June Newsletter
Education Ministry Puts Homosexuality on School Agenda
Education Minister Yuli Tamir is taking important steps to help foster acceptance and integration for gay Israeli teenagers. Earlier in May, Tamir set up a special advisory committee within the Ministry of Education. The committee will suggest ways to help gay students feel less alienated at school and become better integrated into their place of study.
Last year's gay rights rally, supported by NIF, was held under tight securityin the Hebrew University sports stadium after violent threats from the ultra-Orthodox community.
“We want to handle this topic correctly,” said Tamir, who is to be guest speaker at The New Israel Fund Human Rights Awards Dinner in London this July. “I hope that when the committee has completed its work, gay students will be able to be themselves and those around them will better understand them.”
The committee will report its findings in six months time. “Many students are brought to despair,” explained the committee’s chairman Itay Pinkus, a member of the Tel Aviv Municipal Council. “They often suffer bullying by fellow pupils and are not understood by teachers.”
Over the years, NIF has given top priority to advancing gay rights in Israel. Veteran NIF organizations the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Israel Association for LGBTs have won major decisions recognizing the legal status of gays in Israel.
Now Tamir is promoting the rights of gay teenage students. In addition to the newly set up committee, she has recognized and promised budgetary support to the Israel Gay Youth Organization. She is also promoting a new curriculum for high schools which discusses homosexuality as a legitimate form of sexual expression, and explores the problems gays encounter in society.
Last year's gay rights rally, supported by NIF, was held under tight security in the Hebrew University sports stadium after violent threats from the ultra-Orthodox community.
Days of Democracy in Jerusalem: Meanwhile, veteran NIF grantee Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH) is planning for the annual gay rights parade in late June. This year, religious parties in the Knesset are attracting support for legislation which would trample democracy and tolerance by banning gay parades in Jerusalem. Additionally, the city’s ultra-Orthodox residents are once again threatening violence and riots, which forced last year’s march to be held in a secured venue.
As a result, the parade is being planned as part of a series of events entitled "Days of Democracy in Jerusalem," which will present gay rights as an intrinsic part of democracy, tolerance and pluralism. The challenge facing the NIF family is to ensure that democracy and freedom of speech in Jerusalem are protected for the city’s LGBT community and all its residents.
Court Orders That Spraying of Bedouin Crops
Must Cease
Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government’s Israel Lands Administration (ILA) to stop spraying toxic chemicals on the crops grown by Negev Bedouin in unrecognized villages. The ruling followed a petition in 2004 on behalf of four Bedouin farmers by a range of organizations including NIF grantees Adalah: Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and Forum for Coexistence in the Negev and other members of the NIF family such as Physicians for Human Rights.
The three Supreme Court Justices unanimously ruled that the spraying potentially endangered the lives of Negev residents, and harmed the dignity of the Bedouin.
The NIF family has, in recent years, successfully championed the rights of the 75,000 Negev Bedouin living in unrecognized villages, Israel's most disadvantaged communities, resulting in the recognition of nine out of 45 villages and the construction of infrastructures, schools and other public facilities.
In The Footsteps of Ruth: More and More Israeli Teenage Girls Celebrate Their Bat Mitzvah By Chanting From the Torah
The family and friends who had packed into Kol Hanashama Reform synagogue in Jerusalem’s German Colony in April bombarded 12 year-old Danielle Hadar with sweets. Wrapped in her tallit, this was a highly emotional moment for Danielle and her family and the traditional culmination of the bar mitzvah, or in this case bat mitzvah ceremony.
Danielle is one of an increasing number of young Israeli girls who are demanding complete gender equality in Judaism. The most symbolic expression of that equality is the rite to read from the Torah, which down the centuries was seen as the prerogative of men alone.
This trend is not only confined to just the Reform and Conservative movements but also includes Israel’s fast growing Orthodox Feminist movement. NIF has been one of the main supporters of this recent development in Orthodox Judaism, which is becoming increasingly influential among religious women.
A young Israeli Orthodox Jewish woman chooses a sacred text from the Pardes Institute library in Jerusalem.
According to Chana Kehat, the founder and former Chairperson of NIF grantee Kolech, the Religious Women’s Forum there are at least five egalitarian Orthodox congregations in Israel, all of them established in the past five years, where women regularly lead the Torah reading in the presence of men, and 12 year-olds frequently celebrate their bat-mitzvah.
