February, 2020 | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

HoliGame – Learning about Workforce Diversity through Play

Deep into the winter months, as the seasonal rains seem to never stop, it’s easy to forget that there are holidays just around the corner. How many holidays? About 20, many of which are concentrated in April-May, and which are celebrated and commemorated by most of the religions and communities living in Israel.

As a manager or employer, how do you prepare for the holidays? What should be taken into account when preparing for the holiday? How should it be marked? What happens when holidays from different religions fall on the same day? How do you make everyone feel like they belong, even when the holiday being celebrated is not theirs?

To learn about the ways to deal with all these complex issues, our Orna Shani Golan, Director of the Cultural Competency Desk, teamed up with Noa Tron, Director of the Israeli Forum for Employment Diveristy, and together they created HoliGame – a tool about how to prepare managers, employers and other staff to speak about the different holidays during April and May, as they prepare to mark the different holidays in their organizations and companies.

Orna and Noa while the other playin the "MIshag"

Orna and Noa while the other playing HoliGame

On 18.2, we were hosted by Intel’s Petach Tikva campus. A group of 25 women from different organizations came to play HoliGame for the first time: Getting to know the holidays, dealing with different dilemmas, challenges and opportunities that arise around the holidays, as well as issues, both regarding values and organizational logistics, that arise in when different holidays fall on the same day, the different ways workers react to each other, and more.

The HoliGame board

This is how the game works. In order for participants to advance on the game board, they had to deal with dilemmas such as:

How to mark the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers without adding to existing tensions?
How do you decide which holidays the organization celebrates, and which they don’t?
What to do with a worker who actively works to sabotage an organization’s holiday commemoration?
What to do when employees complain that they must give up their traditions in the name of inclusion and cultural sensitivity?

Playing in action

They also advanced if they picked a card that advances cultural competence, such as:

As part of the preparation for the holiday period, you checked in advance who of the employees would like vacation and when.
As a result of being prepared and organized early, both the needs of the staff and the needs of the system were taken care of.
At a management meeting, it was decided that during Ramadan, all staff meetings at the company would end no later than 2pm so that the those who fast could have time to get home to the special meal that breaks their fast in the evening.

The participants were held up or had to ‘pay’ fines if they picked a card with an activity that is not culturally competent. For example:

The foreman scheduled employees for shifts without taking into account that Easter and Passover fall at the same time, and as a result, you receive complaints about being inconsiderate about employees’ needs, and employees are unwilling to work during the holiday.
Every May, a ceremony for the company’s Workers of the Year is held, with a rich array of refreshments. This year, Ramadan comes in May, so Muslim workers will not be able to take part in the ceremony.
During the interim days of Passover week, a worker who does not keep Kosher dietary laws brought a pita into the common kitchenette, which led to an incident between him and those who do keep Kosher. Workers came to you to handle the issue, and it turned out that there were no previous instructions on what to do regarding food in the company during Passover.

Participants noted that they learned a great deal about both the holidays themselves and about tools to work out issues dealing with them in order to not create new tensions in the organization, and how to prepare ahead of time for the upcoming April and May holidays in particular and holidays in the organization in general.

Concluding the game

Orna posted the following on Facebook:

Remember what it’s like when you had that dream? When you have some vague notion of what you want something to be, but the idea still doesn’t have a clear framework, a precise image in your mind, or even a name. Just a feeling. That’s the way it was with the HoliGame. A game that helps people become acquainted with the different holidays and commemorations in Israel, for those managing diverse teams. For the past several months, Noa Tron, Director of the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity and I (from the Jerusalem Intercultural Center) have been passing ideas back and forth about how to make all the diverse holidays and commemorations in Israel accessible to everyone? What is the potential to create an inclusive environment with the right approach? And how many issues can be missed along the way? And not to mention the dilemmas that arise from just preparing for and commemorating the different holidays themselves. And finally, today, 25 women (where are you men?) had the opportunity to play this game, the HoliGame. A chance to get to know the holidays (Pentecost anyone?), deal situations, some more familiar, some less, and about think what each person can do to change things in each of the companies she came from.
So one small dream was fulfilled. (And thank you to amazing designer Sagi Ashin for understanding exactly what we dreamt about.) Thank goodness that there’s more where that came from. And if you want to hear more about HoliGame or want me to come to your company, speak with me (or Noa).

