Dear Friends,

The ‘day after’ still sounds far away but is actually already here. And this requires us to take the lead in finding novel ways to respond to the growing needs. This led us to our new initiative to partner with Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in establishing a trailblazing center in the city for resilience and healing.

Together we have begun a long journey. It will be a sometimes painful but mainly healing journey. The journey will introduce to the medical establishment a new tool to the existing toolbox through an innovative psychotherapy approach that will help to heal and support many people with PTSD across Israel. We know that this is the way to move forward and heal our community, to rebuild trust and resilience, to boost civil and professional leadership, and to support our young leaders, such as Dr. Sinai Oren who will lead the center and be its chief psychiatrist.

Jerusalem will once again take the lead and bring hope with this new center, driven by young professionals, innovative thinking and cutting-edge, therapeutic approaches. The Jerusalem Foundation will lever its well-established partnerships with artistic and creative organizations and institutions to provide art, music, dance and movement therapies that will accompany ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP).

Fifty of the best therapists for treating PTSD in Israel came together at Mishkenot Sha’ananim for a three-day inspiring and meaningful training conference to learn more about a groundbreaking approach to PTSD therapy, a process assisted by ketamine. The conference was a partnership with the experts in this field from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. World experts in this field also took part, including from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Together, all these parties are taking the first step in establishing the resilience center that will treat numerous people in Israel who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Kevin Stoloff, who came especially to Jerusalem from Cape Town, South Africa to provide training and share his experience at the conference, spoke with great emotion at the end of the three days. “What are we doing? What is our role? We choose to dedicate our lives to the mental health of our patients. I don’t see myself ‘fixing’ people, such as my colleagues in orthopedics. Our work is different and complex. The most important thing of all is to be able to sit with people, in their pain, and if possible try to help them even a little along the way.  And at the same time, we also need to take care of ourselves and to continue to live balanced lives – this is the great challenge of doing what we do.”

“I am feeling extremely emotional by parts of unspoken energy that are coming from all different directions. So I want to say how brave you all are, particularly at this time, and that you are progressive and want to do something different and move forward to work at the boundaries, the edge. I am sorry for your losses. Thank you for sharing, beautifully, your energies and putting yourselves out there. Go well and do good…”

As the person who opened the conference and attended its last session, I was deeply moved by this unique therapeutic approach and the deep professional responsibility of the therapists. I truly believe in the long-term positive effects that this can have on healing and bringing hope for the future.

The Jerusalem Foundation – understanding what lies ahead and what trauma has already mounted since October 7th – has already been supporting and investing in various approaches and places in Jerusalem for therapy for those who suffer the most. Ein Yael was established by the Jerusalem Foundation and is uniquely located at an archeological site that was an ancient farm. With our backing, Ein Yael was transformed partially into a special nature therapy center where survivors of the Nova Music Festival have already been treated and many others are finding their way there. The natural environment can also heal and provide a source of resilience.

הפוסט Stories from JLM – April 2024 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Dear Friends,

With 2023 drawing to a close, it is clear that since October 7^th, our lives are not the same. I wish I could be the one bearing good news for 2024. But the end of the war does not seem to be on the horizon, the situation on Israel’s northern border is escalating every day and I am afraid that is without mentioning other pressing challenges.

As difficult and painful as it is to write this, daily life is Israel and in Jerusalem has found a new routine – a war routine. Jerusalem’s economy is stuttering and life is far from normal. The issue of continued shared living in Jerusalem is challenging and everyone’s wounds are still raw. And in the midst of this darkness, it is difficult to see light at the end of the tunnel. Especially because of this mood, it would be a sin not to write Stories from Jerusalem and bring something positive into this difficult atmosphere.

Since the outbreak of war, these past months are full of stories, each one more touching than the next. The Jerusalem Foundation’s emergency programs across Jerusalem, made possible through our emergency fund, have indeed generated a whole mosaic of stories and no story stands alone.
I cannot write a new edition of Stories from Jerusalem without including the entire Jerusalem mosaic and this in itself is cause for some hope and optimism.

About whom and what should I tell?

Should I tell you about the principal of the Jerusalem school who came out of her recent retirement to set up and run a makeshift school for young evacuees from Sederot (in the south) and Shlomi (in the north)? Her pupils have been living for nearly three months in cramped hotel rooms, without a proper educational framework. In adverse conditions, she has succeeded in creating a fantastic school and study environment and bringing together everyone – the children, their parents, new teachers and volunteers.

Should I tell you about the Holocaust survivors – for whom talk about the ‘new Holocaust’ reopens old traumas – who were concerned for their fellow survivors and who overcame their fears and loneliness to venture out? Gaining a much-needed respite from their woes and a cultural and social boost, they attend Café Europa’s renewed regular club activities, and enjoyed a marvelous concert at the Jerusalem Music Center by the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Should I tell you about the high-school students of Jerusalem’s Keshet School, some of whom have special needs, who set up a kitchen in their school parking lot and who cook hundreds of meals every single day for Jerusalem’s soldiers, families of reservists and needy families?

Should I tell you about the dedicated medical teams in Jerusalem’s hospitals who have been working tirelessly around the clock since October 7th? They are treating those wounded in battle on Israel’s southern and northern fronts and that is in addition, of course, to the ‘regular’ hospital patients. The Jerusalem Foundation, together with members of  the “Cultural Movement” organization, ensured that these medical teams could continue their work around the clock, by providing their children with a special program, safe hands, and a social and educational framework, at the outbreak of war when schools were still closed. For the children whose parents are both physicians and work long hours outside the home, this aid was particularly crucial.