“I have interviewed 80 Orthodox teenage girls,” she says, “who are candidates for a new religious high school that I am opening in the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem in September. About half of them told me that they had a bat-mitzvah by reading from the Torah.”
But an Orthodox family can pay a heavy price for allowing their daughter to read from the Torah and there have been painful stories where the most immediate relatives refuse to attend bat mitzvah celebration.
In contrast Conservative and Reform occasions generate only happiness for the bat mitzvah participants. bbi Gilad Kariv, Associate Director of veteran NIF grantee Israel Religious Action Centre of the Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel (Reform) says that over 600 bat mitzvahs were held in Reform synagogues around Israel over the past year. He observes that most of the girls are secular Israelis rather than members of the Reform movement – girls who are looking for a meaningful Jewish way to mark their coming of age.
“Every year we witness a substantial growth in the number of girls who get an aliyah,” said Rabbi Kariv. “In the past five years, their number has doubled. We believe that there are many girls who are interested in such a ceremony, but unfortunately we do not yet have enough synagogues across the country."
Women of Valour Receive NIF Scholarships
Orit Ejigu (left) and Amana Kanaana receive their
NIF scholarships in Jerusalem last week
Orit Ejigu, 33, urges Israeli Ethiopians to become more involved in Israeli society. “So many people in my community are scared of integrating into society,” she observed. “They fear they will not succeed and retreat into the safety of their own ghetto. They must learn harder and try harder and then they will succeed.”
Her eyes burn with conviction - part optimism, part despair and part anger - at the passivity she sees in her community – and the lack of resources allocated by Israeli society to help overcome the obstacles confronting Israeli Ethiopians. This is the essential message that Ejigu ells the women who attend her empowerment workshops in Haifa. Run by NIF grantee Itach – Women Lawyers for Social Justice and University of Haifa’s Legal Clinic, Ejigu acts as a mentor discussing everything from health and education issues to employees’ rights and their relationships with their husbands.
Ejigu, together with Amna Kanaana, the Founder and Director of NIF grantee Awareness 4 U Organization, which provides health workshops for Arab women in the village of Kafr Kana, received this year’s NIF scholarships for grassroots women leaders in disadvantaged communities. The awards are within the framework of the Yaffa London-Ya’ari Scholarship Endowment Fund in memory of Yaffa London-Ya'ari, who helped establish and lead social services in Israel's formative years. The Fund was set up by her three sons – Eliezer (NIF's Executive Director in Israel), Yossi and Arik -- together with NIF supporter Agnes Varis of New York City.
Ejigu, who reached Israel during Operation Moses in 1984, works as an educational mediator in the Haifa Bay area, helping Ethiopian immigrant parents, their children and teachers understand communications issues within the culture. The program was devised by NIF grantee Fidel: Association for Education and Social Integration of Ethiopian Jews. “I will use this scholarship to expand my mentoring activities with Itach,” she says. “I first encountered the concept of empowerment back in the mid 90’s when I took part in SHATIL workshops. I realized that only by seizing the initiative, can my community solve its own problems.”
Reducing the Risks: Night Owls Program Reaches Out To New Immigrant Teenagers Roaming the Streets
Semyon (centre) and his new found friends
Tonight is the first time that Semyon, 16, has come to the Night Owls program. “I usually hangout in the streets with some other guys,” he explains, chewing nervously and trying to look tough and intimidating. “A friend told me about this clubhouse they’d moved into and I thought I’d check it out.”
“I’ve been thrown out of school for a few days for misbehaving so I can stay till late,” he explains, “and the police are investigating me for a quarrel with some Moroccan kids. The fact is Israelis don’t like me. But Israel is the only home I have. I went back on vacation to Bishkek in the former Soviet Union where I was born and it no longer felt like home.”
Semyon has joined the 350 or so new immigrant children in Rehovot being helped by NIF grantee Israeli Association for Immigrant Children’s (IAIC) Night Owls program.
Arik Gortsunian (right) and three of the
teenagers that he keeps out of trouble
Arik Gortsunian, 20, one of the Night Owls counsellors in Rehovot recalls that six years ago he was about to fall into an abyss. “I used to wander the streets at night with a gang of Russian speaking friends,” he recounts. “We’d meet up with drug dealers and petty criminals and I’d get home so late that I didn’t bother with school the next day, or if I went I’d sleep through lessons. My parents worked very long hours to make ends meet and left me on a long lead. What ate at me most was that Israeli kids called me a ‘dirty Russian’. It was unfair and made me feel alienated from Israel. Then my uncle took me under his wing and saved me. But these kids have no uncle to save them,” he observes. “I want to be their uncle and save them from a life of failure and crime.”