Here’s the original post:

The Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity also posted the following on Facebook:

It was a festive and interesting morning at Intel’s Petach Tikva campus. Months of developing and planning about how to prepare for the April-May holidays led us to the HoliGame. Becoming familiar with the holidays, dealing with dilemmas, challenges and opportunities that arise around the holidays, as well as issues regarding values and organizational logistics that arise when holidays fall on the same days, employee reactions, and more. Twenty-five women from different companies were able to deal with these questions in an experiential and unique way.
Some of our recommendations on how to make the corporate environment more culturally competent:
* Get to know the different holiday calendars and prepare for them ahead of time.
* Learn from mistakes and successes – create an organizational memory
* Adjust the company’s readiness to the needs of current employees
* Decide what to celebrate and commemorate – along with employees
* Holiday policies – take into account: food, ceremony, work scheduling (shifts, vacations, working hours), terminology, translation, appropriate gifts
* Creating an organizational ‘toolbox’ for responding to organizational tensions
* Using effective dialogue tools for dealing with employee resistance
* Holidays are not just welfare – they affect workers’ well-being on various levels.
Want to know more? Did you want to play and were not able to come? We also come to the companies themselves. Many thanks to the Jerusalem Intercultural Center and especially to Orna Shani on the wonderful partnership. A special thanks to Sagi Ashin for the stunning design. To the Be-Atzmi organization for the comments, and to Racheli Livni-Mordechai and to Hadar Tal Falik for their wonderful hospitality and the inspiration you gave us in telling Intel’s story.

And here’s the original post:

orna2020-03-07T09:00:50+00:00February 25th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in the Workplace|

Living Safer, Living Longer in East Jerusalem Continues to Grow

We’re happy to tell you about two new groups of the Living Safer, Living Longer program in East Jerusalem. One is in partnership with the MiniActive network of Palestinian women (read more about them here), and the other is at the Abna al-Quds Community Center.

Living Safer, Living Longer’s partnership with MiniActive has been so successful that we began a second group this year. The group has 18 participants.

Thus far, all have undergone training in ensuring home safety for families with young children as well as for the elderly. In addition, each was accompanied by the project’s Arabic-speaking staff member in their first home visit. They then continued to make ‘house calls’ on their own.

In order to receive the graduation certificate and volunteer card, each volunteer is required to make at least one house call to one of the group’s members, and two visits each to the homes of local elderly and families with young children.

Graduation certificate and volunteer card

They will continue to make new home visits and return to review the improvements to homes they have already visited. We can’t wait for an upcoming visit from a firefighter from the Wadi Joz firefighting station on March 31. He will give a lecture about preventing and putting out household fires.

Another group that is now undergoing training is taking place at the Abna al-Quds Community Center in the Old City of Jerusalem. There, a group of 26 women has completed the theoretical training and is beginning to make house calls, accompanied by Hirya, the project’s Arabic-speaking staff person.

Sometimes these visits are hard – people often don’t want to invite others into their private space to have them see all they’ve been doing wrong. However, if approached properly, these visits are basically about engaging the public on a personal level to think about home safety. And sometimes, the mentees have suggestions for us, too. One woman who Hirya visited with another volunteer in the Old City suggested, “Don’t wash your floors with too much water, or you could slip!” and “Remove all your rugs from the house!” Definitely worthwhile suggestions.

Thanks to these groups we are refining our work with the volunteers and the most effective methods of engaging the public to improve safety in their homes.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of Living Safer, Living Longer.

Naomi Roff2020-02-28T17:22:54+00:00February 22nd, 2020|Blog, Living Safer Living Longer, MiniActive|

The Little Prince – Creating a Revolution in Private-Public Space

Who’s responsibility is it to clean up those open spaces between apartment buildings? That walkway or set of never-ending staircases that lead from the street to your complex? That vacant lot two doors down? This is an issue that unites all members of the Little Prince network – Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, residents of various ethnicities etc., and the reason we began the Little Prince network two years ago.

