The Dance Camp “Machol Europa” is undoubtedly the oldest IFD dance camp in Europe. It seems that in the beginning no one believed or thought that such a camp would have such a great Zionist influence.

From 1989, dancing Jews from the countries of the former Soviet Union – Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – and later also from other countries such as Turkey, Cuba and south America, were included in the “Machol Europa”.

This mosaic made “Machol Europa” that has been taking place for almost 50 years, the largest international IFD camp in the world.

The organizers – Maurice & Susan Stone, had a tremendous impact on the development of Israeli folk dances in Europe. There is no camp in this world (if I dare say) that combined so many dancers from dozens of countries all over the world, many of who continue to teach IFD dances in their countries of origin.

The Stone family’s enterprise is a valuable Zionist enterprise. They operated an extensive financial system of donors that enabled dancers from low-income countries in Eastern Europe and South America to come learn new folk dances and specialize in the old ones in order to spread our folk dances to every corner of the globe. The Israeli folk dance community in the world salutes this important Zionist enterprise.