Should I tell you about the youth and young adults with severe (up to 100%) disabilities who, with the outbreak of war, had to vacate their ‘second home’ – the Tsad Kadima Center for Active Living – because the Center has no bomb shelter? Within a few hours, the Jerusalem Foundation found and rented an alternative location (with an accessible shelter) for Tsad Kadima to continue its daily activities in education, technology, sports, arts, healing and social and professional skill development.

Should I tell you about Jerusalem’s idealistic young SAHI volunteers who connected with the teenage evacuees staying in the city and recruited them into their voluntary war-time aid for Jerusalem’s needy families? These evacuees, despite their circumstances, have become givers instead of recipients of aid, gained new friends and are contributing to the city which is their home, at least for now.

Should I tell you about the 50,000+ people (mainly youngsters) who have benefitted from Double Impact, enjoying a vast array of free activities throughout Jerusalem? Through Double Impact, evacuees and Jerusalemites alike are guests of a long list of Jerusalem’s cultural, artistic, sport and recreational institutions. Not only do they benefit from a few hours of respite and informal education. The institutions themselves – renowned and popular before the war but now facing an economic crisis – have received a crucial breath of new life.

These stories are simply a snapshot of life from within Israel’s incredible civil society and the unique Israeli spirit. Thousands of volunteers, through thousands of initiatives, are a reason for hope and a beacon of light during this very bleak period. The Jerusalem Foundation has made this possible with your help, and their stories are a source of pride in these painful, gloomy days that may sadly be with us for a long time.

We are also engaged in plans for ‘the day after’ with our goal to find ways to rebuild shared living and develop young civil society leadership in Jerusalem. Our work in these fields is sustaining us and providing us with renewed energies to continue our mission.

So, with a heavy heart for all that has happened and is happening and with the understanding that difficult times still lie ahead, I did want to share some hope and also wish you all a Happy 2024. The new year may be challenging but we are striving and hoping that it will bring quieter and better days very soon.

Wishing us all a good, hopefully better 2024.

Shai Doron

Jerusalem Foundation President

הפוסט Stories from JLM – December 2023 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Culture in the City

With the High Holydays and Succot festival almost here, the fall season will soon arrive. Though the sweltering summer that we endured seems reluctant to relinquish its grip, Jerusalemites are already beginning to feel the slightly chilly fall evenings. Indeed this year’s heatwave was especially hard, but the overwhelming heat did not overwhelm the numerous cultural events across Jerusalem, many of which took place in the wonderful CulturEvents series.

Throughout the city, for the second year in a row, our ambitious partnership with the Mandel Foundation brought dance, theater, art and music to Jerusalem’s diverse communities. With the cost of living so high and cultural events an expensive commodity, the free or nearly-free events in this series are therefore a particular delight for communities who otherwise cannot enjoy Jerusalem’s musical, artistic and cultural opportunities. The Mandel Foundation bestowed this treasure on the city of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Foundation merited running the operational and content aspect of the series.

Over 40 days, in August and September, a succession of shows, performances and events took place, morning and night, in every corner of the city and showcasing Jerusalem’s rich and diverse creative works. CulturEvents in fact demonstrates Jerusalem’s exceptional story; every artist, musician and creator were Jerusalemites and Jerusalem’s parks, community centers and cultural institutions were the venues. It’s the most and the best of Jerusalem ever.

One of the events that most aptly illustrated the goal of CulturEvents was a music show for young families and children by the Music Center at Mishkenot Sha’ananim. The Music Center, set up way back by the Jerusalem Foundation in the 1970s to train Israeli young, talented musicians, has become in the main a world-class institution visited by classical music buffs. But this CulturEvents show took the Center’s classical music from ‘backstage’ to ‘front and center’: noisy young children and weary parents trying to occupy their offspring for free during the summer vacation. When somewhat- nerdy, gifted young musicians brought Beethoven and Bach to energetic youngsters, there was magic in the air. You could see four-year olds with their mouths gaping wide and listening entranced to music from clarinets, violins and French horns. At the end, the young audience enthusiastically banged in time (more or less!) to the music, on percussion instruments that were handed out.

CulturEvents has vividly shown Jerusalem that classical music no longer need remain the commodity of only adults or the elite. Classical music can – and should – be available to everyone who loves music. And that is at the heart of this praiseworthy initiative, CulturEvents: to make Jerusalem’s wealth of cultural offerings accessible and affordable to every age, every community, every neighborhood and every person.

photo by: Yael Ilan

Young People Who Change Lives

Our brand-new program to train talented young people FROM East Jerusalem as social workers FOR East Jerusalem has completed its first year. Bridging the large gap for East Jerusalem in social services, students gain the academic knowledge and practical skills to provide the residents of East Jerusalem – their own community – with better social services. With the goal to create a new generation of social workers from East Jerusalem in East Jerusalem, this program is a unique collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Municipality. This program is designed for the long-term and its success, in a few years’ time, will transform the entire social services system in the east of the city.

Every year, 10 high caliber young people start their journey with degree studies at the School for Social Work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Upon qualification as social workers (Bachelors of Social Work), they will enjoy an assured career path with jobs in municipal social services offices.

