by Pamela Deutsch

“The accident: I had been living in Israel and working as a painter for many years, specializing in pastels. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to get an academic degree, but felt that Bezazel was not for me. I decided to study at the School of Visual Theater in Jerusalem. Although I was from a religious family, and my parents have been Ba’alei Tshuva (newly religious) since I was a small child, through my studies I found a new connection to Jewish culture through art.  Some of the people who taught there were very involved in this subject in Israel, for example Dr. Michal Govrin, who very much inspired me.  When working on my final project, I created a performance which connected Talmudic and Midrashic texts with my own personal story as a girl growing up in a refusnik family in Moscow.  This is the only performance where I played myself!   I found a special connection to my childhood, to the Jewish culture I had grown up with, and to a new artistic outlet.”

Yulia was born and raised in Moscow until the age of 13.  In 1986, she and her family immigrated to the US and were reunited with her grandparents who had been living in the US since the late 1970’s.  Three years later, Yulia made Aliya to Israel.

Yulia and three other actors were invited to perform her final school project, the play she called Mystorin, in Serbia. Much to her surprise and delight, the Serbian audience completely understood and felt connected to the Talmudic stories, as well as to the video projections of Hebrew letters.  “Mystorin” was later adopted as the name of the theater group that Yulia founded.

In 2006, Mystorin began working on a follow up project “Synagoga”, which was a collaborative effort between Mystorin and the cultural organization that produced Mystorin’s first performance in Serbia.  This new performance celebrated the beautiful ancient synagogue  found in Novi Sad. The performance included both Israeli and Serbian actors, and indirectly addressed the Holocaust using the story of Rabbi Akiva and his students.

Since its founding, Mysotrin has performed both indoors and out, throughout Israel, Poland, Romania, Finland, Russia, Armenia, and even Africa.

Currently, Mystorin is involved in a numerous outdoor productions, scheduled throughout  the year, at  many locations in Israel.  One of their most exciting challenges is the upcoming performance planned for the Lahav forest, at a site that was severely damaged during Pillar of Defense in November 2012.

This performance, “Follow the Red Dragon”, is a theatrical quest to find a magical Red Dragon. During the performance, which is scheduled to coincide with Purim, the Lahav Forest will turn into a magical land populated by four meter high puppets dressed in amazing costumes that were especially designed for the occasion. An ensemble of professional actors, dancers and musicians, will offer visitors an unforgettable experience of culture and fresh air.

“One of our ongoing challenges,” says Yulia, “is to raise funds for our initiatives which involve creating site specific performances that have spiritual and emotional importance.  Even before Operation Pillar of Defense, we had been looking to create performances in southern Israel.  Just as there was a connection to the Synagogue in Serbia, and the central square where we performed in Krakow, Poland, we have a special connection to the Forest.  For one day, we want to create a magic kingdom in the forest for everyone who lives in the region.  People visit the forest to see anemones and to spend a day outdoors.  For 4-5 hours, the forest will become a live fairytale where visitors will have the opportunity, with every step, to encounter something new. Many people have expressed their interest in giving something special to those who live in the south. We hope that our crowdfunding campaign will provide just such an opportunity.”

“Crowdfunding” is a collective effort of individuals who by networking with their friends and acquaintances support both nonprofit and for profit efforts initiated by other people or organizations.  Mystorin’s crowdfunding campaign for “Follow the Red Dragon” can be found here.

Yitzchak Levin, CEO Achiya – Yitzchak Levin, grew up in Bnei Brak, attended yeshiva ktana  and yeshiva g’dola, married at age of 22, studied in kollel for five years, had three children and then….

In May of 1993, Yitzchak was approached by the Va’ad Menahalim, the committee that oversees Talmudei Torah (religious elementary schools) in Bnei Brak.  They wanted assistance with two problems that they were facing: children who were dropping out of school and an acute lack of trained professionals able to deal with the children’s problems.

After studying the issue, Yitzchak determined that two things were needed: One, to train male teachers in special education and two, to help children who were having difficulty studying gemara.  Achiya started with a single class of male teachers studying in the Ministry of Education program to become certified special education teachers, and with twelve children receiving individual assistance in studying Talmud.