Jerusalem, along with many other cities in Israel, has an interesting section of its zoning code called Private-Public Space, or PPS. These spaces are basically public open spaces – beside apartment buildings, or in common courtyards, or gardens or stairwells to very large complexes. As opposed to property that technically belongs to specific homeowners or apartment complexes, these PPS’ are open for anyone to pass by. But paradoxically, although they are open to the public, the space doesn’t belong to the Municipality, so technically, the Municipality is not responsible for maintaining these spaces. This responsibility is supposed to be the residents. However, many residents are either unaware of this responsibility or are unable to maintain and clean these areas. The result – too many PPS spaces throughout Jerusalem that are overgrown messes strewn with trash.

Cleaning up the Private-Public Space

And this is a widespread problem, that the Municipality has recognized that is must step in to improve. After several decades of neglect, as part of its plan to clean up Jerusalem, the Municipality mapped PPS’ around the city – over 1,125 acres – with plans to help residents clean and maintain these spaces on a regular basis. Cleaning will be carried out at different frequencies according to each PPS. In addition to cleaning, the Sanitation Division will, as far as possible, be responsible for handling lighting and safety hazards and more.

This is a tremendous accomplishment. Private-Public Spaces cover huge areas throughout Jerusalem, and cleaning and maintaining them will make a significant impact on how Jerusalem’s neighborhoods look.

The most exciting part of this news is that in doing so, in taking responsibility for cleaning up the PPS’s, the Jeruslaem Municipality has set a groundbreaking precedent throughout Israel. As we noted above, issues of PPS’s and whose responsibility it is to clean them up permeate Israel, but most of the municipalities keep to their legal responsibilities – public spaces as zoned. Congratulations to the Little Prince for this huge accomplishment, and many thanks to the Operations Division of the Jerusalem Municipality for their partnership.

fianThe Little Prince – Fostering cooperation between city workers, city departments and residents

One example is in old Katamon. This PPS has been the subject of Little Prince activist, and member of the Ginot Ha’Ir Community Council board, Sarah Yacobzada’s attention over the past few months. A few weeks ago, the Municipality finally began to clean up the area. In response Sarah wrote:

Remember the PPS? They finally started cleaning it in old Katamon. It’s important to say a huge thank you for the partnership between Dudi Turgeman, the Director in the Southern District of the Sanitation Department, and Mazal Gorney, who is responsible for landscaping in our area, as well as to Eitan Levy and Jamal who recruited the workers who cleaned up all the neglect from over the years! And our dear friend Gil Gorny who directed everyone, and who managed to drive significant change in cleaning up the city.

Here’s her Facebook post:

Here’s the post from the Ginot Ha’Ir Community Center’s Facebook page (in Hebrew):

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Naomi Roff2020-02-29T12:37:11+00:00February 19th, 2020|Blog, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

MyCity App – Helping the Little Prince to Keep Jerusalem Clean

It’s been two years in the making (see this post from August 2017 to read about its roots), but the MyCity app is finally here!

You, too, can download MyCity

The idea for the MyCity app was born two years ago, during a #MadeinJLM #HackJLM hackathon event. At the all-night event, activists from the Little Prince, together with a ‘group of techies’ as we called them then, teamed up to sketch out an idea. The breakthrough that night was the understanding that the app must be as simple as possible (the KISS approach). While other apps, including the Municipality’s, were time-consuming and complicated (requiring a lot of text about location, personal details, a long form, etc.), MyCity was to be as simple as the conventional camera app. You point at the target – a pile of garbage, a garbage can that is overflowing, etc., and click. The app does the rest: it sends the picture to the server with the coordinates, time and the identity of the already registered sender.

