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January 8, 2010
Projects inspire, excite
WIZO holds its leadership conference in Tel Aviv.
MICHELLE DODEK
Canadian Hadassah-WIZO (CHW) is an anomaly. In fact, most people in Canada, including the members, refer to this organization simply as Hadassah. This charity dedicated to children, health care and women in Israel is actually made up of two organizations.
Hadassah, the smaller of the two, is the medical wing. It raises funds for hospitals in Israel that service all elements of Israeli society: Jews and Arabs, civilians and soldiers (there are no military or veterans hospitals in Israel). WIZO, on the other hand, stands for Women's International Zionist Organization and is, in all other countries in the world, what we think of as "Hadassah." WIZO funds everything from day-care centres to battered women's shelters. Everyone in Israel knows WIZO because of the historic work it has done to build the social infrastructure.
From Nov. 15 to 19, the WIZO Aviv International Seminar for younger members was held in Tel Aviv. Women from Australia, North and South America, the European Union and Israel attended and Canada sent a total of four delegates from across the country. I had the honor of representing Vancouver.
Delegates were treated to a combination of leadership sessions and day trips to visit a few of the many projects WIZO funds. We heard from speakers on fundraising and membership development, but we also heard from speakers on Israeli topics. A panel of female officers and combat soldiers in the Israel Defence Forces shared their experiences with us and we heard an address by member of Knesset Orit Zuaretz of the Kadima party, who herself has used many of WIZO's services. She told us of a WIZO leadership program that she feels developed many of the skills she now uses in the Knesset. As well, Ido Aharoni, manager of the Rebrand Israel project, gave us the "inside-scoop" on the ways that Israel is trying to change its international image.
The image of Israel in the Diaspora was a topic of significant conversation when the different delegates from around the world shared their challenges in fundraising and membership building. Because of the word Zionist in the WIZO name, countries like England and Italy have trouble marketing their programs to anyone outside of and even, at times, inside the Jewish community. Among those populations, there is a sense that Zionism is racism and, to help Israel is not only unimportant but is, in fact, intrinsically bad. It was eye-opening and disappointing to see how distanced we have become in the world from the excitement of the establishment of the state of Israel just over 60 years ago.
Exchanging ideas was an important part of the seminar, but seeing the actual WIZO projects around the country was the crucial element that inspired us. In Hadera, we visited a day-care centre whose children reflect the aliyot (immigration waves) of the past few decades, with most of the children of Ethiopian or Russian backgrounds currently experiencing a high level of poverty and other related issues.
A music academy in Tiberias keeps children and teenagers busy studying music and off the streets, while a community centre in Jerusalem's roughest neighborhood has a large program to help teens avoid the drugs and crime that are rampant in that area of the city. The CHW Technical High School in Netanya is a place for youth from families with severe social risk factors; the students graduate with a job skill, prepared for a chance to become contributing members of society.
These types of projects in Canada are publicly funded. In Israel, so much of the gross domestic product goes into national defence that there is little left over for social infrastructure. That said, Israel has developed enviable models for foster care and services for children at risk of dropping out of school and ending up on the street, two areas that are particularly tough to tackle. Known as Youth Villages, Ahuzat Yeladim in Haifa and Hadassim in central Israel are the last stop before juvenile detention. The campuses house dormitories for students who have been removed from their homes by social services. The dorms have support for students with behavioral and social difficulties and they have seen excellent success rates. In fact, Hadassim, which is on a huge property, has eight foster family facilities for children too young for the dorms and two homes from teens involved in prostitution.
Israel's social make-up is extremely complex and expensive to manage. While many missions to Israel take participants to see so many of the amazing and positive things that Israel has accomplished in its short history as a modern state, this WIZO seminar opened my eyes to the tremendous social needs of Israel's people as well as the many successes in Israeli society.
Michelle Dodek is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.
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