Naomi Roff | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

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So far Naomi Roff has created 501 blog entries.

Even Coffee is a Multicultural Business

Cultural Competence is needed everywhere – from healthcare, to welfare and city services, even to your coffee provider and other workplaces.

We’ve found that the HoliGame, produced as a joint project of the JICC’s Cultural Competency Desk and the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity, has been a useful tool in introducing important concepts of cultural competency while having a bit of fun.

On January 18, 2021, the desk led a session of HoliGame with the Israeli division of the Nespresso coffee company.

Diversity workshop for Nespresso

Noa Tron, Director of the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity, opened the session with a fascinating lecture on the importance of diversity in organizations, especially in light of the diversity in Israeli society. She also spoke about the viability of diversity, the immense benefits that a diverse and inclusive work environment has for the organization, given the great diversity of the society in which we live. More than 50 managers and workers gathered via Zoom to discuss dilemmas and questions surrounding events, dates and holidays in the Israeli calendar and other issues that often arise in a diverse work environment.

Michal, vice president of human resources at Nespresso, said as she opened the meeting:

Nespresso, as an organization, has set a goal of expanding and deepening its diversity, given the enormous benefits of a diverse and multi-identity work environment, and has been undergoing this process for the past two years. Therefore, as managers, employees and actors in an organizational environment, if we just open up our thinking about the existing diversity – with all the dilemmas, challenges – and opportunities – that this diversity entails – we will profit from an organization with a rich and interesting work environment, which is much better for its employees.

Here’s a Facebook post from Rachely Ashwal:

Many thanks to Nespresso, and to the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity!

Naomi Roff2021-02-13T09:54:47+00:00January 21st, 2021|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in the Workplace|

Little Prince – Making Jerusalem Clean through Public-Private Partnership

The Little Prince began almost four years ago (in the spring of 2017) with a goal: engage all of Jerusalem residents in one goal – making Jerusalem a clean city. Part of that goal – engaging the Jerusalem Municipality as a full partner in the process.

Not just any Zoom meeting

Yes, indeed that has happened. This picture is ‘just’ a screen shot of a Zoom meeting waiting to begin. But it means the world – a recurring meeting, together with the Director of the Operations Division of the Jerusalem Municipality, demonstrating the true partnership that has developed, together with residents from all parts of the city. Here’s what our Tal Kligman, Director of the Little Prince initiative, had to say:

There is nothing like seeing the name of “The Little Prince” on the Zoom of the Jerusalem Municipality’s Director of Operations, to open the morning! This means that the partnership of the senior staff from the Operations Division (department managers, district managers and Itzik Nidam at the head) and the members of the Little Prince are significant and contribute to advancing processes.

This means that both sides understand the necessity of our partnership, and it means we are already deep into a work routine.

In general, residents can’t meet in the morning. But, see – yes we can! And senior municipal officials dedicate the morning hours to important issues and lo and behold! Residents are important.

This again shows the investment of of the Operations Division in public engagement, and its many successes:

Satisfied residents. Very satisfied!

Many compliments to the Operations Division, all its departments.

A much cleaner city.

Quick and efficient response to public inquiries and complaints.

A system that functions professionally and with seriousness.

Services and efficient functioning of the Operations Division.

These are significant accomplishments that took place as a result of the public participation. This has translated to:

Significant increase in the provision of reports by the municipal inspectors on cleanliness issues (littering, not picking up after dogs, leaving garbage bags outside of trash receptacles, and more).

Cleaning of many Public Private Spaces throughout the city as part of the Sanitation Department’s work plan. (The Municipality is not required to keep these places clean, but has agreed to do so. You can read about it here.)

Supervision of the work of cleaning subcontractors.

Adding compactors and cartons receptacles in shopping centers.

Cleaning of bus stops

Construction of rooms to hid trash bins in building complexes (in coordination with residents)

Regular days for clearing pruning and scrap

This is a small list of changes. We have no words to thank you, Operations Division, there’s no one like you.

Here’s Tal’s Facebook post in Hebrew:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for its continued support of the Little Prince!