Realizing the importance of leadership from within, leading this program is Ms. Amal Khayat. She is an impressive young woman. From East Jerusalem and a doctoral student herself in Public Health at the Hebrew University, as well as a fellow in the young leadership program of the Jerusalem Foundation for doctoral students, Amal runs the administrative and pastoral aspects of the program. Juggling her own academic duties with her basket of support services for these students, she has become much more than a role model. Her modest and quiet demeanor belie a steely determination to get the maximum help and support for these students to ensure that they fulfill their potential and succeed in their studies. Her weekly individual sessions enable each student to raise their concerns in a confidential face-to-face setting. She has succeeded in creating a trusting and close relationship with all the students and she strives to find solutions to the academic, social and cultural challenges that they face.

“For some of these students, who were successful at high-school and are highly motivated to become social workers, the gap between their intellectual abilities and their basic level of Hebrew is extremely frustrating,” says Professor Asher Ben-Arieh, Dean of the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University and one of the people who initiated this program. “I assign them to mentors at the University who give them supplementary Hebrew tuition. We even saw the need to readjust the exams or translate them into Arabic to take into account their linguistic difficulties.”

Explains Amal, “Some of my mentees simply need someone to chat to in Arabic who understands his or her cultural world and the obstacles they face adapting to an Israeli institution with people not just from East Jerusalem. I encourage them to get help, to mingle and to do their best in their studies.”

Amal’s role is multifold. She is also the team leader and organizes regular meetings between the students to create a group with a sense of belonging, commitment and morale to one another, to the University and to their future profession.

“I am so proud and privileged to be part of this program. Two years ago, who would have thought that young people from my community, East Jerusalem, would be able to obtain a degree from a top Israeli university; customized training; employment opportunities; and also provide decent, professional help for under-served East Jerusalem residents””

Here, at the Jerusalem Foundation, we don’t just imagine a world of possibilities. We create it.

When The Going Gets Tough

The Jerusalem Foundation has sponsored numerous cultural events in recent months, such as the CulturEvents series described above. Alongside our involvement in dozens of smaller cultural offerings, we have also been heavily involved in national festivals: the Film Festival, the Comedy Festival, the Jazz Festival and the Israel Festival. The Israel Festival – a soaring success – was one of our highlights and its top-quality, exceptional productions attracted huge crowds not previously seen at this festival.

A particularly meaningful moment in the Israel Festival was the performance inspired by One Song, one of Israel’s most popular podcasts. There are moments in our lives when we suddenly gain a deeper insight into our own reality. Everyone present at that performance could reach out and feel that moment. Thanks to the Israel Festival, three very personal songs – which have become quasi national anthems accompanying Israel’s key national moments – turned into a moving stage-adaptation, causing many to shed a tear. Sentiments were particularly high against the backdrop of the turbulent drama currently agitating Israeli society. “I Have No Other Country” by Ehud Manor – which became Israel’s second national anthem some time ago and is quoted frequently by leaders all over the world – was one of the most poignant moments of this event.

The performance of Our Way, by Yaakov Rotblit and Izhar Ashdot, brought more of the audience to the verge of tears with its lyrics, “The way is not easy; Our path is tough going”. It was originally composed for Rotblit’s wife, who was seriously ill when it was composed, and it turned into Israel’s theme-song during the Second Intifada. Ashdot shared his realization that once creations are released by their composers into the public domain, they take on a life of their own and even metamorphize into completely new creations with other interpretations.

And I’ll adopt the theme of Rotblit and Ashdot to the storms presently sweeping across Israel:

“The way is not easy; Our path gets tough….

In the light we’ll keep going; Though the way is long; The tough keep going.”

Shana Tova! May the New Year be a good one and a year of peace.

Shai

cover photo by Arnon Bossani

הפוסט Stories From JLM – September 2023 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Israel’s 75^th Independence Day has already been and gone and Jerusalem Day is around the corner. At the interface of these two so very Israeli milestones and current events, many of us feel compelled to think about the future.

The mounting tension in public, the political disagreements and the ensuing social divisions have all raised questions about Israel’s social cohesion regarding fundamental principles on the future of the country. Many share the feeling – especially at these times and irrespective of political viewpoints – that there is a vacuum in true leadership right now. Trustworthy, courageous, attentive leadership that creates and upholds a moral agenda for the future. Leadership that is prepared to lead meaningful change and not only to answer immediate needs for the short-term or to placate the ‘base’ as we say in Israel.

Therefore, I want to dedicate this special edition of Stories from Jerusalem to the subject of leadership.

Nurturing young dynamic leaders and true leadership is one of the central pillars of the Jerusalem Foundation.

Young leadership of Jerusalem’s civil society – dedicated to the city; committed to highly professional and authentic enterprises that embrace the city’s diversity, communal strength and cultural wealth; striving for shared living to reduce gaps between communities and give equal opportunities to all – this stands at the core of our values and activities.

The Jerusalem Foundation is at the vanguard in leading some of the most impactful future leadership programs across Jerusalem. These include, at one end, the George Pinto Young Leadership Program for Doctoral Students and, at the other end, the pre-army-service Year of Meaning of the Hesed Youth Patrol where youth from underprivileged neighborhoods become social activists. There are many more such inspirational young leadership programs like these.

Our leadership programs also cover specific spheres for professional young leadership, such as training young people from East Jerusalem as social workers to treat their own community and nurturing young leadership to take responsibility for the community sports center currently being constructed in Beit Hanina.

