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.

“How long are we going to stay?” asked Sari.  “Till we win,” replied her father.

by Pamela Deutsch

Sari was born and raised in Brooklyn, attending an all girls yeshiva through 8^th grade, followed by attending the first Solomon Schecter High School ever established.  Her father was a lithograph operator, who was very active in the union and her mother taught in NYC public schools.  Sari’s father was an activist; active in the protest movement and in the civil rights movement.  Once of Sari’s earliest memories is attending regular Friday protests at a local ballpark where they would not allow Afro- American ball players to participate in the game.  Sari would always ask, “How long are we going to stay?”  To which her father would reply, “Till we win.”

It is this kind of devotion to a cause that has driven Sari for the rest of her life.  After 10^th grade, Sari attended camp Ramah in the Berkshires and while there volunteered at a hospital for the mentally ill – it was after that experience she decided to study social work.   The elementary school Sari had attended was very Zionist; it felt that it was the role of the school to instill the Zionist dream in each of its students. As a young child, Sari often dreamed that there was bridge leading right from Brooklyn to Jerusalem.  As a graduation present from 8^th grade in 1968, her parents’ gift was a trip to Israel. This was a very big deal for her family and Sari and her parents (her two older brothers did not accompany them) saw Israel in its most glorified moments. All Sari wanted to do was comeback to Israel.  After 11^th grade, she spent summer on kibbutz and did not want to come home.  Her parents promised her that if she came home and finished high school, they would send her back to Israel for college.  However, Sari’s college experience in Israel did not turn out as expected.  At the time, there was a rule that you had to be 22 in order to study social work, so after a year studying English, Sari returned to the states.  In 1976, she came back to volunteer on a kibbutz , and ended up  practicing her novice skills in psychology  with a kibbutz member suffering  from PTS from the Yom Kippur war.  The intensity of that visit made her believe she had had enough of Israel.

Sari chose to study social work and psychology at UMBC Baltimore County.  Her field placement was in a community mental health clinic in south Baltimore where she worked as a clinical social worker, providing psychotherapy for anxiety and depression.  Through her work, it became clear to her that underlying these conditions was the urban removal/renewal that was going on in south Baltimore in order to build the new Orioles stadium.  These were not personal issues, but rather community issues, and their impact had Sari turning her career towards community organizing and attaining a masters from the University of Maryland at Baltimore.  This time her field placement was at the Baltimore Welfare Rights Organization, where she was mentored by Bob Cheeks, a seasoned civil rights leader in the Baltimore/DC area, and whose picture Sari still has on her office wall.  Sari continued to work at this organization for a number of years after graduation, organizing the first rent strike in public housing and training welfare mothers to represent themselves in appeals  processes

It was during graduate school that Sari met her ex-husband, who, from the beginning was very clear that after graduate school he really wanted to move to Israel.   When they decided to marry, they made a deal; they would spend – 2-5 years in the US, followed by 2-5 years in Israel, and then would decide where to live.

They moved to Israel in 1983; first to kibbutz, and a year later to Jerusalem.  At that point, having only been in the country for a year, but with tremendous experience in grass roots organization, Sari was hired by the New Israel Fund to begin Shatil – Capacity Building for Social Change organizations.  Sari was the CEO of Shatil for fourteen years.  During that time, the organization was able to seed a strong nonprofit sector, ensuring that activists understood that there are professional needs in running nonprofit organizations, and that skills need to be acquired in order to run these organizations. Shatil offered opportunities for those who needed to acquire these skills working both by skill and by sector.

By 1997, Sari was ready to take her experience and skills to a new level.  Most of the Jewish Israeli organizations Shatil was working with were from major cities, and Sari felt that those living in the periphery were lacked the ability to take their life into their own hands.  Yedid was founded in order to empower people living in the periphery and to help low income people understand what is in their  interest and have the ability to apply that interest when they vote or when they put their support  by behind a particular group or particular people – to get people civically involved.