Naomi Roff2021-02-13T10:14:37+00:00January 13th, 2021|Blog, Effective Activism, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

MiniActive 2020 in Pictures

MiniActive has been transforming Palestinian society in East Jerusalem through its 1,000-strong network of women since 2012. You can read about the amazing MiniActive network in this blog category.

MiniActive helping in the fight against Covid-19: Reminding patients of home

But 2020 has been such a busy year, with so many activities and involvement with so many processes, sometimes seeing in pictures is best.

Here is MiniActive’s year in pictures. The writing is in Arabic, but the pictures say it all. Enjoy!

And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Model, and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2021-02-06T11:03:38+00:00January 6th, 2021|Blog, Effective Activism, MiniActive|

Making Souls Festival – Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem for those with Mental Illness

For the past three years our Multicultural Activism Desk has been helping the Nefashot initiative to produce the Making Souls Festival at the end of November (you can see posts about it here and here).

Making Souls Festival Poster

Making Souls focuses on activism for mental health issues and tolerance toward issues relating to mental health. This year, the Making Souls Festival took place between November 29 – December 5, after we’ve been mentoring the group and the events since June. This year, even during – or maybe because of? – the Covid pandemic, there were 40 (!) events (80 events applied to take part, but only 40 were accepted), when in previous years there were between 20 – 30. This included engaging many more partners in creating the week of events. It seemed like the week filled a basic need for many people, especially during this period, to deal with mental health issues and to understand it is part of all of our lives. The week was an amazing success: More than 30% of the initiatives were in fields of arts and culture, and 2,400 people took part in real time, and the events and the awareness of the festival reached 12,000 people, more than double the audience reached in previous year. We continue to work with our friends and partners from Nefashot on moving forward – maintaining the special connections that were formed and blazing new paths.

The video in the Hebrew Facebook post below shows the week in pictures. Enjoy the diversity, breadth and depth of the events!

And, of course, many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the Natan Fund and the U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Branch Office and U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem for helping us to advance tolerance and cross-cultural activism in Jerusalem.

Naomi Roff2021-03-20T08:24:56+00:00December 25th, 2020|Blog, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Interview of our Tal Alafi, from the Multicultural Activism Desk, on the Shalem College Website

We’ve brought news of her accomplishments in advancing tolerance in Jerusalem many places in this blog (the latest can be found here, here and here), but Shalem College recently profiled our Tal Alafi, our Coordinator for Multicultural Activism. Here’s the link to the full article (Hebrew). Parts are excerpted and translated here:

Tal Alafi

Turning Activism an Effective Tool to Create Change: An Interview with Tal Alafi

Many of us want to make a difference, but we don’t always know what to do. Tal Alafi, a graduate majoring in Philosophy and Jewish Thought at the Shalem College and director of multi-cultural activism at the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, meets activists daily and accompanies them in their work for social change, with the goal of making Jerusalem a culturally competent city – a city that accepts and recognizes its various identities.

December 2020

A Collection of Small Changes Creates Significant Change

About a year ago, Tal graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Shalem College and quickly integrated into the field of social activism. As a counselor at the Ein Prat Pre-Army Academy, she heard about the College from her friends, and chose to study Philosophy and Jewish Thought – a field that has always interested her. In the last year of her studies, Tal worked on a project at the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, and afterward she was offered a permanent position. In her role, she meets young activists of all backgrounds and ethnicities every day, and helps them bring about change and influence the fabric of life in Jerusalem.

Tal, what is the Jerusalem Intercultural Center?

The Jerusalem Intercultural Center (JICC) is an independent organization that works to help Jerusalem become culturally competent. Jerusalem, as a diverse city with people from different origins and religions, needs a place that knows how to accept and lead this process, and do it in the best way possible. Fortunately, there is a lot of awareness of multiculturalism in the public, but we need to know how to act correctly in order to bring about change in a way that everyone can express themselves.

What does your job involve?

As part of my work, I accompany activists and work to connect the residents and the relevant bodies in the municipality, to help them create change. In addition, I work to connect the different residents of the city: ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, secular and religious, and encourage connections between them. The residents are directly related to the moves that are taking place in the municipality and constitute a power multiplier in every initiative.

