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.

The intensity of equatorial midsummer heat that accompanied me into the hanger-turned-arrival terminal abated only when I again landed in Santo Domingo airport two weeks later. The lack of luggage trolleys is perfectly consistent with the lack of a pavement outside the terminal.  I momentarily feared that the sea of greeters, drivers and would-be day workers would forever obscure me from my waiting compatriots but the connection was made and we drove off towards town.

The perception of destruction I experienced in those first minutes was numbing. Later, I saw much beauty in many shades of color, hope, resilience, pride and self- efficacy, but along those first kilometers it was all rubble. Rubble not confined to the destroyed buildings on the sides of the “roads,” but the roads themselves and most things on it: the rows of huts and tents lined up as dwellings on the road divider; the throngs hanging in and off the sides of the pickup trucks-turned human-transporters and the tent cities themselves. There was one remaining green area in Port au Prince: that behind the fence surrounding the collapsed Presidential Palace. But every other patch of open space, the green that breathes life into London, New York and Jerusalem, is now a ground cloth to tarp-touching-tarp tent cities.

But soon I began to feel the life and the energies which characterize Haitians. Not only do people emerge from those tents every morning, cross the rubble and set off in a direction, they do so with an indescribable air of purpose, resolve and pride. The children are immaculately dressed in their school uniforms, the adults in clothing pristine as in Milan.

This is the spirit to which volunteer organizations must connect in order to contribute anything of value to Haitian recovery. Of the some 6000 not-for profits operating in Haiti today I fear too many come with their own agendas and their own perceptions of what Haiti needs.

I was sent as part of a Trauma Response and Community Development training team by The Israel Trauma Coalition and Natan: The Israeli Emergency Response Coalition. It was done with the backing of the AJJDC International Development Programs – the division of “the Joint” that supports non-sectarian disaster relief. The strength of the program lay in the fact that the organizers did not send us there with clear instructions on what to teach or even with whom to work. This emerged from the needs we heard from the students and professional we eventually worked with.  I believe that because of this approach we received the following kinds of feedback:

Now we know how to help ourselves, and after that how to help others.

I like the way the trainers encouraged us to participate at the seminar.  It was mostly dialog between us.

I know now when someone is traumatized, because someone can be traumatize and not even be aware of it.

We should have got this formation earlier, if we had it, we would had perceived the earthquake differently.

Our lives have entirely changed. Our relationships with others, the way we understand ourselves, we have become more self-confident.

Tikum Olam is the Jewish value that most inspires my life: professional and personal.  My experience in Haiti reminds me that meeting another with compassion and sincerity leaves both enriched.

Despite 62 years of innumerable accomplishments and accolades, Israel has lived in the shadow of existential threat since the creation of the state, and suffers from one of the largest socio-economic gaps in the developed world. Virtually everyone’s well being and resilience is compromised in some way or other. Evidence of this may be seen in the ever-growing aggression and violence in Israeli society: in its schools and sports arenas, at work and at home. The need for effective tools to reduce stress at home, at work and in public forums is clear.

Research has well established that prolonged stress is a major cause of physical and psychological disease and can significantly contribute to the development of:

Heart disease                                        Angina                                            Diabetes

Immune system dysfunction                                              Digestive problems

Arthritis                                                Anxiety                                           Depression

The Training Center for Mind-Body Skills was established to help the Israeli population better cope with these pressures and foster their overall resilience by teaching and disseminating an easy to learn, scientifically supported psycho-educational group model for stress reduction. The method provides participants with the theoretical and practical tools to better care for themselves, their families and their clients.

Stress can be counteracted and reducing stress can help each of us, and thus our society to be healthier, happier and more productive.

The SAVI project includes an inspirational handicraft learning center, as well as operating a handicraft workshop run by the aged and learning impaired who cut and pack handicraft raw material and kits to be sold to a national craft distributor. SAVI aims to become a sustainable in-house industry based on reinvestment of profits to cover expenses of the project and fund future community philanthropic causes.

Through Savi’s extension efforts various arts and crafts programs, including a program designed for mothers and daughters will be operating throughout the summer.  One mother describes the experience, “A wonderful group was formed and both my daughter and myself – I wait anxiously for our special quality time together every Friday morning.  When we arrive, Yael Nechushtan, the group coordinator and some of the elderly members of the center greet us with light refreshments.  We each work on individual projects, help each other and share our progress along the way. The atmosphere is fun and creative.”

Additional programs are expected to open soon, including a program for grandparents and grandchildren, and a program just for women.  The common denominator between these programs is in SAVIs motto “Every One Can”, since no prior knowledge or expertise is required.   In the program, basic and simple techniques are taught that lead to surprising results and reinforces the belief that everyone has hidden creative talents.   The added advantage of the program is the focus on inter-generational activities providing real quality time between parents, children and grandparents.