These leadership programs align perfectly with the Jerusalem Young Leadership Prize, a new partnership between the Maimonides Fund and the Jerusalem Foundation. The winner of this prize – awarded for the first time – was Yael Berman-Domov, the CEO and founder of Tene Yerushalmi which has been operating in Jerusalem for over 10 years. Tene Yerushalmi runs communities activities for young adults as well as the Mechina Yerushalmit leadership gap year. Many of its hundreds of graduates have chosen to live and study in Jerusalem. Yael was chosen through a rigorous jury process from among more than 100 candidates, all worthy young applicants. The Jerusalem Young Leadership Prize process displayed an impressive mosaic of the fabulous and idealistic forces who are working to strengthen and contribute towards the city’s diversity.

The prize ceremony was a magical evening and everyone present felt – like me – that we were witnessing one of Jerusalem’s ‘finest hours’. An impressive gallery of young leaders, activists, donors and supporters – all equally committed to the city and its future – attended the ceremony. I want to share selected words from the ceremony, starting with some of the moving speech by Yael Berman-Domov, winner of the Jerusalem Young Leadership Prize.

“Tene Yerushalmi has become a home for good people and for good deeds, a magnet where everyone fits in, and fertile ground for everyone who wants to rejuvenate the most wonderful city in the world. We specialize in creating dialogue and collaborations based upon broad consensus. In particular during these times, with fierce public conflict about ideologies and identity, the role we have to play in Israeli society is even clearer – to repair society’s schisms, to firmly implement liberal and democratic values, and to continue motivating people to do good.

Active in Jerusalem for many years, we work in the belief that this city is the fount of the most important social enterprises and the wellspring for solutions to the trickiest social issues. We’ve already proved that changes evolving here in this city on a small-scale expand across Israel to large-scale impact. We are active in Jerusalem because it is our home and our very essence, it enriches our personal lives, it inspires our communal efforts and it propels us to action through its existential energies and restlessness. This is Jerusalem’s unique character and charm.

Over the next few years, our goals will be to launch and support more social initiatives; to open new programs to enhance the city; and to welcome young people to the city and empower them to live here.”

I would like to conclude with my own words from the same ceremony. “Leadership is the entire story! The past days, weeks and months have been the best demonstration of that. And the leadership programs and success stories that we have led and discovered during the past days, weeks and months bring us optimism and hope. Wonderful young leadership is taking the reins and leading Jerusalem to a much better future.”

In these days of tensions, conflict and uncertainty about the way forwards, I am particularly pleased to share these beautiful words and to grasp their optimistic spirit and hopefulness that came from Jerusalem just in the past month.

Happy Jerusalem Day to everyone in the city.

Shai Doron

Jerusalem Foundation President

photo credit: Chen Wagshall

הפוסט Stories From JLM – Jerusalem Day 2023 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

The last weeks of 2022 have been truly festive, filled with ceremonies, events and openings of projects. We have worked very hard to make this happen, and we are proud of reaching the finishing line and having the opportunity to share this feeling with you. The newly renovated Morton L. Mandel Plaza, adjacent to the historic windmill in Yemin Moshe, is undoubtedly a breathtaking spot within the beauty of Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of visitors will be able to enjoy this Plaza, now fully accessible, with its magnificent view over the Old City and the eastern slopes surrounding Jerusalem.

We were thrilled to inaugurate the new entrance plaza to Hebrew Union College at the Taube Family campus, together with many visitors who came especially from the USA. The Jerusalem Foundation has led and completed this long-awaited project which forms another layer in the overall plan for this campus developed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie.

If these were not enough, I will mention another jewel in the crown of Jerusalem’s beauty, the Sir Charles Clore Hill Gardens in the Valley of the Cross, which we renovated and upgraded, thus fulfilling a dream of many years. This project took us back to the historic days of the Jerusalem Foundation, way back to the seventies. Now the Gardens – a hidden gem – have been revealed to all – with benches overlooking the view, lovely walking paths and proper lighting, and they can be enjoyed by local residents, all Jerusalemites and everyone visiting the city.

During these hectic weeks, we also joined in the festivities celebrating the establishment of the new arts complex in the center of Jerusalem – the Jerusalem Arts Campus – which is now home to the premiere arts colleges in the city. We were also delighted to take part in the opening of the impressive new campus of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design just across the road from Canada House.

Yet, among all these ceremonies, distinguished inaugurations and sparkling events, three projects of the Jerusalem Foundation also unfolded that have no less impact. Sometimes we need to shine the spotlight on projects that are just as important. They may not receive the honor and glory of projects housed in impressive edifices, but what takes place behind their modest walls has enormous significance for all of Jerusalem’s diverse communities. For the Jerusalem Foundation, they are a source of great pride.

One such ‘modest’ project is the youth club in the neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem, which was renovated and refurbished through the generosity of the Ottolenghi family from Italy in memory of their father, Emilio. The youth club, which serves as a warm home for dozens of teenagers from Kiryat Menachem, has undergone a real transformation thanks to this renovation. You can see the difference as the teenagers are ‘voting with their feet’ and attending their club every afternoon. A snooker table, sofas, a rug, a well-equipped kitchen and an arts and crafts room all help the teens feel like they have somewhere to go that is theirs.  When the Ottolenghi family visited the newly re-opened Club, one of the girls just said, “this is my second home and now it is so enjoyable to come here as it feels like we are coming home”.

photo: Sasson Tiram

This new youth club will also enable expansion of programs for its teenagers, particularly in developing their leadership skills and honing their commitment to their neighborhood and to Jerusalem.  Roi Triblisi, the Director for Youth Development in the neighborhood, told us a story about a young boy who started coming to the youth club and very slowly over time, with gentle and careful encouragement, came more and more often, finding a place where he was seen and appreciated.  Today he has become a counsellor for other youth that frequent the club.