….

How do you turn activism into “effective activism”?

Sometimes we prefer to complain rather than do, and sometimes there is activist activity for change, but it does not bring about actual results. Our goal at the JICC is to turn activism into an effective tool that generates change, even small, because it that change that will ultimately lead to making a significant difference. The activists are working and we see results on the ground, because we are working with the municipality, with residents from all over the city. When Arabs, both ultra-Orthodox and secular all come together – it creates a strong force for municipal officials, who can change decisions. Good things happen thanks to a multicultural group working together.

Can you give an example of the impact led by residents?

It is very difficult to change the entire transportation system in Jerusalem, but there are many things that can be done along the way – making bus stops accessible, influencing the planning or changing of a line, and more. It is a small change, but a collection of small changes eventually leads to major changes in the transportation system. Another example is the issue of the cleanliness of the city, which greatly troubles Jerusalemites: as soon as residents entered the picture, change began, which, even if it is not perfect, is already part of a citywide goal. The most important part is that there is a mutual understanding that both the municipality and the residents need each other to improve the city, so they must learn to work together. Proper and good communication between the residents and the municipality is very important for things to happen on the ground.

Connection between people – even during a time of social distancing

In order to promote multiculturalism in the capital, Tal coordinates regular events that take place every year and provide a platform for the various populations in the city. One of these events is Jerusalemite Day of Diversity.

What is a Jerusalemite Day of Diversity?

Jerusalemite Day of Diversity takes place every year on Jerusalem Day and its goal is to connect populations and enable Jerusalemites to mark the day in a non-political, happy and connecting way. It includes tours of diverse neighborhoods in the city, art exhibitions, music performances and meetings between different communities. Jerusalem residents love the city, and we want to allow them to celebrate their day in a way they see fit, especially in the public space, to show the diversity that exists in the city, on a day that many Jerusalemites choose not to celebrate for one reason or another.

Is it possible to connect people and initiatives during Covid?

Absolutely yes – we adapt ourselves to the situation. We’ve moved online like many other places: I work from home, have meetings in the Jerusalem area mainly, and the events we produce also become online.

What are your plans for the future?

The JICC has been focusing on communities since its establishment, and now, more than ever, this issue is changing and taking on new meanings. We are thinking how Covid affects the community and how we connect between digital and physical communities. I’m personally concerned about this; What are people looking for in a community and what is a community today? I don’t have a clear answer to this and I am still learning about it. I think Covid is actually empowering the physical / geographically close community, because with the distance limitations we must stay close to home. But on the other hand, a significant portion of our lives has gone digital. I wonder what will be left of all this after this complex period is over.

Kol Hakavod Tal! Proud of our staff at the JICC.

Naomi Roff2021-03-20T08:24:41+00:00December 16th, 2020|Blog, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

MinActive on a Virtual Tour of 106 Municipal Hotline

Part of MiniActive‘s work to improve the surroundings of East Jerusalemites is knowing how municipal processes work. In order to facilitate this, MiniActive organized a virtual tour of the 106 Municipal Hotline in November.

Example of questions asked

More than 70 members participated in the meeting, which included touring the Hotline Command Center, together with an Arabic-speaking employee, as well as a question-and-answer period about the best uses for the 106 hotline – environmental problems and what are the best ways to register complaints – and for what kinds of problems – through the hotline. MiniActive volunteers also learned how to file complaints on the phone and on the app.

Here’s the link to the Facebook post in Arabic:

And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Model, and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2021-02-06T10:25:01+00:00December 8th, 2020|Blog, Effective Activism, MiniActive|

MiniActive Continuing to Help Meet Emergency Needs

We wrote here, here, here, and here about how MiniActive has helped Palestinian families in East Jerusalem meet urgent needs, including addressing food security.

Helping East Jerusalem families improve food security

Thanks to a donation from the Jerusalem Model, they continued to do so.

From raw materials

They distributed 50 food packages to families in Jebel Mukaber, Kufr Aqeb, Beit Hanina, Wadi Joz, Sheikh Jarrach, A-Tur, Anata, Abu Tor, Silwan, the Old City, Ras el-Amud, Issawiya.