Yitzchak quickly discovered that there was a huge need for formal training of male teachers in the Haredi community, more than he ever expected.  Over the years the demand to add additional training tracks – elementary school teachers, kindergarten teachers, diagnostic testing,  and school counselors continued to grow.  A number of these tracks are now taught as combined BA programs with Bar Ilan University.

For the children, there was a need for a holistic approach to their development, both educationally and health wise.

Today, Achiya provides educational and developmental intervention for learning-challenged children in the Haredi community who study in mainstream classrooms. Achiya provides targeted therapies for children from infancy to adolescence, and has established Child Development Centers staffed by speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, music therapists and social workers, ADD/ADHD centers devoted to the evaluation and treatment of learning challenged children, community outreach programs, developmental kindergartens and more.

Yitzchak, did not have any kind of formal training when he started Achiya; he was simply a social entrepreneur and visionary.  He collected around him a group of professionals and he received a lot of free advice. Despite starting with no formal training of his own, it was always important to Yitzhak that the organization maintain high professional standards.  When suitable academic tracks opened, almost 10 years after he started the organization , Yitzchak decided that he needed to have professional certification and obtained a BA from Bar Ilan University  in educational counseling.   He is now studying towards an MA.

Over the years,  teacher training has expanded to 13 cities, from Safed to Netivot, and treatment programs are now available in Bnei Brak, Elad, and Holon.

“There are two big changes between now and 20 years ago:  parents now understand that it is ok to take care of their children and people are now much more willing to make use of our services.  This is a huge change in Haredi society. The other change is that when a job is available in a Talmud Torah, there are  5-6 teachers applying for the position and they are all Achiya graduates.

“Achiya is unique in that work with learning disabled children and with those who have developmental delays take place in one building. People come from all over the world to see our work.  Thanks to generous philanthropists we have been able to develop new programs and ensure that our programming is evaluated regularly by respected institutions such as Bar Ilan and Hebrew Universities.

“Oh, and by the way, my children do not have learning disabilities or developmental delays!”.

First published on Times of Israel.

by Pamela Deutsch

“I don’t know about you or your organization, but you just sent me a greeting card and you look interesting.”

If you are at all like me, over the last few weeks you likely received numerous digital New Year’s greetings from all kinds of Israeli non-profit organizations.  Some organizations are simply wishing a Happy New Year and using New Years greeting as an opportunity to raise awareness of their existence and the good work that they do.  However, other organizations are very plainly hitching a ride on the longstanding custom of making charitable contributions around the Jewish holidays, and are unabashedly seeking money.  How do you decide who is a worthy cause for your donation?

Personally and professionally, I always first check to see if the organization is legitimate.  This has become much easier to do thanks to Guidestar Israel (http://www.guidestar.org.il/en).   This website combines information from the Ministry of Justice with information provided by the organizations themselves. The information includes when the organization was established and whether or not it is an authorized organization, as well as whether the organization has a “Confirmation of Proper Management” that is up-to-date.  But, that is not all, the site also draws upon information filed with the Ministry of Justice including financial reports and governmental support.  Some of the organizations, but definitely not all, have added to the site additional information in English about their organization and its programs.

Once you know that an organization is indeed legitimate, how do you decide which of the legitimate organizations is worthy of your donation?  Today, Israel has more than 30,000 active non-profits.  Some organizations are very small and serve a specific purpose in a specific geographic area.  Conversely, others are national organizations with tens of thousands of clients.  Some organizations have enormous budgets and pay their executives huge salaries.  But many others survive on a shoestring.  To make things more complicated, the statistics about nonprofits in Israel also cover health maintenance organizations serving millions of people, universities and more.  The inclusion of statistics about such diverse organizations can make it very difficult to compare among smaller organizations in the fields of educational and welfare, for example.

There is also significant duplication and competition among the numerous nonprofit organizations. Many organizations provide similar services to similar populations, making it even more complicated to choose.  Unfortunately, some organizations make claims regarding their services that are not always 100% true.