Another inauguration which might have been missed amidst the many ceremonies was that of the Polinsky Vocational Training Center for Young People at Risk and with Special Needs. This unique project works according to a special training and educational model which does not exist anywhere else in Israel. The Center is currently functioning as a pilot and, if it succeeds, it will make a huge difference to young adults and teenagers with special needs or at risk who currently have nowhere to go and nothing to do when they leave high school and go out into the world.

The Polinsky Center is comprised of three floors with designated learning areas that allow the young people to gain professional training. With a qualification certificate, they will be able to join the workforce and become more integrated into general society. The training college aligned with the Polinsky Center offers courses in cooking and culinary skills, hairdressing and hair-styling, make-up and manicures, mending telephones, and kindergarten assistants. The youngsters with learning and behavioral difficulties who attend courses at the college (ages 16-21) know that the new Polinsky Center will enable them to acquire a profession and their self-empowerment is so very meaningful.

“What moved me the most was seeing the parents who came to register their children for this training college,” said the principal of the Polinsky Center, Yael Avital. “It is very painful for an elderly parent to know that their adult child with special needs will not be able to fend for himself/herself and earn a living. Now, as soon as the special education system finishes, young adults with learning and behavioral difficulties simply sit at home, with nothing to do. Through this project, we are giving their parents hope that their (adult) children will be able to integrate into society and to earn a living through their own skills and resources. From my point of view, this achievement is worth everything – all our hard work.”

The third such project was the renovation of a kindergarten and its playground in the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood, thanks to a donation by Daniel Müller and his friends from Germany, who visit Jerusalem every year and renovate a different kindergarten. To date, over 50 kindergartens have been renovated and upgraded thanks to their decades-long dedication and support. It would seem that this is ‘just another kindergarten’ but this donation provided a completely new kindergarten for children with special needs. In this super-new space, they are receiving dedicated, specialized care and treatment from educational and therapeutic staff in much improved physical conditions, which they so greatly need and deserve.

photo: Sasson Tiram

Strengthening and sustaining Jerusalem and its communities while providing equal opportunities to all, remains the core of our activities and goals. Projects like the youth club and the training center may not be in the limelight or appear in the news but projects like this are the guarantee, the promise, that our efforts will make a difference – as I said above, through just important things – and are what is truly making Jerusalem a better city.

So, in this spirit of optimism, I wish all of us a happy and healthy New Year!

הפוסט Stories from JLM – Going Into 2023 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

I first met Esti Hess at the closing ceremony of the course which trains people from Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox (“Haredi”) community to guide and mentor Haredi young adults about wise management of their family’s economic affairs. This Smart Home Economics Management program for Haredim in Jerusalem is a partnership between the Jerusalem Foundation and the ‘Tvuna’ organization.

Mrs. Hess is a graduate of the first training course; she and her co-graduates are guiding and mentoring young Haredi women about basic financial principles and concepts and how to manage their household finances wisely and responsibly.

The guiding principle behind this financial literacy program is to cultivate young people with leadership potential from within the ultra-Orthodox community and train them as financial mentors and guides for Haredi young adults. Currently, some people growing up in the ultra-Orthodox world lack knowledge of basic economic principles and smart financial management.

Rather than external intervention, Tvuna is developing leadership that springs from within a community, that can bring about change within their own community and that takes the initiative and acts responsibly. This concept simplifies and facilitates the training process, as the Haredim recognize and appreciate the ‘in-house’ aspect of this program.

Beyond the significance of sound financial guidance and mentorship, we view this Tvuna program as an integral part of the Jerusalem Foundation’s nurturing of future leaders in Jerusalem who are committed to the city as well as to their own community.

I heard Esti Hess at the closing ceremony when she spoke as the representative of the first training course for women. I sat in the first row with my male Haredi friends and colleagues. Out of all the speakers, her quiet authority and inner strength as a role model about to lead such an important process was overwhelming. She and the other alumni of this first leadership course are true trail-blazers. When I went on the stage to congratulate the Tvuna graduates, I ignored my speech notes and shared with all those present my feelings that something much bigger than sound financial guidance is happening here.

At present, we are calling this program a ‘pilot’. Esti has already given financial education and mentoring in several workshops to women and families based upon the knowledge she gained in recent months through this training program. The pilot is successful and success breeds success. Thanks to the support of the Jerusalem Foundation’s good friends at Cross River Bank, which runs digital banking services in the USA and a development center in Israel, we are launching a second training program for women and a training program for men along the same lines.

I am not a finance or economics expert but the importance of this program for young Haredim in Jerusalem cannot be overstated. Yet Esti Hess and her Tvuna-trained colleagues are even more important. Their pioneering spirit and their leadership will bring about a much deeper change. They bring good tidings – for the Haredi community, for Jerusalem and for all of Israel.

