April, 2020 | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Window to Mount Zion – Virtual Yom Hashoa Commemoration at the Chamber of the Holocaust

Somewhere around 1949, the Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal arrived in Israel with a casket containing filled with vessels of ashes, remains of those who had been incinerated in Europe that he and other survivors had collected from throughout Austria, in an effort to erect a grave and memorial in the young State of Israel.

In those days, Samuel Zangwil (S.Z.) Kahana, Director General of the Ministry of Religion, was developing David’s Tomb and the area of Mount Zion, which, for the first time in history, was in Jewish hands, since at the same time the more traditional holy places (Old City, Western Wall) were on the other side of the border at that time.

On the tenth of Tevet 1950, the coffin containing the ashes was placed on Mount Zion, in a room named the Chamber of the Holocaust. The place quickly began to develop as an unassuming, traditional and religious memorial site that meets the human need for prayer and memory, and doesn’t subject itself to academic standards of historical research.

Chamber of the Holocaust: Zoom Discussion

On April 20, 2020, Israel commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day. This year, because the coronavirus crisis has kept most people at home and people are not allowed to congregate, our program Window to Mount Zion held a special online commemoration event on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The event featured a panel that included: Eli Dan, Director of the Chamber of the Holocaust, Dr. Zohar Maor, Researcher and Lecturer in History at Bar-Ilan University, tour guide Gavri Assouline, and Meirav Horovitz Stein, Coordinator of Window to Mount Zion.

Each of the panelists spoke about different aspects of the Chamber of the Holocaust – from the history of its establishment, to its history since then, to special artifacts that are found there to anecdotes about the unique experience the site provides. Dozens of people participated in the special event. You can watch the entire event here (in Hebrew):

Here is the Facebook post (in Hebrew) about the event, from the Window to Mount Zion Facebook page.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for their support of Window to Mount Zion.

Naomi Roff2020-05-23T09:19:08+00:00April 28th, 2020|Blog, Mount Zion|

Online Webinar on Eastern Orthodox Easter

This year, as various Easter, Passover and Ramadan celebrations (began April 23) are not allowed to be held publicly due to restrictions from the Israel Ministry of Health, Window to Mount Zion has taken events online.

Regular Eastern Christian procession

While Sunday, April 12 marks Easter in the Catholic and Protestant churches, in the Eastern Churches, it begins a week later. For them, on April 12 Eastern Orthodox Churches begin a week of prayer, contemplation, and remembrance for the Crucifixion on Friday (17.4) and Resurrection (19.4).

Like previous webinars (here about Catholic / Protestant Holy Week, here about Passover), this webinar was held in cooperation with the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations (JCJC) of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue. It featured Archbishop Aristobulus Kirisis of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and Yisca Harari, an expert on Christianity.

Screen shot of Eastern Easter webinar

Here’s a link to the entire webinar (in Hebrew):

Here’s the Facebook post (in Hebrew) about the webinar:

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

Naomi Roff2020-05-02T09:13:05+00:00April 25th, 2020|Blog, Mount Zion|

Little Prince – Striving toward a Clean Jerusalem, Even in Lockdown

Like many headlines around the world, most of the main headlines in Israel these days relate to COVID-19 – sickness rates, healing rates, policy updates, efforts to cure and prevent.

But what else interests Jerusalemites, especially at a time when everyone is at home? Garbage. And, despite it all, garbage – and cleaning it up – is still making news in Jerusalem.

Two articles were recently published in the local Hebrew press, in Jerusalem’s Kol Ha’Ir newspaper. One (here’s the link to the Hebrew article) was about the Jerusalem Municipality cleaning up Public Private Spaces before the Passover holiday (you can read here about the Municipality’s decision to be responsible for their cleaning):

Screen shot of Kol Ha’Ir article, April 9

And the other is about the significant increase in home trash as a result of lockdown and shelter in place regulations. Here’s the link to that Hebrew article.

Screen shot of second Kol Ha’Ir article, April 11

Thanks to the Little Prince – Cleaning Up Jerusalem Together for putting cleaning up Jerusalem on the public agenda, where it has stayed, despite the COVID-19 crisis.

And thank you to the Jerusalem Foundation and to the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Naomi Roff2020-05-02T09:17:19+00:00April 23rd, 2020|Blog, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

Jerusalem Mayor and Haredi Public Figures Give a Virtual Tour of Mount Zion

The week of Passover and Easter was supposed to have been a week filled with Jewish tourists to Jerusalem and the Old City. But, because of the COVID-19 crisis, the city was nearly still. So, Window to Mount Zion decided to bring the unique experiences that usually take place on Mount Zion and its environs during this time to you, online, in a series of online meetings featuring different prominent figures from different religions and different denominations.