Before donating your hard-earned money, it might be worthwhile spending a little time trying to investigate the organizations you are considering.  Obviously, the internet is a readily accessible resource.  Check out if the organization to which you are considering making a contribution has its own website.  One good place to start is by looking into who are some of the big supporters, if they are listed.    Consider if the organization is also supported by a foundation that has ideals with which you identify.  This can be particularly helpful, for example, because some foundations have strict reporting and evaluation requirements.  Note however that the absence of foundation support does not in any way imply that the organization lacks legitimacy.  In fact, some organizations that are mostly funded by private donors and staffed by volunteers are providing much needed services to specific populations.  Research the web for stories about the organization, as well, and its work.

When I worked as a fundraiser, I learned that what often motivates people to give is rooted in their own personal story.  People with a particular illness in the family often contribute to medical research in that area; people with elderly parents are often interested in services for the elderly, etc.  Sometimes,  simply contributing to a legitimate organization that does work in an area which speaks to you personally can be a source of significant satisfaction.

Finally, do not overlook old-fashioned networking.  If you do not know about an organization, chances are someone around you might know about it.  Ask around.  For example, I always find it very interesting to ask my children where they are currently volunteering and what they’re doing in their volunteer activities.  I often learn from them about great programs that were previously unknown to me.

Finally yet importantly, if you are considering making a large contribution, consider checking with a professional.  Due diligence services are available in Israel and might be worth the investment.

Shanah Tova and G’mar Chatimah Tova!

Throughout the 32 years I’ve lived in Israel I’ve always dreamed of a newspaper that would print all the stories involving the “little people” who do such larger-than- life things.

Thirty years ago I gave birth to Chava at 6:10 AM Shavuot morning. As I looked out over the Judean desert from my hospital window, I had no idea that I was going to get an up close look at one of those “little people” who would change the world. My daughter was born with a rare syndrome which would change my life forever.
Within minutes of her birth my husband and I were told that she wouldn’t survive even two hours. And yet in her inimitable way Chava has affected our lives irreversibly for the better and many other lives as well. When the doctors checked her developmental milestones their lists did not include a smile that lights up half of Jerusalem, nor did they ever ask about her incessant caring about all who come in contact with her. They never checked for her sense of humor or her never ending love. The list goes on…

Chava is unable to talk, walk or care for herself in any sort of independent way. Chava lives in a group home with four other young adults, assisted by the dedicated staff of Bet Noam, and  she attends Bet Noam’s day program in Kiryat Ono. Today she came home to celebrate her 30th birthday. Ten friends and ten staff from Beit Noam’s  Day Center joined her in what my husband and I could only call an amazingly efficient and well organized outing from Kiryat Ono to Jerusalem. Three specially equipped vans enabled this party to take place in our family home in the neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem. The melodic sing-along combined the sweet voices of a talented few and a number of communication boards and electronic devices enabling everyone to participate. The meal came in three forms: schnitzel in pita, schnitzel cut up in pieces and schnitzel blenderized for those who can’t chew or swallow.

Chava received the best birthday present she could have asked for. What was so amazing about all of this was the ease with which the staff provided all assistance. Every minute was well planned, including the rest stops and breaks for those who needed such The staff wove their assistance in between chatting, joining in the singing and looking through Chava’s childhood photo albums. The atmosphere was calm, caring and full of love.

The combination of young college age students, girls participating in Sherut Leumi and Bnei Sherut provides these young people with disabilities, a community to live, learn and grow in. True friendships develop here and these young staff members continue to visit and maintain contact once they leave to do their army service and complete their University studies or get married. They maintain friendships with the chevre of Bet Noam for years to come.

The “little people” of our little country are in my eyes big news and well worth the read!

Changing the Ethiopian Narrative

by Pamela Deutsch

“I have decided to change my personal narrative.  Most Ethiopians including myself usually start by saying…I was born in a small village, I trekked to Sudan, spent a year in Sudan…what I believe Israelis hear that the Ethiopian community is a deprived community.”

Michal is 38 years old, married and mother of two children ages 6 and 3.  She has a master’s degree in educational counseling from the Univeristy of Haifa, was born in Ethiopia,  and made aliyah at the age of 9.

Michal’s family lives in Kfar Saba and Michal attended Ulpanat Tsfira. As a national service volunteer, she worked in the caravan settlement for Ethiopians at Hatzrat Yasaf, where she led parent groups and worked with young children.  Her motivation for doing so, was that she might be able to prevent these parents and children from making the same mistakes she and her family made during the absorption process.