Ready to go to families

The Covid crisis has hit East Jerusalem especially hard, and these food baskets provide important lifelines to families affected.

And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Model, and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2021-01-19T07:57:24+00:00December 3rd, 2020|Blog, MiniActive|

Tolerance Week 2020

As in nearly all special events around the world, Tolerance Week in the shadow of COVID-19 brought with it many new challenges and questions. Should we hold Tolerance Week at all? Will there be events? Are Jerusalem activists ready and willing to produce initiatives and events outside or online? We decided that the effort needed to be made, and we would just have to wait and see what the reactions would be.

Speaking to and with each other during Tolerance Week

We soon discovered that not only was there an impressive response, but that people were happy to take part this week, especially now. The opportunity to raise their heads above the everyday and think about the Jerusalem and Jerusalemites around them was encouraging. Throughout the week there were 40 different events, which together created a special week that, now more than ever, reminded us of the uniqueness of Jerusalem.

Tolerance Week in Numbers

During the week, 40 events took place throughout the city and online:

20 Zoom events, attended by 650 people.
11 events broadcast live on Facebook or YouTube, which were watched by 7090 people.
7 events that took place in outside, in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines, in which 160 people participated.
2 videos that were uploaded online and provided quality content during the week, which were watched by about 1000 people.
A total of 9,000 people took part in the activities of Jerusalem Tolerance Week 2020.

Activities included tours of the Old City and the Katamon neighborhood, talking about the language of tolerance, the Jerusalem LGBT community and an interfaith meeting. We watched videos about the organizations in the Jerusalem Tolerance Coalition and an amazing song by the Jerusalem Youth Choir. We sat around a campfire together, secular and Haredi people. We dreamt and fulfilled dreams in a Social Action Hakathon of young people from East and West Jerusalem, where we sat for hours thinking and planning social initiatives that will affect all parts of the city. We enjoyed a diverse, artistic evening about different aspects of the mask in our lives, and met with neighborhood children in draw on sidewalks with chalk. Toward the end of the week we met to sing and thank the medical teams from all over the city for their hard work over the past several months. There were many more events and meetings that accompanied the week and together created a multicultural image of Jerusalem, which once again shows the beauty of Jerusalem.

You can read more about Tolerance Week here. A full list of events in English is available here.

May we have many more years of Jerusalem tolerance!

Here’s the post from the Jerusalem Tolerance Facebook page (Hebrew):

Naomi Roff2021-01-15T14:41:56+00:00November 30th, 2020|Blog, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Cultural Competency with the Jerusalem Mental Health Center

Cultural Competency – the ability of systems and individuals to effectively and positively adapt themselves to relevant identities, cultures, ethnic groups, etc. – is an ongoing personal and organizational process. We were thrilled by the opportunity to continue working with the center, having held workshops on cultural competence in mental health, and training bilingual staff in interpreting techniques. Almost a decade ago, when we started working with them, one of the organization’s legendary administrative directors, Shneor Havkin, told us: “We know the basics of cultural competence, we get along. But that’s not enough.” He explained that culturally competent health care, especially mental health care, is so complex, need more advanced and nuanced training is needed to make sure that patients receive the best care possible.

Hagai always takes a good picture

What does this actually mean? The Jerusalem Mental Health Center, including its hospitals and outpatient clinics, are diverse organizations. Because of their location in Jerusalem – the employees as well as the patients – come from diverse groups as well as the patients. Employees must adopt culturally competent skills in order to treat patients in a way that takes into account their perceptions, preferences and limitations. Culturally adapted treatment is particularly challenging in the context of mental health, where it is not always clear whether a person’s particular behavior is the result of his personality, the society in which he lives, or the mental illness he is dealing with.

A snapshot of the workshop

A culturally competent organization must also look inward – and examine how it manages the diversity among employees in the best way possible. Diversity is the ability to manage employees from diverse human backgrounds. Inclusion, another related term, refers to the individual’s feeling as part of a group, the employee’s ability to express himself while maintaining his uniqueness, without the organization’s even slightest demand to downplay his identity or assimilate it into the organization altogether (from the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity website).