The Metzilah Center was founded in order to deal effectively and explicitly with these challenges. It addresses the core issues facing Israel and Jewish life from a Jewish, Zionist, and Liberal-Humanist perspective. It combines ideological discussions about the meaning and present relevance of Zionism with the provision of in-depth analysis and policy recommendations, and it disseminates these messages through publications, promoting public discourse and education. Metzilah’s high quality and authoritative research on key issues, and the resulting policy recommendations, provide a base for action to Israeli policymakers and other influential members of the public.

The early stages of the Zionist movement were characterized by profound and comprehensive discussions. While the State of Israel and its society are still facing complex challenges, the contemporary public discourse has lost depth and tends to be characterized by the use of slogans and stereotypes. The Metzilah Center offers a unique voice which is missing in the current discourse; a balanced and non-partisan voice, which acknowledges the challenges and attempts to offer a comprehensive articulated response, both from a Jewish particular perspective and from a universal outlook.

To date Israel has not had a general immigration law. The Law of Return relates only to people who are Jewish, or are of Jewish descent, and leaves the question of immigration of non-Jews as a lacuna, which is covered by a plethora of sometimes conflicting administrative and judicial decisions. This leads both to confusion, bureaucratic arbitrariness as well as infringements of human rights.  The current state of affairs is detrimental to Israel’s vital interests, a situation which is intolerable for Israel as a state and as a nation. Israel needs an immigration policy. In this Position Paper, the authors, for the first time in Israel, propose a strategy for thought and action ahead of the formulation of an immigration policy that promotes Israel’s interests as a Jewish and democratic state.

Metzilah’s publications – mostly position papers – serve to explore the legitimacy and implications of Jewish national self-determination in the State of Israel, as well as of Jewish self-fulfillment around the world. Moreover our publications seek to shed light onto the compatibility of Zionism and Judaism with Human Rights and Liberalism in the context of a Jewish and democratic State of Israel.  The goal is to create a platform for ideological clarification of the presuppositions and validity of Zionism as well for informed public discourse and decision-making.

The papers are meant to serve as a basis of support for decision makers by framing complex issues and providing policy recommendations that will ensure a Jewish and democratic State of Israel, as well as the welfare of the Jewish people. They also seek to deepen the public discourse and sharpen its understanding on issues that are on the State of Israel’s agenda.

The combination of these two rationales contributes to consolidating a consensus among the public and decision makers, which calls for action on these issues.

The expanded course on the Negev includes elements such as the relationship between the center and the periphery, employment and lack of employment opportunities, culture, sectarianism, Bedouins, education, development of the Negev, environment, the new army training city and more.

As the activists who initiated the course have a background in education and social change, the clearly stated goal of the course is to provide knowledge and to examine critically what is going on in the Negev, so that participants will be encouraged to get involve and to take the initiative.  Many of the lecturers, aside from being volunteers are also Negev residents and the organizers believe that interesting relationships and partnerships for change will be developed as the course progresses.

The second course deals with urban issues in Tel Aviv.  The course takes a critical look at issues facing Tel Aviv and the surrounding metropolitan area.  By examining decisions that Tel Aviv has faced in the past as well as possible solutions to current issues, the course hope to give participants an understanding of the complexity involved in urban issues such as transportation; is a subway or light rail feasible, will it solve parking problems, etc.  Other issues to be addressed include green space, involving the public in decision making, and what makes Tel Aviv so special and can other cities learn from the Tel Aviv experience.

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The exchange, funded by Partnership 2000 and the UJA-Federation of New York, is a three-semester joint program through the Bronfman Center at New York University, Memizrach Shemesh-The Center for Jewish Leadership in Israel and Marom Budapest.

Using traditional texts as their basis, participants spent their first semester understanding what poverty is, how it is measured, and why it is important to break down related stereotypes. At the end of the semester each group is intended to spend time learning specifically about poverty at the partner city of the exchange.

When asked what the greatest social problem facing each country was, Israeli participants were united on one issue: the working poor. “People work a lot,” said Israeli participant Sara Levinger, “and they still don’t make enough money to survive.”

Through the course of the year, the groups will focus on issues related to education and leadership and rejoin in Budapest and New York to familiarize themselves with how these communities are individually affected by these issues.

For the full text written by Memizrach Shemesh volunteer Lauren Wilner, please see the article published on eJewish Philanthropy.

The last lecture to be held in the series will be on December 24^th, 2009 and will examine the distribution of resources to women at the municipal level.  For more information contact the Social Economic Academy.