Writing the Next Chapter in Jerusalem’s Future

A torrent of work, a jam-packed schedule and lots of trips abroad all leave me with little time for emotion. But there are moments when you lower your guard, become truly emotional and even feel like a co-editor in writing the next chapter in the story of developing Jerusalem’s future leaders. Arik Grebelsky, a new board member of the Jerusalem Foundation, and I were truly and deeply touched when we met some 16 teenagers from Jerusalem one fall evening in Jerusalem at the launch of the new pre-army-service gap-year ‘Year With Meaning’ of the Hesed Youth Patrol (SAHI).

We met Keren, Almog, Moshe, and their friends – all SAHI volunteers – who have decided to join us in creating the future of Jerusalem. They are members of the first cohort of SAHI’s gap year program. For those not acquainted with SAHI, you are missing out knowing about this amazing volunteer organization. Distribution of food packages and other community projects is carried out by teenage volunteers who grew up in Jerusalem’s peripheral and underprivileged neighborhoods and who did not feel at home in the traditional youth movements. They become teenagers with huge commitment to the communities in which they grew up despite the fact that their families and neighbors struggle with complex socio-economic difficulties.

You may not have heard about ‘SAHI-niks’ because one of their founding principles is that anyone can help another person, their community and the needy but they do so through ‘secret giving’. Hundreds of young SAHI activists throughout Jerusalem are gaining new and tremendous meaning in their lives by dedicating themselves to helping the needy and vulnerable members of the communities and neighborhoods in which they grew up. In turn, these idealistic youngsters are transformed into inspirational young leaders.

Almost two years ago, in the late hours of the night, in a wintery Jerusalem, at the height of a Covid outbreak, the idea of a SAHI gap-year was born. I had joined the motivated teenage SAHI volunteers and their counsellors that evening in packing hundreds of food parcels and basic household items which they were going to distribute anonymously to isolated elderly people and needy families throughout the city. As we worked, packed and chatted, the SAHI gap-year idea seemed then like a faraway dream.

The idea was not simply a pre-army voluntary-service gap year but a program for Jerusalem in Jerusalem by Jerusalemites. A gap-year program that would take place in the very neighborhoods and communities that the SAHi-niks know best, their own. We shared so many doubts…. “Are WE, teenagers from OUR backgrounds, really going to devote a year of our lives to community service?” These and other fears were raised but, slowly and surely, we found answers and created a program which had sounded crazy at first.

The Jerusalem Foundation backed this ambitious program from the outset, with our commitment not only to boosting Jerusalem’s communal strength but to nurturing its future young leadership. After 18 months of preparation, selecting suitable candidates, and long complex authorizations, our dream finally became reality. 16 teenagers on the brink of adulthood (aged 18) are setting out on this long journey of non-stop volunteerism, personal development, responsibility to the community, group communal life and the added value – developing a cohesive community of young leaders dedicated to staying in and bolstering the city and Israel.

This journey has begun. The SAHI alumni are living in two rented apartments in Katamonim (some of Jerusalem’s underprivileged vicinities). During the day, they volunteer in special education schools and other educational frameworks. In the afternoons, they help teenagers and the elderly in these neighborhoods with homework and housework. And in the evenings, of course, they join their younger SAHI colleagues (who look up to them as role models) in doing good deeds for vulnerable people, anonymously, throughout Jerusalem.

Though they’ll definitely encounter some obstacles during this year, there are already SAHI-niks waiting in line who want to join this gap-year program next year.

Everyone present at the launch of this program, just before Rosh Hashana, was moved to tears. We all felt that we are part of writing the next chapter in Jerusalem’s future.

On this optimistic note of good deeds, giving and creating new beginnings, I want to wish all our friends in Israel and across the world – Shana Tova! May the New Year be a good one and a year of peace.

Shai

הפוסט Stories from Jerusalem – September 2002 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Dear Friends,

Summertime is here and the long warm days bring exciting news; the Jerusalem Foundation is leading the construction of East Jerusalem’s first ever community sports center, in Beit Hanina. This project – some would say decades in the waiting – is groundbreaking in more senses than one. This unprecedented initiative for the 370,000 residents of East Jerusalem will bring a modern sports center – where they and their children can meet friends, learn to swim and get fit – into their neighborhood, and they will no longer need to travel far to West Jerusalem for access to sports facilities or simply not take part in sports.

Our Highest Priority: East Jerusalem’s First Community Sports Center

The Jerusalem Foundation launched our ‘2030 & Beyond’ Plan for Jerusalem a few years ago and placed this project as of the highest priority at the outset. Our devoted donors including the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, who understood the game-changing potential of this project as soon as we launched it, made this possible. While we specialize in creating facts on the ground with innovative capital projects that have transformed Jerusalem, raising $20 million for construction of this center is a real achievement. We are particularly proud of creating meaningful relationships that propel and maintain our projects into the future. The three-way partnership between the Jerusalem Foundation, the local Beit Hanina-Shuafat leadership and the Jerusalem municipality is going to transform the brand-new center into a vibrant hub of social, cultural and community life.

We know that Beit Hanina’s community sport center is going to become a meaningful example of the Jerusalem Foundation’s mission to reduce gaps between Jerusalem’s diverse communities and offer equal opportunities for all. The added value of the center will be to bring people of East Jerusalem together, provide much-needed recreational activities, increase community-building capacity, develop leadership and encourage participation in civic society.

Our work is conducted through a productive partnership with Beit Hanina-Shuafat’s finest local leaders who are committed to the success of this center. These include George Saman, its chairperson with 40 years of community-leadership experience, and Wassim El-Haj, the community center’s dynamic CEO, as well as board members of the community center.