It took a while to find the entrepreneurs who would make it work, but now, a beta version of the app is here! One of the important uses of this application is for a series of pictures. You can be walking on the street or in the park and just point-and-click at every point-that-should-be-cleaned. The server can make this series of pictures into one report (“list of problems on X street, or in Y park) that can be sent to the relevant municipality official. Another interesting use is when you pass the same filthy spot on your way to work or school every day, you can take a picture each day. The server is able to create a time-based report, (“Corner of X and Y streets, from October 1 – 31”) which can also be reported to a municipal official, asking for a sustainable systemic response. The Municipality’s app can’t – there you need to file separate reports for each location and time and fill a form before sending. There is no way to understand the context of the report – the other parts of the park or the history of the spot. Even before this novel app was out, you could see Jerusalemite activists creating ‘garbage stories.’ (Want to see examples of successful local ‘Garbage Stories’? See this post about MiniActive’s successes in East Jerusalem.)

Here’s the Facebook (in Hebrew) post from the Little Prince Facebook group:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Naomi Roff2020-02-29T12:57:49+00:00February 15th, 2020|Blog, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

Atta’a – Fighting for Children’s Health Care Rights

Every day Atta’a helps adults and children access – and fight for – their rights. Many times the stories are heart-wrenching. Here’s one of them.

Illustrative picture by pikrepo

A social worker from Hadassah Mt. Scopus contacted us (Atta’a is in contact with all social workers in Jerusalem hospitals) to help her with an urgent case she has in connection with the National Insurance Institute (NII).

There is a 7-year-old patient who underwent one operation and who needs to undergo another 2. However, NII decided that his parents are not eligible for health insurance because they couldn’t prove that they live in Jerusalem (a pre-requisite for Palestinians to receive Jerusalem resident status, only after which they can receive health insurance). Without health insurance, the parents were asked to pay NIS 200,000 to continue for the second operation, with the final bill potentially reaching NIS 300,000. As with many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, this is a poor family with no way of paying such huge sums of money. The social worker helped the family to submit all forms and documentation to prove that they do indeed live in – and have never left – Jerusalem.

Since time is of the essence the social worker called Atta’a on behalf of the family in order to speed the process up.

We asked the social worker to prepare a report on the family and its situation. We also asked the surgeon to prepare a report on the child’s medical condition. Together with all the documents proving that the family lives in Jerusalem Atta’a went directly to the NII Director in East Jerusalem and the Director of the Residency Division (with whom Atta’a has a good working relationship) to request that they expedite this family’s case. The good news is that the family was granted residency status after only a week, and that from here on out they will be covered by health insurance, including one of the operations.

The bad news is that this took place on January 30, 2020, after the boy had already had two operations. By law this means that the family still had to pay for these first two operations, which were very expensive. Legally, after the NII decision, all additional matters must be appealed through the court system. Atta’a referred the family to another organization that can help them with these legal matters. We wish them the best in getting access to this coverage.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of Atta’a.

Naomi Roff2020-02-28T16:37:41+00:00February 11th, 2020|Attaa, Blog|

Window to Mount Zion – Prayer for Church Unity

Every year on January 30, representatives of different Christian denominations meet in the Cenacle – Room of the Last Supper, on Mount Zion. Since the beginning of the Window to Mount Zion project our volunteers have been active in making sure that this special ceremony takes place without any problems. You can read about ceremonies from previous years here, here, and here.

A unique church ceremony

This year, again, our volunteers were there. Here’s a description from one of them:

A Hassidic, Lithuanian, Reform, Conservative, Ashkenazi, Sephardi Jew met in one synagogue for joint prayer.
– Sounds like a joke? or the coming of the Massiah?
It turns out that for Christians it already exists. This week there is an annual ceremony – the Prayer for Church Unity in Jerusalem. Every day of the week there are prayer ceremonies, and all Christian communities pray together – Greek Orthodox, Anglican, Armenian, Lutheran, Latin, Orthodox, Ethiopian. On Thursday, January 30, joint prayer was held at the Cenacle – the Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion. Organized prayer is allowed in the Cenacle only five times a year. Because of the sensitive location, just above King David’s tomb, volunteers from the Window to Mount Zion are there to explain and keep order. Unexpectedly, an ultra-Orthodox man, a doctoral student in philosophy at the Hebrew University, who had heard about the event, came to experience it for himself.