Today, fourteen year later, Yedid’s mandate is threefold:

One, to this day people do not understand how to access their rights vis a vis, the government, municipality and as consumers.   Often, people give up because of the difficulties in pursuing their rights and this is where Yedid is there to assist them.  Two, there is a growing phenomena of increasing individual /family debt in Israel; debt that begins at a young age.  Cell phone bills that run up while young people serve in the army, easy access to lines of credit through credit cards , increasing number of young people taking upon themselves their parents debt – co-signing on loans, parents putting liabilities in their children name, etc.  Many of these people lack economic literacy, have few budget management skills, and are either unemployed or underemployed.  Yedid often sees young people who because of economic distress lose their ability and motivation to cope.  Along these same lines are women who drop out of the workforce when they raise children, and then not only have to deal with the loss of income, but find it difficult to re-enter the work force.  For these populations, Yedid provides assistance in terms of both empowerment and skills for re-entering the job force, in budget management and much more.  The third area were Yedid is active is in Housing.  Yedid focuses on  economic empowerment for those in public housing and those who want public housing.  For those who are unable to pay their mortgages due to sickness or other catastrophe, Yedid provides budgeting skills and negotiates with the bank and for those with no other choice, assists them to come to the realization that if they need to sell they should do it rather than let the bank repossess their property.  Furthermore, on a policy level, Yedid addresses the lack of available affordable housing and works towards instituting reforms that address issues such as what the banks and financial institutions can demand from those whose homes they repossess.

Yedid, which began with one branch in Haifa, today has 16 branches spread throughout the country from Safed/Hatzor in the north to Rahat in the south.  Two of these branches are located in Arab communities – Rahat and Nazareth.  Each center is staffed by volunteers and a paid director who supervises and trains the volunteers.  Volunteers are a mix of ex-clients, professionals – lawyers, accountants, hi tech professionals, social workers, social work and law students, and students on scholarship that require community service. The centers work on three levels – individual assistance,   policy change, a unique response to issues raised by the client base, which includes developing legislation, lobbying and empowering activists, and community based projects – economic empowerment, financial literacy for high school students and adults, helping women rejoin the work force and more.

Yedid’s Legal department is directly involved in cases that determine people’s fate.  For example, the employment practices of temporary employment agencies and their  affects on workers’ pension and severance pay, and a class action for home health care workers, mostly women who are afraid to come forth because they fear losing their jobs.  In the latter, Yedid is the plaintiff being represented by a private lawyer against the nonprofits and for profits which employ the health care workers.  These workers are not compensated for their travel time between clients, yet are expected to travel between multiple clients each day.  Ultimately,  Bituach Leumi (the National Insurance Institute) is responsible for this lack of pay.

Needless to say, Sari’s life is kept very busy, supervising the operation of this organization and ensuring continued funding.  Sari lives in Jerusalem and has two sons.  The oldest, 24 is finishing a degree in Business Management, and the younger is in 12^th grade at the Jerusalem Democratic School.

“I want to be able to give back to the community the way my parents do.”

Ben is no stranger to starting new ventures.  In fact, if you look at his Linked In profile Ben bills himself as someone who “helps to create new companies, business ventures and transactions that are “win-win” and generate value.”

But I think that what makes Ben even more proud are the projects that he has started that help others, such as Tees at Risk which markets t-shirts featuring innovative and thought-provoking designs by current and former teens at risk and Ten Partners.

Ten Partners is an innovative, community-driven, sustainable non-profit partnership that creates new and unique programs to enrich local Jewish life and community.

A TEN partnership is a local, non-profit venture managed and funded by ten members of a Jewish community who create, run or co-sponsor great programs for their local Jewish community. The goal is to make Jewish community service more grass-roots, “by the people for the people”, collaborative and accessible to a new generation of young lay leaders. TEN partnership’s programs should be financially sustainable by somehow returning their cost to the local TEN partnership, so that the partnership continues to operate and run programs without needing further funding after inception.

Since Ten Partners launched a few weeks ago, partnerships already are forming in six communities.  Ben is now in the process of creating the infrastructure needed to support the initiative, including raising the funds necessary to create the procedures and materials which will guide the partnerships around the world.

Ben was recently named one of the two winners of the 2011 Jewish Futures Competition, sponsored by the Jewish Education Project and JESNA’s Lippman Kanfer Institute.  As part of the competition, his winning video was shown at the Jewish Futures Conference held at the GA in Denver last month and his remarks at the GA were published by eJewish Philanthropy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Ben comes from a family where giving back to the community has always been important.  Both of his parents have been very involved in Jewish education, both locally and nationally.  Ben attended Yeshiva University and Columbia Law School. Upon completion of his law degree, Ben clerked for Justice Yitzchak Zamir on the Israel Supreme Court, but decided he was headed for a business rather that a law career.

