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Let the children stay

There hasn’t been a more sensitive issue on the Israeli table the last few months than that of children of foreign workers. Over 1,200 children of non-Israelis – mostly from Africa, who have been working in Israel for the last decade – are in danger of being deported by the government, despite the fact they were born here, speak Hebrew, and aside from the coveted identity card are as Israeli as anyone else.

The catch? They’re not Jewish.

This week, an interministerial committee was supposed to tackle the issue ahead of a November 1st deadline that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had set to come up with a solution to their plight. Their decision – to enable the children to remain in Israel through the end of the school year, and then we’ll see.

The campaign to deport the children is being led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the leader of the Shas party. He’s been adamant that the children of foreign workers not be given residency or citizenship in Israel in order to preserve the Jewish nature of the country.

According to Ha’aretz, Yishai does not object to Monday’s decision to postpone deporting the children and their parents until the end of the school year, saying this was for “humanitarian reasons.” But he stressed that he will not agree to any further postponements and will vehemently oppose granting the children citizenship or residency.

Allowing these children to stay in Israel “is liable to damage the state’s Jewish identity, constitute a demographic threat and increase the danger of assimilation,” he said, adding that he would give up his ministry if the government decides to let the children stay.

On behalf of all forward looking people in Israel, let me say that we look forward to the day that happens.

Minister for Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman, representing the humane side of Israeli society, said he couldn’t envision Israel resorting to deporting the children, who want to stay here, serve in the army and be productive members of society.

According to Ynet, he referred in a speech to a precedent established by prime minister Menachem Begin in 1977, where he granted Israeli citizenship to 179 Vietnamese refugees who escaped their homeland on boats after a regime change occurred in Vietnam. No country agreed to take the refugees in after being pulled out of the sea by an Israeli cargo ship.

“The State of Israel will be blemished should those 1,200 children not be accepted as Israeli citizens. It is humanitarianly the right thing to do. The issue must be solved and we are obligated to acknowledge them equal citizens of the State of Israel,” said Braverman.

It’s clear what the right thing to do here is. And if I need to risk the possibility that one of my children might one day want to marry an Israeli who isn’t Jewish, it’s a small price to pay.

Picture of the week – A green Yom Kippur for all the world

For some it’s a solemn day of fasting, prayer, and asking for forgiveness, for others – specifically children – Yom Kippur is the day they claim the streets.

Ever year, children all over the country hone their cycling skills as the traffic stops and the roads clear. Whether it’s on a bike, roller blades, scooters, bimbas, or even unicycles, the nation takes to the street in what is probably – ironically – one of the most joyous holidays of the year.

Aside from the sheer pleasure of cycling undisturbed down some of Israel’s main arteries – like route 6, or the Ayalon Freeway, the quality of undisturbed silence is unparalleled. There are no buses, no cars, no trains, no airplanes even. The only sound is the whir of bikes, and the calls of children.

And the air quality, well…

I’ve long thought that some form of Yom Kippur actually ought to be adopted by other countries as an environmental measure. This must be the greenest day in Israel.

Every year there are reports in the local press about the dramatic decline in air pollution throughout Israel’s towns and cities. It’s a chance for the country to breathe again. Imagine what would happen if London followed suit, or New York, or Beijing. Perhaps this should be the latest campaign for environmentalists.

Giving Till it Hurts

They expected a large number of people – maybe 20,000 potential donors. But Ezer Mizion got far more than it bargained for on Wednesday, when it held a mass national campaign to add Israelis to its bone marrow registry; over 60,000 people crowded the 80 testing stations the organization had set up around the country, with long lines outside many of them as people waited patiently for their turn to be tested.

The large crowds had gathered at the donation stations to help find a bone marrow match for Dan, a three year old boy from Ramat Hasharon, and Amit, a six year old girl from Kfar Sava. Both have rare forms of leukemia, and both have rare tissue types that are found in less than 2% of the population, about 1 in 30,000 – meaning that finding a donor with compatible bone marrow with theirs for a transplant, which the two children desperately need to fight the cancer that has caused their own blood and lymphatic system to go haywire. So, the Ezer Mizion organization, which provides medical support services for those who need ongoing medical help, organized the bone marrow donor recruitment drive, setting up dozens of stations around the country on Wednesday where Israelis could go and have a small sample of their bone marrow taken in order to determine whether they could be compatible donors for Dan and Amit.