Ceremony open to everyone

Here’s a short video clip of how it looks and sounds:

And here’s her Facebook post, in Hebrew:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its support of Window to Mount Zion.

Naomi Roff2020-02-24T05:49:07+00:00February 7th, 2020|Blog, Mount Zion|

Cultural Competency with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority seeks to protect Israel’s treasures of nature, landscape, and heritage, and strives to connect people to these places.

But how do you do this effectively, with Israel’s vast diversity of populations, communities, languages and cultures?

Community and volunteer coordinators – Israel Nature and Parks authority

This was the subject of our Orna Shani Golan’s discussion with professionals from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority on January 20. More than 20 community and volunteer coordinators convened in the Afek National Park training class for the first time for a cultural competency seminar.

The coordinators meet people from a wide range of communities on a daily basis, and try, in varied ways, to connect them to values of nature and its preservation. These intercultural meetings often raise dilemmas that the coordinators discussed in the meeting. Examples included issues of language – when there are classes of Jewish students and classes of Arab students – what language will the meeting be conducted in? How do you hold a joint march when a religious school refuses to walk in mixed groups of boys and girls and demands that the secular school to march with boys and girls separately? And what to do with an employee who doesn’t discuss these disagreements about different adaptations with his or her supervisor?

These and other dilemmas dealing with the relationship of the Nature and Parks Authority, which is responsible for nature conservation, nature preserves and national parks, and advancing values of nature preservation in Israel, to the community and to all communities are Israel, must be handled in a culturally competent manner in order for the Authority’s efforts to be effective. This is especially important for communities that live close to nature reserves and whose traditional way of life – hunting, fishing, collecting wild plants, and more – might harm the flora and fauna of the reserves. At the meeting, the coordinators and supervisors spoke with Orna, Director of our Cultural Competency Desk, about the insights that arise from a meeting that uses culturally competent tools, and different tools that can be applied to their work. Some examples of tools included:

How to work correctly with cultural generalities (without sinking into stereotypes);
Understanding cultural values, and using cultural axes to improve inter-cultural communication;
The 7-stage model of deepening dialogue based on the explanatory model of Prof. Arthur Kleinman.

In addition, participants learned about culturally competent tools for community work that were developed by our director, Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir and Dr. Orna Shemer, of The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

We seek to hold additional meetings with the staff of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, according to region, which will help staff respond effectively and in a culturally competent manner to issues and dilemmas that arise from their everyday work.

orna2020-02-22T07:00:45+00:00February 4th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence|

The Little Prince Activist Receives Mayor’s Prize for Involved Citizenship

Yet another accomplishment for the Little Prince – Cleaning up Jerusalem Together. This time, one of our leading activists, Ronen Weil, was recognized by the Mayor, in a special prize awarded to local residents and activists who volunteer to improve their immediate surroundings.

Mayor Lion and all prize winners, courtesy of Municipality Spokesman's Office

Mayor Lion and all prize winners, picture from Municipality Spokesman’s Office

This news was published in both national and local Jerusalemite news sources, here and here, respectively. The official statement praised Ronen, for his:

Extensive contribution to the neighborhood of Homat Shmuel (Har Homa) in the areas of physical infrastructures, transportation and cleaning up the city. Ronen is part of the Little Prince – Cleaning Up Jerusalem Together project.

He takes great care in bringing about changes in the neighborhood public sphere that will benefit the residents, while ensuring that all tasks and projects are completed and seen through to fruition.

At the ceremony, Mayor Lion said:

The city of Jerusalem is the only city in the country where almost one in every three residents volunteers, for the betterment of the entire society, for his or her neighborhood, for weakened populations, for animals, and more, and we have that to be proud of. Jerusalem’s unique mix that makes it unique in Israel and the world. Together and apart they are what make Jerusalemites better and more caring people. Thank you, each and every one of you. Because of you we have such a great city.

Thank you, Mayor Lion for those inspiring words. Congratulations Ronen and all of the activists in the Little Prince!

Many thanks to the Rayne Foundation and the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Naomi Roff2020-02-22T06:59:56+00:00February 2nd, 2020|Blog, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

Monthly Archives: February 2020