After completing national service, Michal attended the University of Haifa where she studied education.

During her master’s degree, Michal continued working with children and youth, but also held another er position simultaneously;  through the Israel Institute for Democracy, she worked as a research assistant for the Knesset immigrant and absorption committee under the direction of MK Naomi Blumenthal.  After completing her master’s degree, Michal was chosen by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the staff of the Disney Corporation to work in the Israeli Pavilion at Disney World Orlando for a year.  “ I really enjoyed the experience and was very proud to represent Israel, as a black Jewish Israel woman.”

Upon returning to Israel, Michal was looking for an opportunity to work with the Ethiopian community and at the same time to lead change.  She talked with all kinds of Ethiopian organizations.  At Fidel she was challenged to present her ideas and explain how she would implement them. Michal understood that Fidel was an organization that empowered people to grow.

Fidel has two goals to train Ethiopians to be mediators and to empower them so that they will be able to provide good and professional services to the Ethiopian community.  But, more than that, the training provides the employees with skills and opportunities for life.  And this is what turned Michal on!

Michal began working at Fidel in 2000 as the Professional Training Director and over the years her job description expanded.  From 2006 to 2011 she served as deputy CEO of Fidel before assuming the position of CEO in 2011.

Since Michal began working at Fidel, the Ethiopian community has changed – particularly in terms of leadership.  Today, the young people, particularly those in there early thirties, who completed the majority of their education in Israel, and who have made Israeli culture their own, are now the leaders, and they are well able to express themselves on topics such as absorption, education, where resources are needed and where they should be going.  And they are not afraid to ask hard questions. There is no question that the new leadership at times challenges those who became for them.

Just as Michal has changed her personal narrative, she believes that it is time for the organizations working with Ethiopians to change their narrative as well.  Michal has already begun to take a good hard look with her staff and board, at Fidel’s strategy, whether their programs continue to be effective, whether their resources being used in the most effective manner, and how can they as an organization improve and learn in order to achieve the goals they feel are important for the Ethiopian community.

“Fidel since its establishment, has created very strong infrastructures in the communities where it works; our next step is to figure out how to mobilize the children and youth of these communities to become leaders within their own localities.”

Voice of the Child is the only organization in Israel that specializes in the development and implementation of programs preventing sexual harassment amongst children.

I asked Ayelet, how she became involved with this issue?

“While studying for my Master’s Degree in Educational Sociology, I took a seminar on gender and sexuality, and for my seminar paper I wrote about sexual harassment between hotel guests and employees.  During my research I discovered that there was lots of reading material about sexual harassment of adults, but there was a significant gap in information about sexual harassment among young children from a sociological point of view.”

Born and raised in Jerusalem, Ayelet is an 18^th generation Jerusalemite on her mother’s side and her father was from Afghanistan.  She attended the Rene Cassin High School in Jerusalem and served as a teacher-soldier in the Israel Defense Forces.  Ayelet obtained a  BA in Education from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a Masters in Educational Sociology from the same institution.

“At that point I decided to drop everything else I was doing, I had been working in at the Hebrew University Research Institute for Innovation in Education, and pursue a doctorate on the this topic.  My next discovery was that there were no sociologists in Israel who specialized in sexual harassment among young children.”  Hebrew University made a few suggestions about institutions where she might pursue a doctorate, but in the end, with three young children in home, she chose the closest option.  In 2004, after 4 years of research and writing, Ayelet received her PhD in Educational Sociology, from Anglia Polytechnic University (APU), England.

After finishing her doctorate, Ayelet did not want her work just to be theoretical but to have practical application, so she approached the Ministry of Education.  In parallel, she formed a nonprofit organization , Kol Hayeled, and developed two educational programs for children from ages 5-8 and 10 -12, that focused on identifying, preventing and coping with bullying and sexual harassment between children and learning to behave with mutual respect towards one another.

The Ministry sent Ayelet to the Department for Gender Equality, where she applied for and won a tender to provide educational programs in secular elementary schools.  This was a four-year contract, and Voice of the Child recently won a second tender for the provision of similar services.