Through our decades of work and experience in and for East Jerusalem, we realize that this sports center will not solve all of East Jerusalem’s challenges. However, we celebrate its beginning, rejoice in the hard work ahead of us, and look forward to its tremendous impact in the not-too-distant future. Only by promoting communal strength and future leadership can we bring about a better Jerusalem for everyone.

I am delighted that the Jerusalem Foundation is generating positive news in Jerusalem. The links below are to some of the stories, including in Arab social media and press, sharing news of this project with people in Israel as well as around the world.

Photos: Michal Fattal

• Jerusalem Post article: https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/energy-and-infrastructure/article-710935
• Bokra article (in Arabic): https://bokra.net/Article-1493123
• Alarab article (in Arabic): https://www.alarab.com/Article/1037315#.YrtIpLxU0xg.whatsapp

Shai Doron

Jerusalem Foundation President

הפוסט Stories from JLM – July 2022 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Dear Friends,

The Life and Soul of the City, Ynet

A Ray of Light, Ha’aretz

Shai Doron

Jerusalem Foundation President

הפוסט Stories from JLM – June 2022 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Dear Friends,

A Story of A Story

During the past year, a youthful spirit has been sweeping across the Jerusalem Foundation’s premises. Young people with boundless energy and good humor whose ‘big ears’ are their microphones and recording devices. They are called podcasters and they are on a mission: to tell stories to promote greater awareness of the wealth and complexity of modern Israeli society. They are “The Israel Story” – the world’s most widespread and successful podcast about Israel.

In June 2021, we invited the talented creators and producers of the Israel Story to join the Jerusalem Foundation family and to establish their headquarters in the social hub adjacent to my office on the third floor of our building.

Here, in the heart of Jerusalem, these vibrant, creative, gifted young people work hard and tell stories about Israel and about Israelis, unique, intricate and heartwarming stories that reach millions of listeners across the globe in more than 190 countries.

This young innovative Jerusalemite team is led by Mishy Harman. Mishy – a Jerusalemite by birth and by choice – is distinguished by his mane of curly hair and by his conviction that genuine dialogue based on mutual understanding is the optimal way to ensure a better future for and in Jerusalem.

The Israel Story promotes a greater awareness of others and mutual understanding through storytelling, and they tell excellent human-interest stories. Listen, for example, to the chapter on the day they spent in Jerusalem’s YMCA, from dawn till dusk, “A Day at the Y”. They tell us how one of Jerusalem’s primary communal centers, in one of Jerusalem’s landmark buildings, rebuilt its exemplary diverse community: a real microcosm of Jerusalem’s own mosaic.

Last year, the Jerusalem Foundation, with our new partners, the Israel Story, gave birth to the Jerusalem Story – storytelling conducted on the move in live evening sessions across Jerusalem. With Jerusalem – and its residents – stories waiting to be told, the Jerusalem Story has become the ultimate platform for sharing these stories.

Here and now, voices rise up from the first floor of the Jerusalem Foundation’s building, voices of the new, innovative recording studio of the Israel Story. Their voices will help turn Jerusalem – Israel’s capital – into Israel’s storytelling capital. Their recording studio will serve social organizations across the city and enable them to record their own podcasts with professional guidance. The Jerusalem Foundation’s fund established by the Israel Group to support creative social ventures by young people for young people – in Jerusalem and for Jerusalem – supported this venture. Our Innovation Fund for Culture and Community also provided support with creating an app for recording and tagging stories in various locations across the city. The Jerusalem Foundation is trailblazing the way for turning Jerusalem into a story shared with everyone and about everyone.

A Story of Hope

Talking about hope, I want to share a story about an even younger group of Jerusalemites, who are equally as inspiring, lively and creative. This is a story about a group of Grade 5 girls, pupils of the Reishit state-religious elementary school in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood. As residents of Kiryat Menachem – which has a diverse population that we call it the ‘Jerusalem Mix’ – this diverse group of girls includes those from the Ethiopian community. So, the last thing you would expect this group to do is to play… soccer. Yet only we are limited by such prejudices these girls are unencumbered by such pre-conceived notions and are a symbol of hope and optimism.

Over the past year, the Jerusalem Foundation has been spearheading the “Sport as a Tool” program to promote Communal Strength and Shared Living, thanks to the support of our friends from all over the world. With our partner, the Equalizer organization, this program promotes soccer training, community building, schoolwork help, and familiarization with other communities, Jews and Arabs.

Last week an all-girls’ soccer tournament with teams from all over Jerusalem took place. The Kiryat Menachem team – with our support and proudly bearing Jerusalem Foundation soccer shirts – took to the pitch with huge excitement.

Here, the plot in our story has a twist. You may be expecting me to tell you that ‘our’ team won the tournament. They did not. The Kiryat Menachem girls were knocked out in the qualifying rounds. They were beaten by a group of Arab girls from Abu Ghosh. Did they despair? Not at all. On the contrary, their meeting these girls from a different background and a different location at the outset of the tournament caused them to want more, to improve their sport, to practice further and to boost their team’s social and physical aspects.

They may not win in the next tournament either but these girls are committed to achieving more and reaching higher rounds of the tournament. Soccer – yes, soccer too – can play a significant part in community empowerment and shared living, in motivating the young to aim for the stars and to be proud of simply taking part too.