Virtual Tour of Mount Zion with Mayor Lion, Rabbi Yitzhak Pindrus and Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein

The week of the Jewish holiday of Passover is usually a busy one. One of the three pilgrimage holidays, when in ancient times Jews would flock to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the Old City is usually teeming with people. Instead, Window to Mount Zion featured a virtual tour of the Jewish sites on Mount Zion, on Monday, April 13. Distinguished guests included Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, who frequents the Sephardic synagogue on Mount Zion, Yitzhak Pindrus, a long-time public figure in Jerusalem Haredi society and a resident of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, and Head of the Diaspora Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Goldstein. Project Coordinator Merav Horowitz Stein spoke about the significance of Mount Zion in general, as a place that is holy to Christians and Muslims as well as Jews, and its significance between 1948 and 1967, when it was the point closest to the Western Wall that was under Israeli control. Mayor Lion also spoke about the Sephardic synagogue on Mount Zion, which is small but a significant part of religious life in Jerusalem. Rabbis Pindrus and Goldstein spoke about Mount Zion and the Old City from their perspectives. You can see the entire half-hour panel in Hebrew here:

In closing words, Mayor Lion summed up Mount Zion, “Mount Zion is not well known to Israelis, but every stone and cobblestone is filled with history. You can feel the history everywhere you walk. It’s very exciting.”

There were some 100 people attending the virtual tour, and it was recorded and is now up on Window to Mount Zion’s Facebook page. The tour was also covered on the Haredi web site, Kikar Hashabbat (referencing the major square in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim neighborhood). Click here to read the Hebrew article.

Headline – “A Special Holiday Virtual Tour of Mount Zion: Join In”

Many thanks to all who participated. Here’s the Facebook post in Hebrew, about the “tour”:

Interested to learn more about Mount Zion? Window to Mount Zion has just launched a new virtual tour. To enjoy the tour in English, click here.

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

Naomi Roff2020-05-02T09:18:16+00:00April 20th, 2020|Blog, Mount Zion|

Santé Israël – Continuing to Help French Speakers Deal with Israeli Medical System during COVID-19

We reported here and here about how Santé Israël has been helping French-speakers in Israel deal with the COVID-19 crisis. As the crisis develops, so do Santé Israël’s responses.

In addition to updating the Facebook page often (here’s one of the most recent posts):

Marie, Santé Israël’s Coordinator, answers questions individually from a range of visitors and residents regarding Israel’s health system – where to go, for those who take medication regularly, what types of medications are equivalent to types taken in France, and other questions. Thus far, she’s answered some 40 queries relating to the COVID-19 crisis.

In addition, she has updated the Santé Israël web site, adding a page about the different HMO’s and their policies regarding how to purchase medications without leaving home. Here’s the page that was added. You can also see it via this link:

Medication home delivery according to different HMO’s

In addition, Marie developed a WhatsApp group for French-speaking community professionals – for staff from community centers and welfare offices, local immigrant absorption coordinators, HMO staff, relevant NGO’s such as Magen David Adom and Qualita (the organization for French-speaking Olim), and more. There are currently 25 participants in this WhatsApp group.

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years. Wishing health and safety to all!

Naomi Roff2020-05-02T09:13:13+00:00April 17th, 2020|Blog, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

Drafting Cleanliness Indicators for Jerusalem – First Time in Israel!

We’ve explained a lot about our program and network Little Prince – Cleaning Up Jerusalem Together, and especially the breakthroughs that it has made on a policy level.

We’d like to tell you about more breakthroughs that were made, right before the current COVID-19 crisis had everyone sheltering in place and in self-isolation.

Planning cleanliness measurements

Representatives of the Little Prince – Cleaning Up Jerusalem, together with representatives of the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research (JIPR), met with the Jerusalem Municipality’s Manager of Operations Manager. The task at hand – helping to design indicators for cleanliness for the Municipality. More specifically, the aim was to produce measuring tools for the Sanitation Division’s workers in the field, and its subcontractors, to determine whether an area is indeed clean, not according to whoever is looking, but according to defined, set criteria. This is a truly amazing accomplishment! And here are a few reasons:

No other city in Israel has cleanliness indicators. Jerusalem is set to be the first city in the country to define cleanliness indicators for the workers in the field to go by.
This kind of tool can help resolve the ongoing debate between residents and the municipality about whether the street / road / bin / garden is clean or not. The tool creates specific categories and the ability to measure whether a public space is clean or not.
Groundbreaking partnership. The Jerusalem Municipality approached residents and the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research to create the cleanliness indicators in true collaboration. It is not easy to produce tools together, and it is not at all obvious that a municipality will turn to help residents on this issue.

We – the Municipality, the Little Prince, the JIPR – are all really excited about the partnership.

The document will be submitted to the Operations Manager after the COVID-19 crisis.

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

Naomi Roff2020-04-18T13:30:47+00:00April 15th, 2020|Blog, Effective Activism, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

Cultural Competency Holiday Updates Continue

It’s been more than six years since we began publishing our Holiday Information Sheets. They’ve evolved from being directed at staff in health care to being adapted to employees and staff in a range of public capacities. The updates provide basic information about the different holidays and commemorations. They aim to help different organizations operate during these times, enabling both staff and beneficiaries (whichever is appropriate) to best mark them in meaningful ways. Over the years we’ve received a great deal of feedback from a wide range of organizations, telling us how much these updates have helped them.