In the meanwhile Kol Hayeled has gone on to develop new programs for children and youth from ages 5-17, which alongside classroom programs that address issues such as safe behavior over the internet, include a play for teenagers that addresses sexual harassment, and which was presented in the Supreme Court last week.

Evaluation of Voice of the Child programs has shown that they reduce the level of violence in the classroom, and raise gender awareness.

I asked Ayelet, what comes next?

“Our next move will include the adaptation of our programs and materials for Arabic speakers and possibly religious populations, and to steadily increase awareness to these issues amongst educators and parents.”

Ayelet is married with 3 children and lives in Mevasseret Zion.

“Serious Jewish education should demand doing and learning, that changing lives is much more difficult than writing a lecture.”

Levi grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in a very committed Jewish home; committed to Israel, and committed to Jewish tradition. He attended public schools, and simultaneously a rigorous daily Jewish/Hebrew education program, which met 10 hours a week. Levi’s parents in his own words were “profoundly Jewishly undereducated”.  However, their commitment to Jewish education was unshakeable and they overcompensated in how they educated their child.  Attendance at his Jewish education program was not up for discussion and as far as his parents were concerned being Jewish was the most important part of his identity and it was important that he know all about it. According to Levi, Cleveland’s eastern suburbs were a good place to grow up Jewish, because there is little else to do.  The Jewish community is very organized and they put the wealth to good use.

Levi’s parents were leftist in their politics and humanistic in their understanding of the world.  His mother taught for many years in a school where almost everyone was African-American, and Levi grew up understanding that while life is be lived, paying attention to those who are disadvantaged is just as important. His household was one that took civil rights very seriously, but being a Jew was the most important part of your identity.

“I always knew I wanted to be a Rabbi,” says Levi, as modeled by the rabbi in his synagogue, someone who was powerful and influential, who stood on the pulpit and gave sermons, but was not necessarily very learned.  Levi attended the University of Cincinnati, studying political science and simultaneously studied for a rabbinical degree at Hebrew Union College.  Spending his junior year at Hebrew University in Jerusalem was the most decisive year of his life for several reasons.  Being out of reach of his very protective parents taught him he could make it on his own.  Falling in love with Chaya, his wife of 44 years, made living in Israel crucial, as she was already committed to making aliyah.

Levi went back to the US, completed his degrees, and worked for 4 years as Hillel Director at the University of Missouri.  The post included teaching at the University and serving as the rabbi of the synagogue in Columbia, Missouri.

In 1976, the Lauer family made aliyah.   Chaya found work nearly immediately as a social worker at Hadassah Hospital.  Levi struggled to find work until after applying to be a student at Pardes, he was offered the job of director..

Levi served as Director of Pardes for 17 years, taking an organization with 20 students and an overdrawn bank account to an organization with 85 students and money in the bank.  At the time, Pardes was the only co-ed, post-university, halachic institution of learning.  It was a place for seriously searching adult Jews who wanted an environment committed to halacha, but without insistence on any particular standard of halachic commitment and practice.  The young people who attended were among the best and the brightest; people who wanted to synthesize humanism and devotion, lishma – for its own sake, not for professional training.

During these years, Levi describes two formative experiences.  One was serving in the Israel Defense Forces in a combat artillery unit.  His service taught him a lot about the implications of power, and what it is like to agree to a democratically made decision that you disagree with in political principle.  He also learned about his own capacities and tolerance that he never knew he had and also came into contact with all kinds of people to whom he would never had a chance to be exposed.

The second was working for 6 summers at the Brandeis-Bardin Camp Institute in Simi Valley, California.  At the Institute, Levi had the opportunity to work with Alvin Mars and Danny Gordis, who helped him far better understand what good teaching was and his own capacities as teacher.

After leaving Pardes, Levi spent time working at both Melitz and the Shalom Hartman Institute.  However, at a certain point he realized that doing is more important than learning for the sake of learning.  Serious Jewish education should demand doing and learning, that changing lives is much more difficult than writing a lecture. “It would be good if I were to be able to make a little difference dealing with urgent needs in Israel; affect younger people by giving them work and make it possible for them to be infected with an appetite for social activism.  Demand creates a kind of adrenalin – they will be so addicted to making a change in people’s lives that they will be addicted to it forever,” says Levi.