The organization has run similar recruitment drives in the past, but Wednesday’s drive was by far the largest ever. My daughter waited on line for a chunk of time waiting for the test, which doesn’t necessarily hurt, but can be lengthy. Between the wait, the test, and the recovery time, she spent over two hours on the project – and there were thousands of others like her around the country, who took time off from work and school to help.

Why were so many willing to help this time? According to an acquaintance who works with the organization, Israelis are in a “giving” mood, having gotten into the habit in recent weeks, collecting supplies to send to soldiers on the front. Ezer Mizion established its marrow donot bank ten years ago, and so far has taken samples from 380,000 Israelis – and helped find hundreds of matches for individuals with leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, and immune deficiency syndromes.

If you donate marrow and your marrow is not a match for Dan and Amit, don’t worry – your information will go into the Ezer Mizion database, and you might get called on to help in the future. Besides marrow, Ezer Mizion needs money, too – in order to test the samples it collects (each sample costs $45 to test). Their phone number in Israel is 1800-236-236; any help will be greatly appreciated.

ISRAEL21C Behind the Filming: Science has no Borders

I recently filmed a news story about the Weizmann Institute and the Davidson Institute opening their doors to children of the south. Since the war with Gaza started schools have been closed forcing children to stay home while rockets rain down on their towns. These kids are not being properly educated about the fundamentals, but rather learning the hard lessons of life under fire. The children who experience the daily barrage of rockets are suffering from emotional trauma and will most likely be scarred for life as they remember their childhood days hiding at home when the sirens went off.

The institutes are currently providing educational refuge on their campuses and will continue to do so until the war is over. Kids of all ages can play outside in their amazing science park (I didn’t get the chance to play but it looked like a lot of fun) or experiment in their science labs. (Note: the science experiment the children are doing in the video is how to make ice cream with dry ice…crazy!)

I interviewed Zvi Paltiel, the Director of Young at Science at the Davidson Institute who spoke with me about the current program geared towards children from the south. For the video I chose a sound bite where he is expressing the importance of having the children learning on campus during this stressful period. However, what I wasn’t able to include was his openness to having the program and the science mobiles (watch the video to learn what those are) available to the children of Gaza as well. I think he put it best when he said that “science has no borders.”

Israeli Tots At 82 Kindergartens To Learn Green ABC’s

In a special ceremony, held in Bar-Ilan University earlier this month, some 48 green kindergartens located in the Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, central and southern districts of Israel were certified “green.”

An additional 34 kindergartens were certified earlier in the month, on December 3 in Haifa, 8 of which came from the Arab sector, reports the Ministry of Environmental Protection website. This is good news to our ears.

In all, 82 Israeli green kindergartens were certified in 2008, compared to 32 in 2007. But what does it take to make Israeli tots green? Do the ganenets feed them organic food? Do they learn about recycling? Maybe they plant trees?

In order to be officially certified, kindergartens must demonstrate their achievements in three areas:

• Environmental curriculum
• Rational use of resources
• Contribution to the community

According to the Ministry, kindergartens have a critical role to play in setting the educational infrastructure or basis for the understanding of basic concepts at the personal and social levels. “Cultivating environmental literacy in the kindergarten is of major importance since it is at this early age that we can try to instill positive attitudes toward the human and physical environment, in the present and in the future,” they write.

Accreditation of Green Kindergartens Come With $ Incentive

The aim of the “Green Kindergarten” program is to lead kindergartens through an educational process in which the children, kindergarten teachers, assistants and parents take part in incorporating environmental subjects into the kindergarten.

The accreditation process for Green Kindergartens was initiated in 2006 by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. Coming along with a cash incentive, going green can also boost enrollment (it’s a new thing moms and dads can brag about at the park). In Israel it seems that most kindergartens are privatized. So the added marketability of teaching tots to go green can be a selling point.