After making aliyah in 1998 Ben worked briefly as a corporate lawyer before starting a number of software companies. He was then an executive at IDT Corp., mainly managing international business development and corporate acquisition projects, and then in 2006 formed his own private equity and venture management firm, Portofino Equity Advisors, which he runs today.

Ben and his wife Shafrira live in Jerusalem with their seven children.

Zipi Mizrachi is a ground breaker.  Recognizing the lack of opportunities for religious women to pursue careers as serious artists, Zipi created A Studio of Her Own.

Zipi, who is 45 years old, was raised in Ashkelon, attended religious schools, and spent two years as a national service volunteer, one as a tour guide in Kfar Darom before it was actually a recognized settlement, and one as a kindergarten teacher in Ma’ale Adumim working with families who had been evicted from the Musrara neighborhood in Jerusalem.  Following her national service, Zipi studied music and Judaism at the Michlala Jerusalem, married and had two children.

Divorced after seven years of marriage, Zipi started working as music history teacher at two religious girl’s high schools in Jerusalem, Tzivia and Horev, as a music teacher in a Montessori kindergarten, and as an instructor in music teaching methodology at the Beit Yakov Teacher’s Seminary.  Three years later, in 1997, Zipi remarried and became a partner in raising five boys in addition to her own two daughters, later having an additional child with her current husband.  In parallel she began studying for Masters Degrees in art history and musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  Zipi completed her course work in art history as well her master’s thesis on musicology, receiving her degree in 2008.

By 1999, Zipi was beginning to spread her wings. She convinced two religious girl’s high schools, Tzivia in Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, to add art programs to their matriculation curricula.  This required intensive work with the directors of school networks to promote the idea of including art studies for matriculation in religious high schools.  For six years Zipi served as the Ministry of Education, Supervisory Department mentor for art programs in religious high schools all over the country.  This included writing a syllabus for matriculation educational programs, writing and grading matriculation exams, and in general establishing standards for matriculation level art education in religious schools.

Three years ago, Zipi began studying for her PhD in gender studies at the Bar Ilan University.  In the beginning the focus of her research was on the art work of religious women. As her research progressed, Zipi realized that research was not enough and what was needed was action.

A Studio of her Own began as a project of The Jerusalem Center for Young Adults, established in Musrara by the Lev Hair Community Administration.  When funding for that Center became uncertain Zipi looked for a new home for the program, eventually establishing her own non-profit organization.  A Studio of Her Own is now located in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem, within a setting that includes several programs serving religious youth at risk.  Each year 10 religious women artists are given access to studio space, a business mentoring course, mentoring by established artists, opportunities to exhibit their work, and a supportive community in which to develop their art work and their own studios.  Last June, the first group held a successful exhibition at the Jerusalem House of Quality.   Now, as second year participants, they are in the process of establishing themselves as businesses.  Participants in both years of the program give back to the community by teaching art courses for youth at risk and other needy populations.

Zipi has been documenting every step of her process, meetings, contacts, relationships , the experience of working with all these different people and organizations and this material, this action research  will be the basis of her thesis; practical information on how to be an activist and  establish a feminist organization.

Zipi continues to head the art department at Tzvia Ma’ale Adumim, to teach at the Emunah and Efrata colleges in Jerusalem, and to serve as the CEO of A Studio of Her Own.

I met Zipi, when she requested Financial Resource Development assistance from Shatil, and was only at the very beginning of her process.  For the last two years, I have mentored Zipi as her idea became a reality.  Making her dream come true, has required Zipi to stretch in many directions, acquire a whole new skill set, establish new relationships, and utilize her many talents.  It has been a distinct pleasure to be part of her process.

“When I looked at the map of Reform congregations around Israel, I realized that with the exception of Yahel and Lotan, there were no Reform communities in southern Israel, not even in Beersheva or Eilat.  Working in the Arava has given me the opportunity to work, live and study with people who are discovering new aspects of their Jewishness… sharing my knowledge of Judaism with those who want to learn more.”

Speaking to Rabbi Gruber, one gets the feeling that he has found his rabbinical niche.  Not so easy to do when your family abounds with rabbis – very different rabbis. Benjie’s  grandfather was a Reform Rabbi in Columbia, South Carolina, his father is a Conservative Rabbi and a professor of Bible Studies at Ben Gurion University, his younger brother is a Habad congregational rabbi outside London, and his older brother is a Secular Humanistic Rabbi in Texas.