ATZUM was established in 2002 with one of its goals exploring moving the beit midrash to the street.   It is an organization that addresses the needs of people too little attended or ignored and avoids duplicating the efforts of other organizations. Levi was inspired by Paul Farmer who believes that among the essential ingredients to being a serious agent of social change are the courage to fail (humility) and believing that you do not have the right to be tired.  This was particularly good for Levi as he has endless energy.  With the help of a devoted staff, ATZUM has grown from an organization that worked with 18 terror victims and their families to working with more than 450 families.  Its other projects include, working with Righteous Among the Nations, a task force against human trafficking, and an oral history project for Ethiopian teens and Ethiopian Prisoners of Zion.

As I talked to Levi, I understood that ATZUM works because Levi juggles.  He is constantly on the phone, excels at putting people together,  and making 1+1 equal 3.

Levy and Chaya live in Jerusalem.  They have 2 daughters and 2  grandchildren.

by Pamela Deutsch

Eli Bareket was born inTel Aviv-Jaffa and raised in Bat Yam.  He attended elementary school in Bat Yam, and then continued his education at Boyer in Jerusalem as a boarding student.  He served in the IDF in the Golani Brigade later becoming an officer.

After his military service Eli worked, and eventually began studying Islam and Near Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University.  As a student, he was active in a number of social justice frameworks.  As a member of Students for Social Justice, Eli was involved in efforts to raise awareness develop consciousness to social justice issues.  As a member of the International (Sephardic) Educational Front, he was involved in the creation of a national program called Bridge to College, which worked to assist students not enrolled in academic tracks to improve their matriculation scores and increase their awareness to higher education and the opportunities it could give them. Bridge to College also tried to assist the students in understanding why they were not in academic tracks; exploring issues such as the students’ expectations of themselves and the expectations of those surrounding them. One of the issues that arose from their work is that children are unaware that they are not in academic tracks; they are part of a big push to take and pass matriculation exams but the exams they are taking are not necessarily at the levels that will later allow them to attend university.

Having attained his BA, Eli then continued studying for a Masters, in an individually designed program on Muslim minorities – e.g. Muslims in the Philippine sand Ethiopia.  In parallel, he worked at Beit Hillel at theHebrewUniversity.  During his ten-year tenure at Beit Hillel, he was involved in the evolvement of the organization from an organization that worked almost exclusively with foreign students, to one whose main goal and strategies was to work with mainly Israeli students.  Eli created a working model and was promoted to program director.  Today, Hillel has expanded to 10 campuses in Israel.

At the same time,  Eli was active in Mayan Hachinuch Hademocrati.  This organization, founded in response to the Shas initiative to bring religious education to Jerusalem’s weaker neighborhoods, provided informal education and tutoring in weak neighborhoods in Jerusalemfor both Arab and Jewish populations.  In addition, Mayan Hachinuch Hademocrati, worked to empower children, youth, and their parents.

In 2005 Eli became the director of Memizrach Shemesh.  Founded in 2000, by the Avi Chai Foundation andAlliance“Kol Yisrael Chaverim,  Memizrach Shemesh, is a Beit Midrash (House of Study) and a Center for Jewish Social Activism and Leadership inIsrael. Dedicated to the values of communal responsibility and social action rooted in all Jewish traditions including those of the Sephardi and Mizrachi heritage, the organization cultivates and trains leadership in Israel’s geographic and social periphery, with hundreds of participants every year working towards improvement and change in their communities. Before directing the organization, Eli was part of a group that met to discuss what the Sephardic tradition has to give to Israeli society and its issues and was in that sense one of the founders of the organization.  He participated in one of the first learning groups run by the newly founded organization.

During his tenure, Memizrach Shemesh has grown from working annually with 170 participants to more than600 ayear.  The organization runs programs from Kiryat Shmona toArad, for different age groups from post high school students to parents.  In addition, Memizrach Shemesh works with the Border Patrol.  In this program, officers participate regularly in a Beit Midrash.  Their participation assists the officers in being able to see themselves as educators, aids their ability to deal with issues such as social responsibility within their units, and helps them understand that as officers they can empower their soldiers to dream of greater things when they finish their service such as an academic education.