The spring is in full bloom in Jerusalem. So, despite the challenges and difficulties we face, where flowers bloom, so does hope. Hope for tranquility, hope for quiet and hope for success.

With Passover and Easter just a few days away, and with Ramadan already in full swing, I want to wish you all Chag Sameach/Happy Holidays/Ramadan Kareem.

Shai Doron

Jerusalem Foundation President

הפוסט Stories from JLM – April 2022 הופיע לראשונה ב-.

Dear Friends,

In these last days of 2021, the sky is again darkening…

But it is not the weather, today the sun is shining on the streets of Jerusalem but the Omicron is bringing darkness and gloomy forecasts. In spite of this, I always seek out an optimistic perspective. The year 2021 taught us to face difficult challenges but also showed some signs for better days in the future.

On such days of retrospection and reflection, I always look toward an optimistic future.  The last time I wrote to you, I found some good reasons to be optimistic and hopeful and this time I have even more reasons. I can already report that in 2022 we will start building one of the most important projects of the Jerusalem Foundation in recent years: the first community sports center in east Jerusalem, in Beit Hanina, named for Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel.  And this is surely a reason for great optimism: communal strength, future leadership, shared living, reducing gaps and providing equal opportunities for all – all of these are integral and inherent parts of this significant and important project that will break ground in the new year.

Double Optimism

And, if the above is not a good enough reason for optimism, then I think you will find it in this next story about a group of young people, all graduates of the Jerusalem Gap year program of Tene Yerushalmi. They spent a year in Jerusalem before army/national service and now 4 years later they have returned to the city.

“Double Impact” is the name of the Jerusalem Foundation and Tene Yerushalmi joint program, encouraging and supporting the engagement of young Jerusalemites with their community – so that a power multiplier is created: both assistance to the Jerusalem population and training of the next generation of young leadership committed to living and working in Jerusalem.  The participants, students and graduates of the Tene Yerushalmi will lead social programs and initiatives in the city they fell in love with 4 years ago and are returning to now.

This special group has made a commitment to work in the Gonenim neighborhood, one of the most disadvantaged communities in the city, for atleast 3 years.  They will receive scholarship support for their academic studies and will participate in leadership development training that will prepare them for a role as civil society leaders for Jerusalem and for the future.

One of the participants is Ofer Gelfand, a 26 year old Biology student at the Hebrew University Givat Ram Campus.  He was born in a moshav (small agricultural settlement) in Northern Israel and came to Jerusalem for a gap year before enlisting in the IDF.  This year was his first acquaintance with Jerusalem, with its diverse population groups and with Jewish Renewal – his deep exploration of all of these fascinating aspects of the city led him to want to study in Jerusalem and to plan a future in the city.

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Today as a student, he lives in Jerusalem and receives a scholarship for his studies through the Tene Yerushalmi joint program with the Jerusalem Foundation.  “I meet people from different backgrounds that I would never have had a chance to meet,” he explains, “and I understand today that divisions between people are due to the fact that we do not know each other.  The ‘mechina’ gap year was the first time I understood this and today I am trying to pass it on to other young people.”

Ambassadors of Hope

And if you are still not convinced that I have good reasons for optimism… then I have another “booster shot” to bolster my message.  The regular meetings of the Jerusalem Foundation Ambassadors of the Learning Together program for joint study – bring together principals and teachers from schools in Jerusalem, Jews and Arabs, who work together to promote shared education initiatives for Jewish and Arab children, and the creation of a network of teachers committed to the program.

This is currently the largest program in Israel dealing with meetings between Jews and Arabs and it takes place within the national public education system, in schools in west and east Jerusalem.  This program which was launched by the Jerusalem Foundation and the Jerusalem Education Authority, 7 years ago, now numbers more than 100 schools from elementary to high school, with participation of hundreds of teachers and thousands of students.

The Dutch Scout

During these unpredictable days with constantly changing regulations and difficulties with flights – I managed to leave the country for a few hours to attend a very happy event for a friend in Holland, Roger Van Oordt, who leads the organization Christians for Israel, great supporters of Jerusalem and Israel.  Roger was presented with the title of “Honorary Consul of Israel” and I was deeply moved and honored to be present for this ceremony.  Sometimes one has to find some distance from Israel and Jerusalem, in order to find perspective and understand the great commitment to Jerusalem that is reflected in Roger’s leadership and the work of his partners and friends.  Many programs for all the people of Jerusalem, young and old, are carried out thanks, to their regular support, including the Double Impact project above, and in 2022, we will launch a construction project with their aid and partnership: a new building for youth leaders from the Scouts in the East Talpiot neighborhood.

The feeling of excitement and optimism from those hours when I attended this meaningful ceremony for Roger – were hours of true joy and true love for Jerusalem, which lifted my spirits and stayed with me long after I returned to Israel.  As some of my long-time readers will remember, I am a graduate of the Israel Scouts movement full of again optimism.  Seeing Roger immediately put on the Scouts uniform that I brought for him as a gift with the tie of the Scouts group from the neighborhood where the new building will be built, and immediately commit himself to the values of the Scouts and Jerusalem with a smile so big – no one could be more optimistic.

And with all of this, together with a wide and optimistic smile, I would like to send you all good wishes for a happy and healthy 2022.

Shai Doron

Jerusalem Foundation President

הפוסט Stories from JLM – December 2021 הופיע לראשונה ב-.