“I was raised as a modern orthodox Jew, “ says Benji who was born in 1975 and made aliyah with his family to Beersheva in 1980.  “I attended state religious schools, attended a yeshiva high school, and was one of the founding members of the hesder yeshiva in Yerucham.”

It was during an extended stay in Portland, Oregon, that Benjie discovered liberal Judaism. “Every week I would attend services at a different synagogue.”  Following his two years in the US and his work as a Jewish Agency emissary in different parts of the FSU, Benjie returned to Israel, attained a BA in Jewish philosophy at Hebrew University, and met Tovi.  Tovi, a social worker by training, had a dream of volunteering in Africa.  A six month stint in Malawi gave Benji a much clearer idea of what he wanted to do with his life.  Becoming a rabbi would allow him to combine his love of education and working with people with his need to be involved in tikkun olam.

Benjie was accepted at HUC and combined his rabbinical studies with a Master’s in Jewish philosophy from Hebrew University.  During his studies he did practical work at Congregation Mevakshei Derech in Jerusalem and at IRAC, and taught Jewish studies at the IDF Institute for Jewish Studies.

Even before being ordained, Benjie was approached by Kibbutz Yahel and the Movement about serving as one in a long line of rabbis for the kibbutz.   Benji became a long distance rabbi like most of his predecessors, but after a year and a half he approached the kibbutz and the movement about actually moving to Yahel.  They were very excited about the idea, and in August 2010, the Gruber family – Rabbi Benjie, Tovi, and Yair and Ella (6 and 4) moved to Yahel in the Arava.

For the last year, Benjie has been listening and learning.  As he works with other kibbutz members in the cow shed, as he meets with people of all kinds  – businessmen in Eilat, the head of the regional council, the director of the community center…

The area north and south of Yahel and Lotan contains 3000-4000 people who live on 12 kibbutzim, 5 moshavim, an army base and a few other settlements.  What has emerged from his meetings and his work is that people are interested in Israeli culture and that there is an interest in learning more about Judaism.

Benji, who does not wear a kippa most of the time, does not look like what people expect a rabbi to look like and is in great demand.

He teaches at a local high school, at the pre-army mechina in Hatzeva, and is the main teacher for Beit Midrash Baderech.

He is a regular lecturer in the officer’s training course at the Ovda air force base.

He teaches regularly scheduled classes in parshat hashavua and Talmud at Yotvata, Yahel and Grofit.

Rabbi Benjie is also in demand at ceremonies.  They may be weddings at Timna or in Eilat, or bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies at kibbutzim and at isolated settlements.

“When I looked at the map of Reform congregations around Israel, I realized that with the exception of Yahel and Lotan, there were no Reform communities in southern Israel, not even in Beersheva or Eilat.  Working in the Arava has given me the opportunity to work, live and study with people who are discovering new aspects of their Jewishness… sharing my knowledge of Judaism with those who want to learn more.”

“I’ve learned how to inspire volunteers and how to delegate authority. I’ve learned that an effective campaign is based on three major components: spokesmanship, lobbying and activism. Sometimes it only takes five people, who make a satirical presentation at an entrance to some convention, to make a potent headline in the newspaper the following day. Having said all of this, I must add that, in my opinion, Green Course’s most significant achievement is bringing together young, caring and talented people with good ideas.”

Public Transportation is the main campaign Ram and his volunteers are focusing on at the Tel-Aviv chapter nowadays. Three years ago, one of Green Course’s lobbyists found out about a well thought out plan for improving TA’s public transportation system. This Reorganization Plan(link to Article in Jerusalem Post) was written by Ayalon Highways and forgotten about until Green Course pulled it off of the dusty shelves of the Tel-Aviv municipality and demanded it be implemented without delay. The plan consists of five stages. The first stage was carried out last August, and recently the Minister of Transportation announced that the second stage will be executed this summer.

“Having been born and raised in Tel-Aviv”, Ram explains, “I’m highly aware of the local public transportation shortcomings. There is great satisfaction in hearing on the radio that the Minister of Transportation is committing to deadlines and knowing that it has a direct connection to recent activities and press releases your organization was responsible for. It’s amazing to see how the work of a rather small group of dedicated people from our chapter is able to influence decision-makers and national policies.”