In addition, Memizrach Shemesh is working with Keren Rashi to open Darka, a new network of junior high and high schools in the periphery, designed to educate for excellence – both academic and social, as currently there is no network whose goal is academic achievement. Finally, the organization has expanded its international reach working with communities in bothNew York City and Budapest.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Eli, continues to be active beyond his role as CEO.  He served, as a member of the Kedma committee for the “poel tedek behinuch” (an education prize), is a member of the international council of the New Israel Fund, and served for two years as the chair of the Association for Batei Midrash inIsrael.   Today, Eli chairs the board of Panim, which is now a federated organization, with each member organization having a vote on the board.

In his spare time, Eli has begun to write poetry.  He recently wrote a poem for his son to help him understand when you were a kipa and when you do not; something which is clear for someone who is either religious or not, but less clear when you are traditional.

Eli is divorced and the father of 3 children and lives in Jerusalem.

by Pamela Deutsch

Ido was born in 1968 inTel-Aviv-Jaffa and grew up in Bat Yam.  It was only at the age of two and a half, that it was discovered that he was hard of hearing.  As he was a premature baby, the doctors and nurses kept telling his parents, who already had twin girls, that he wasn’t talking because his development was delayed.   Ido was close to three when he received his first hearing aids.  He was sent to a nursery program run by Micha where the first goal was to teach him how to read.  By the age of three and a half he was reading fluently and soon after learned to speak.  Ido was mainstreamed into theBat Yam school system from the beginning.  However, hearing aids then were not what they are today.  The hearing aids themselves, which were large and drew attention were connected to a box that rested on his chest in a special undershirt.  He was the only hard of hearing child in his elementary and high school and he was not acquainted with others who were hard of hearing.

As a teenager, Shema invited him to activities, however most of the kids were deaf and spoke sign language which Ido did not.  His high school years were particularly isolating, as he was not one of the hearing and not one of the deaf.  Having attained a full matriculation certificate, Ido volunteered for the army, because as someone with a disability he was not drafted, and served in the intelligence corp.  The army opened up new worlds for Ido and was a wonderful place to meet new people.  Having grown up in a very homogenous atmosphere, this was Ido’s first opportunity to meet a greater variety of people; people from different places, backgrounds, levels of religious observance, etc.

After he finished his service, Ido began to explore what to study.  Ido’s father, after having met Prof Jerry Reichstein, who was then the head of the program for special education for hearing impaired children at TelAvivUniversity, suggested that Ido meet with him.  It was Prof. Reichstein who sent Ido to talk with an organization called Keshev, an Israeli organization for the hard of hearing which existed for 10 years between 1982 and 1992. It was at Keshev, where Ido met for the first time, other people who were like him.  But not right away of course.  Ido, having remembered what it was like to go to Shema activities was reluctant to attend social activities at Keshev.   However, one day he received an invitation for folk dancing which was something he really liked and for the first time he met people like himself… people who are hard of hearing, who use hearing aids, and speak orally.  Ido was sure he was going to meet and marry someone who was hard of hearing.

At Keshev, Ido learned that he was eligible for all kinds of services from the National Insurance Institute.  The NII’s first suggestion was that he undergo vocational testing. The testing agency made two suggestions, accounting or warehouse logistics, both of which require very little interpersonal communication.  Ido’s stab at learning bookkeeping lasted for all of three months and his study of architecture, met a similar fate.  However, private career counseling was more successful and through that process he decided to study cinema and television atTelHaiCollege.  It was at Tel Hai when Ido asked the head of the department about whether as someone who was hard of hearing he could study cinema – he was told that this was not the air force and his medical condition was not a basis for acceptance or rejection.  In fact, the head of the department used to send students to Ido saying that he could be there sound man – he did not relate to Ido as being disabled at all.

Ido completed his degree program and began working for the Israel Association of Community Centers as a coordinator for community television in Kohav Yair and Ramat Eliyahu. It was during this period that the Beit Berl College opened a Bachelors in Education program in Informal Education particularly for community center workers.  Ido attended the program and attained his BEd.

During this time Ido was busy not only with work and school.  When he returned from Tel Hai, Keshev had folded and Ido decided there was a need to provide information for the hard of hearing.  Ido began producing a newspaper the “Faxiton” which was distributed by a number of organizations for the deaf and hard of hearing.  This was in the years before the internet became popular and the paper was often passed from hand to hand.  Ido would receive feedback and responses to the articles from all over the country.

