Capital: Jerusalem
Area: 20,770 km²
Population: 6.3 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Jews, Palestinian Arabs
Official language(s): Hebrew and Arabic
Religion(s): Judaism, Islam, Christians
Currency: 1 new shekel = 100 agorot
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
Dr. Moshe Kurtz, who later became the president of the Israeli SOS Children's Village Association, paid a visit to the SOS Children's Villages in Imst and Hinterbrühl, whilst visiting Austria in September 1975. The idea was formed to set up an SOS Children's Village in Israel in order to give many orphaned and abandoned children a new home. The Israeli SOS Children's Village Association was founded in 1977 as the legal body for carrying out the work of the SOS Children's Villages. That same year a suitable site for the first SOS Children's Village in the country was also found. Hermann Gmeiner personally inspected the plot.
The first families were able to move into SOS Children's Village Arad in 1981. This was followed by the construction of an SOS Youth Facility in 1988. The purpose of this was to help the youths who had outgrown the SOS Children's Village. Here they were helped to prepare to live on their own and were assisted in looking for jobs. A second SOS Children's Village was built in Migdal Haemek, near Nazareth, in the north of the country. This village caused much public interest as both the cornerstone-laying ceremony in 1995 and the official opening in 1997 were carried out under the patronage of State President Weizmann and his wife.
At present there are in Israel two SOS Children’s Villages, a SOS youth facility and two SOS Social Centres.