An interim report brought further bad news from New York in late March 1984 when Hollander again wrote that only 29 families (77 adults, 35 children) had enrolled to date, mostly in the JNF forest program.110 In regard to the West Bank track, low registration numbers came as a surprise, where “Kiryat Arba, which was the most popular last year, has become completely unappealing because of the extreme hike in costs.”111 At Ofra, “the costs are also considered high, but there apparently aren’t many options here.”112 A program with Yeshivat Yamit at Neve Dekalim in the Gaza
Strip had already been cancelled due to insufficient enrollment. While a subsequent memo showed only slight improvement in enrollment figures, “The objective of this report isn’t to cry over past mistakes but to accept the conclusions to the extent that will decide the continuation of the program in coming years. This year’s failure notwithstanding, I still think there is a place for a program like Mivza Ha-Elef.”113