Recycling Corner in a Petach Tikva kindergarten

Read more

Renewal

It’s been said that everyone in Israel knows at least one family touched by terror, that is. The truth is, things are far better than they used to be on that front, certainly better than during they were six and seven years ago, when there seemed to be a bus bombing or shooting attack every week – and sometimes more often.

Terrorism aims to destroy lives – and often it does. But it’s not just lives: Families are never the same, even if the intended victim survives. Communities change, kids relate to their surroundings differently. We hear about the attacks, which make news for a few days, and move on; they often can’t. So when we see individuals and families who do manage to rebuild their lives, we can only stand back and gape in awe at their superhuman strength.

I had an “awesome” moment last night, when the son of a friend of mine got married. I won’t reveal their names, but I can tell you the story: While driving home from buying school supplies for the upcoming term, Jacob and Rachel (not their real names) were shot at by Arab terrorists. With them in the car were three of their five children. The shooter got their car point blank – killing Rachel, and leaving Jacob and their oldest daughter, Dina, in a wheelchair. Rachel was several months pregnant at the time. Also in the car were two boys – Shimon, 8, and Levi, 3. Not in the van were their oldest son Reuven, 13 (he had just had his bar-mitzvah two months earlier), and Sarah, 10.

Suffice to say that the family was shattered; the oldest boy became rebellious, the second son took after him, and the youngest boy, in the car when it happened, was basically shellshocked. Jacob tried as well as he could, but it was difficult juggling his family and work obligations. The community helped – a lot – but it just wasn’t the same. Rachel was one of those “super-moms” – always there for the kids, working to help others (she was a nurse), with a golden personality, always smiling. This was a family that had lost so much – and things looked bleak.

But the family experienced a rebirth – in large part thanks to Leah, whom Jacob married three years after losing Rachel. The kids were wary at first – she was a widow herself, and had three older kids of her own – and things were rocky at first. But with love and patience, things worked themselves out. The community helped a lot, too. Plus, the determination of Jacob – and the kids – not to give the terrorists the victory they so sorely sought.

And now see Reuven at his wedding! He grew up to be a fine, sensitive, scholarly young man, a veteran of the elite Duvdevan unit. The joy on his face, and on the faces of family and friends, was unique. This wasn’t just a wedding; it was a vindication, a confirmation of life, a message to the forces of darkness – Israel, and Israelis, are here to stay.

Small belts

One of Israeli schoolchildren’s favorite methods of exercise is martial arts. Thai boxing, kickboxing and judo are enormously popular, and karate is also huge. For most Israeli karate instructors, the teen and adult sets represent a tiny minority of their teaching time, with littler ones taking up the lion’s share.

A recent piece in Ha’aretz examines the phenomenon in depth, exploring the question of whether children aged four or five truly have much to gain by studying the martial arts. Also noteworthy is a list of potential benefits from martial arts training, which include increased self-esteem, increased levels of fitness, development of a sense of competition, fostering a sense of self-discipline, garnering a healthy outlet for letting out aggression, and other types of increased spiritual grounding.

The article also notes that according to the 2000 Sport Law, all phys-ed instructors must be licensed as sports instructors, which has increased the demand for certification courses like those offered at the prestigious Wingate Institute. Located near Netanya, Wingate offers instructors’ training on a high level, with an emphasis on educational techniques (the institute also houses training programs and facilities for Israel’s internationally exported athletes, including our Olympians).

Picking a good teacher, though, can be as important a decision as choosing when to get your kid started – check out these guys:

“After one or two training sessions I can tell parents about their child’s problems if there are any,” says Arthur Gribetz, the chief Tora dojo trainer in Jerusalem, a method based on Japanese karate. Gribetz notes that karate training “is very systematic and it teaches students to feel the body and the breath,” and therefore also helps decrease excess muscle tension, improves motor skills, teaches distinguishing between left and right and more.”