The IAIC’s program has already helped teenagers like Alex, 16, who immigrated to Israel with his grandparents from Saratov in Russia after his parents divorced. “Israelis think we are all drunkards,” he said. “The neighbours are scared of us when we wander the streets at night. School is a bore but Arik persuades me to go. He cares about us and understands us.”
The Night Owls program, which operates in seven Israeli cities, is now also funded by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. There are currently plans to expand to eight more locations reaching thousands of Russian speaking youth-at-risk. It is one of a range of programs operated by IAIC, which is dedicated to protecting the rights of immigrant children and promoting their integration into Israeli society.
Eli Zarkhin, CEO of IAIC, was one of its founders in 2001. “For years I dreamed of being able to make aliyah,” explained Zarkhin, an educator who immigrated to Israel from Minsk in 1990. “But the dream has become a nightmare for many. We didn’t come here to see so many of our children become alienated delinquents. We must save them and integrate them.”
Through advocacy activities, an information and counselling centre and a variety of outreach projects like Night Owls, IAIC works with thousands of immigrant children, not only Russian speakers, but also Ethiopians and Argentineans.
IAIC has received extensive training assistance from SHATIL and operates alongside a broader national campaign by NIF and SHATIL called "Back from the Edge". The campaign is aimed at reducing school drop-out rates and improving scholastic performance among new immigrant students. The program operates in four cities through a range of NIF grantees including One Plus One: Association of Immigrant Youth.
Meanwhile back at the Rehovot clubhouse, Semyon is slowly warming towards his new found “gang.” Before he goes home, he feigns indifference and asks when the group will be meeting again. “We’re here for you every night,” he is told warmly.
New Immigrant Fact File
• Since 1990, 1.1 million new immigrants have reached Israel.
• 11 percent of all Israeli schoolchildren are new immigrants.
• 36 percent of new immigrant schoolchildren drop out (twice the average national rate) and 46 percent do not receive their 12th grade completion certificate.
• Involvement in criminal activity is twice as high among new immigrant children compared to their Israeli peers.
Upcoming Events
The New Israel Fund Human Rights Awards Dinner
On Monday 9th July the New Israel Fund is holding its inaugural Awards Dinner to recognise the outstanding achievements of individual Israeli citizens in the field of human and civil rights.
Professor Yuli Tamir, MK Minister of Education for the State of Israel will give a keynote address and the Rt Hon The Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, will chair this prestigious inaugural event.
The New Israel Fund Human Rights Awards Dinner will be held at the Hotel Russell, Russell Square and is sponsored by The Pears Foundation. For more information and to book tickets please call Talia Winokur at the New Israel Fund on 0207 724 2266 or email talia@uknif.org or visit www.newisraelfund.org.uk
Message From Ellen Goldberg, New Israel Fund Executive Director
NIF is now less than a month away from our inaugural Human Rights Awards Dinner on 9 July 2007. Our tables are quickly filling up, and it has been very heartwarming for us that some of you, whether attending or unable to attend, have already sent us donations to support NIF’s human and civil rights work in Israel.
One of our main goals at NIF is to bring what’s happening in Israel closer to the UK community. This dinner is a very special opportunity for you to meet outstanding Israelis, who are being recognized for having dedicated their lives to developing Israel’s moral, social and democratic strengths. These aspects of Israel’s character have significant implications for her physical and economic development as well, and are thus tremendously important for a strong, stable and vibrant Israel.
We will also be showing films of our Human Rights Awards winners at work in Israel. Through them you will get to know three different worlds of activity – within the halls of the Supreme Court; in cities, towns and villages with workers and laborers from every walk of life; and out in the fields with our Palestinian neighbours.
Israeli Minister of Education, Professor Yuli Tamir, MK, will be giving the keynote address, relating to issues of democracy, human rights, education and academic boycotts.
We thank those of you who have already responded to our appeal, and want to encourage others to come to the dinner, be inspired, and contribute generously to improving the lives of thousands of Israelis, through NIF’s work to protect their rights, preserve their freedoms, and ensure social justice for all.