Information on Prophet Muhammad ascension to heaven

Amid the COVID-19 crisis and its resulting upheavals, we continue to update and distribute the Holiday Information Sheets. This time late-March – April is full of holidays – the Christian Easter, the Jewish Passover, and this year, the day on the Muslim calendar that commemorates the Prophet Muhammad’s ascension to heaven.

Easter information sheet

These new information sheets are targeted at businesses and companies that are focusing on diversity and inclusions, especially around different holidays – how to commemorate them and how employees commemorate them, social and political tensions associated with them, and more.

Passover information sheet

Here’s the Facebook post by Cultural Competency Desk Director, Orna Shani-Golan:

And the Facebook post about Passover and Easter:

And about the Druze holiday of Nabi al-Shuaib celebration:

You can browse all the Holiday Information Sheets on the JICC web site here.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its continued support of cultural competency in Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2020-04-18T13:59:18+00:00April 13th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence|

Santé Israël Showing its Importance throughout the Coronavirus Crisis

We wrote here earlier this month about how Santé Israël is helping to respond to the Coronavirus crisis in Israel.

Photo Credit: Israeli Ministry of Health site

And of course, it continues to do so. Its Facebook page continues to provide updates in French on an almost daily basis. For example, it carries updates from the Ministry of Health as its directives are made more and more stringent.

Or about new updates about products that should – or shouldn’t – be used:

It also publishes information on the ‘side effects’ of shelter in place and lockdown directives, such as notifications of the Legal Aid Department of the Department of Justice:

There is a special page on the Santé Israël web site about the cornavirus and is updated as the Ministry of Health updates its directives.

Sante Israel page on corona information

t is important to point out that the information is from the Ministry of Health and official ‘what to do’ scenarios; it doesn’t carry medical information about the virus. We found that there’s enough of that online.

This has proven to be a particularly important service at this time. While the French-speaking population has been particularly affected by the outbreak, the Ministry of Health has yet to translate all its instructions into French (to its credit, it does translate into Arabic, English, Russian, and Amharic). That is where we – and Sante Israel – is picking up the slack. Kol Hakavod to Santé Israël on the quick and accurate information.

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years. Wishing health and safety to all!

Naomi Roff2020-04-18T13:37:43+00:00April 10th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

Atta’a and other JICC Efforts in East Jerusalem Mentioned in Ha’aretz Newspaper

We’ve described in the blog some of the major efforts we’re helping with in regard to the COVID-19 crisis.

Photo Credit: Israeli Ministry of Health site

Some of those efforts have also been described here, in this Ha’aretz article, which appeared a few days ago.

Screen shot of Ha’aretz article, published on April 2, 2020

The article quotes Atta’a Director, Daud Alian:

“Activists also say that while the NII and the employment service are trying to help Arabic-speaking applicants, the language barrier is a serious obstacle for those seeking to collect unemployment benefits.

“We’ve prepared a video that shows how to fill out the NII form, but it’s hard,” says Daud Alian, director of Atta’a, the assistance center for the advancement of workers’ rights in East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem residents are facing similar problems when they try to apply their discount on real estate taxes (arnona) on the municipal website.”

It also speaks about the emergency council, which East Jerusalem Desk Director Ezadeen Alsaad is a member and helps to organize

“Dozens of organizations and hundreds of activists have set up an emergency council, which two weeks ago began to assist the local hospitals, disseminate information, help needy families and even find a hotel that will open for people who must be in quarantine but cannot be properly isolate in the tight quarters in the Arab neighborhoods.”

And here’s the article from Ha’aretz.com’s Facebook page:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its support of our activities in East Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2020-04-18T13:38:05+00:00April 8th, 2020|Attaa, Blog, Effective Activism, Emergency Readiness Networks, Palestinians/Arabs|

Holy Week in the Shadow of the Coronavirus – an Online Webinar

Usually, Holy Week – the week preceding Easter – is a very busy time for Christians worldwide, and especially on Mount Zion and in the Old City, home of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Room of the Last Supper. These days commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, including the Last Supper, the washing of the feet, blessing the oil, and walking the via Dolorza. It is a week of contemplation, memory, and anticipation for Easter, which comes on Sunday, April 12.

But this year, in light of the global epidemic, billions of people are cooped up at home and churches are closed. In Jerusalem, Holy Week ceremonies and Easter celebrations will be held only in accordance with the Ministry of Health’s instructions.

Holy Week Seminar

In order to bring the Holy Week to the public, Window to Mount Zion and the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations of the Rossing Center for Education and Dialogue, we held an online webinar on April 5. The webinar included Father Alberto from the Franciscan order and researcher Yisca Harari. Here’s the video (Hebrew) to the whole webinar:

Here’s a post in Hebrew from the Jerusalem Tolerance Facebook page:

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

Naomi Roff2020-04-18T13:07:45+00:00April 6th, 2020|Blog, Mount Zion|

Monthly Archives: April 2020