, Limmud FSU’s senior leadership met with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. The prime minister heard an account of Limmud activities and congratulated the educational organization on its work and said that the task of bringing young Russian speaking Jews closer to Judaism and the State of Israel was holy work and should be continued.

In addition to the prime minister, the group met with an array of politicians from all sides of the political map including Minister of Education, Naphtali Bennet; Minister of Immigrant Absorption, Zev Elkin; Director-General of the Zionist Union, Hilik Bar and Roy Folkman, chair of the Kulanu Knesset faction.

Today, a key event of the festival will be live video interviews with the Leader of the Opposition, Isaac Herzog; MK Avigdor Lieberman; Minister of Transport Israel Katz and MK Ksenia Svetlova.