Shalom Avitan, chairman of the Karate-Shotokan Association in Israel, says that any sport in which there is correct training, with the appropriate trainer, contributes to a child’s development, but the acquisition of self-confidence is not to be taken for granted. “Self- confidence is built up over time,” says Avitan. “It is necessary to train for at least a year and a half or two years to start to see results, and that on condition that the trainer is a professional and aware of the children’s needs. If you throw a small child into combat with children who are bigger and more experienced than he is, this isn’t going to contribute to his self-confidence,” he says.

So no, you can’t just force your children to wax the car, scrub the floor, paint the fence and hope that they’ll be champions after a few weeks.

Image courtesy Tomer.Gabel from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Where Bob and Obama meet

Can we fix it? Even my two and a half year old knows the answer to this one. “Yes we can!” Is he a political genius who has been following the Barack Obama election campaign closely. No of course not. He’s a fan of Bob the Builder.

Everyone is talking about Obama’s new slogan “Yes we can”, the new “Just do it”, of our era. Teamsters Union President James P. Hoffa even had thousands of Israelis chanting it at the memorial to Rabin on Saturday night, which was a piece of political engineering if ever there was one.

But I’d just like to point out that the much loved animated character, Bob, the head of a construction team of assorted tractors and diggers, was already saying “Yes we can”, when Obama was probably still thinking about a career in law.

The British-made show emphasizes conflict resolution, co-operation, socialization and various learning skills – and (translated into Hebrew) helped teach my kids the value of working together to solve a problem. Can we fix it? Yes we can.

In the UK the theme song – Can we fix it? Yes we can, became a million-selling number one hit, which, coming from the birthplace of the Beatles seems a little sad.

Anyway, I’m clearly not the only one to see the connection. I came across this video on YouTube – excuse the swear word at the end.

kIDs tALk NEWS: It is time the news is reported by the little people!

It is time to hear the news from kids! Enough of bias reporters and jaded stories…let’s hear what they have to say.

Ok…here you go. Check out what my video chug has been up to, reporting from the streets of Jerusalem. This news package is on cell phones. This is their first story of many to come. Also check out the blooper reel. And we want your feedback. Tell us what you think we should report. We would even be happy to report about your companies, non-profits, special events, interesting people, etc. Just let us know!

This post was originally published on The Big Felafel.

Whistling in the dark

It’s been a year and a half since my daughter began her two-year obligatory army service, and was placed in the Israel Police. Sure has gone by quickly for me.

For her, I’m not so sure. While she’s accepted her responsibilities with poise and a remarkable sense of maturity,  it’s clear that she’s mentally tearing the calendar page away a day at a time as her long countdown begins to her release.

 We’ve been lucky, because her patrol route and home base are relatively close to home, enabling her to sleep in her own bed, instead of staying in a police barracks.

It’s become routine in the house  – Adina returning home at 5:30 am after a 12-hour all-night shift, and sleeping all day. If we’re home, we try to keep things quiet, but in the summer, with the younger kids on the TV and computer constantly, it’s not always possible (not to mention the remodeling taking place by our downstairs neighbor).

And when she’s on a day shift, she gets home in the early evening, takes a nap, showers, and heads out to see her boyfriend or her high school friends. We’re happy to be her welcome berth, providing her with food, shelter… and privacy.

Occasionally she’ll tell us about something that happened on her shift – which involves usual police stuff like burglaries, roadblocks to check for drunk drivers, and sometimes, heading into Arab villages to back up army troops on a mission. But usually, she just says everything’s fine, and doesn’t go into detail.

That leaves us with a false sense of security that she’s leaving to go to work like any of us, to sit at a desk or computer – not that she’s leaving home and entering a danger zone where her life or well being could possibly be put in jeopardy at any time.

Once in a while, on the rare occasions we’re both at home and not preoccupied with human doing stuff, I tell her I’m proud of her, and appreciate the sacrifice she’s making for her country, when she’s at an age when many kids  – at least in the US – are more focused on where the next keg party is going to be. On Shabbat, during the prayer for the soldiers defending Israel, I put in a good word for her, and ask that she return home safely from all her tasks which put her in harm’s way.

Then the new week starts, and those thoughts return to back part of my mind once again. Still,  when I hear her roll in at 5:30 am, I roll over in my bed, and in hazy between sleep and awake state, I pretend to smile to myself.

 

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