In 1997, Ido joined Prof. Reichstein, Avi Blau, Dr. Becky Shocken and Ahiya Kamara in the founding of Bekol – a membership organization for the hard of hearing.  Ido was active as a volunteer in promoting accessibility, and in 2002 began to work for the organization. Three years ago he became the CEO.  Being CEO has been a learning experience and Ido is always learning how to better fulfill this role.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ido is married to a women who is fully hearing whom he met through a mutual friend.  Today they live in Tel Aviv with their daughter and son.

by Pamela Deutsch

Talia was born in Switzerland and made aliyah with her family at the age of five.  At the age of seven, the family moved to Nigeria, where her father worked for the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva.  At the time, there were quite a few Israeli families living in the area, and there was even an Israeli school with two grades per class.  Later Talia attended a boarding school in Nigeria; however when the Nigera-Biafra war broke out, in 1967, Talia and her family realized that she would not be able to go back to school in Nigeria and so she attended the Kfar Yarok boarding school in Israel.  When her parents moved back to Israel, Talia still had two more years of school and she then finished her high school education in Ramat Gan, graduating from Ohel Shem.

As an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Talia served in the Intelligence Corp, and during the 1973 war as a casualty officer in her unit.  Upon finishing her service, she began to study English and French at Hebrew University, but her studies were interrupted by the needs of her growing family.

While raising her family, Talia held a wide variety of positions including serving as an officer in the Israeli Police Force, a teacher for natural childbirth and breast feeding counselor, directing the track for front desk personnel at a hotel school, and working as a tour guide at Hadassah Hospital.   When Talia was pregnant with her third child, she began studying social work at Hebrew University.

Having completed her BSW Talia began working at the National Insurance Institute with widows, widowers and terror victims. Over the next few years, Talia attained a MSW from Bar Ilan University in clinical social work, studied psychotherapy and bibliotherapy, and attained the credentials necessary to become a qualified social work supervisor.

In 1994, she left NII and opened her own private practice specializing in bereavement and family counseling.  During those years, she volunteered as an ambulance driver. In 2001 in response to the Versaille disaster, when an events hall collapsed during a wedding, Talia voluntarily created a support group for the bereaved families under the umbrella of the Jerusalem municipality.  Other professionals in the field recognized the work Talia did, and she was invited to join a new initiative – the Israel Trauma Coalition.

Initiated at the height of the second  intifada, the Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC), started with the support and through the auspices of the UJA Federation of New York, in partnership Dr, Danny Brom from the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psycho Trauma,  had the express goal of bringing together service providers in order to improve services for terror victims.

What began as a small initiative of seven organizations and two projects has turned into a partnership between 40 organizations that together aim to create a continuum of care for victims of trauma and their families.  The Coalition concentrates it efforts in three areas – direct care, team training and support, and emergency preparedness for local councils and teams.

To mention just a few important milestones for the ITC – commitment to those living in the Gaza region including the development and implementation of 5 resilience centers;  involvement before, during, and after the Gush Katif evacuation; creation in the last two years of regional training centers in order to provide more effective training and services to local councils, as well as the establishment of a regional network of care givers.  Overseas, the ITC has been involved in providing solutions, for example, after 9/11 involvement in the bi – national project on early childhood, provision of training for local trainers in Sri Lanka, Beslan and Checnia at the request of UNICEF, post Katrina in Louisiana, and partnering with the JDC in Haiti, Mumbai and Japan.

Talia was invited to the UN to participate in a small group of professionals who are experts in treating victims of terror.   The professionals focused on the need to acknowledge the experience of those exposed and the need for long-term treatment.

Today the ITC works with 12 government ministries in Israel and the Home Front Command.

Talia has served as Director of the Israel Trauma Coalition since 2006. “Given the Israeli reality, creating and maintaining such a partnership should not be taken for granted, it is very unique but the results are worth it!” says Talia.

The ITC supports itself through providing services to the government and from donations mainly from federations.

Talia lives with her husband in Jerusalem and is the proud parent of four daughters and the grandparent of two.