The interest and investment in issues of diversity and inclusion has increased greatly in recent years, and has also received backing and government support through sets of guidelines, standards and training. We recently completed a course on diversity management and cultural competence for employees from the human resources and welfare, and heads of nursing departments at the Jerusalem Mental Health Center. In the 4-session course, participants learned about the benefits of diversity, the challenges of managing diversity and inclusion, and areas where existing knowledge and resources can be utilized to improve diversity management. For example, we spoke about Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which are voluntary, employee-led groups that foster a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with organizational mission, values, goals, business practices, and objectives. Examples of ERG’s can be promoting the discussion of LGBT workers’ rights, marking holidays and celebrations for members of different cultures, organizing culturally competent training days and more. We also learned about how to correctly manage conflicts, tools for effective intercultural communication, and even some techniques to simplify complex information for employees with different levels of literacy.

Managing diversity is important to the organization, employees and the community, but it is a challenging matter that sometimes causes dilemmas. For example, employees shared with us dilemmas on how to properly manage situations such as evaluating employees’ work and efficiency, firing employees, or managing crises that included a cultural element. There is not always a right solution to the issue, but even the opportunity to look at such situations from an intercultural standpoint can give the manager a new perspective, and enables them to choose the most professional solution and still give the employee the feeling that their cultural needs have been seen and heard.

We are pleased to continue to accompany the Jerusalem Mental Health Center in the process, which will continue with projects initiated by the participants on the subject of diversity and inclusion. Such mini-activism in the organization is important to continued engagement of the employees.

Dr. Michal Schuster, who led the training at the Jerusalem Mental Health Center, described the workshop in this Facebook post (Hebrew)

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their continued support of cultural competency in Jerusalem since its inception in 2008.

Naomi Roff2020-11-28T12:36:01+00:00November 23rd, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

The Little Prince brings about an Increase in Enforcement of Clean Streets

We’d never thought we’d be so happy to talk about tickets, especially tickets and fines to enforce clean streets in Jerusalem. This past week, we’ve seen real change on the ground, thanks to the continued efforts of the Little Prince activists, hand in hand with municipal professionals. These activists come from all parts of the city – Arabs, religious, secular and Haredi Jews, and through our mentoring have been able to forge intercultural connections with each other and with Municipal professionals and officials on numerous levels. We have empowered them to create change on the ground, starting with one of the most basic services – garbage and clean streets. (You can read about the Little Prince’s work over the past 3 years in the blog category here.)

Beginning to enforce littering and polluting laws in Ramot

There have been countless changes in Jerusalem in advancing clean streets over the past two years. Much of this is in the operations division, but one thing is clear: all the efforts of the sanitation department and the beautification department to clean up the city and make it more aesthetically pleasing will come to naught if residents’ behavior is not changed. Residents will continue to throw garbage in the streets and gardens as long as the municipal authorities do not give tickets to every person who breaks the law, so that it is clear: Littering = ticket.

Changing habits in Ramot

Take, for example, the Ramot neighborhood on Jerusalem’s northern end.

Neighborhood activists, led by Haim Paniri, joined together with the local enforcement personnel to increase enforcement to stop bodies and residents who pollute the neighborhood. The ramped-up enforcement efforts include opening garbage bags to identify the polluters, placing cameras on streets, tracking dog owners, inspectors in gardens and commercial areas and more.

The enthusiastic reactions from neighborhood residents came quickly. It started with a happy message announcing: “A ticket was written for dumping garbage!”

And continued with an endless trail of messages and letters. Here are a few:

“No words!!!!”

“Thanks so much to the municipal teams. You’re creating a makeover in the neighborhood! Now, there’s someone to turn to, people who take care of things. Ramot residents feel the change, we appreciate the work and are committed to keeping the neighborhood clean. ”

“Listen … I’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, and this is the first time I can say that I appreciate the municipal enforcement department. My hat off to you! Please keep it going!”

Thank you and wish us all a clean and pleasant neighborhood to live in, while increasing enforcement in order to preserve the desired result. ”

“I have family and friends all over town. And they are jealous of us. Today’s Ramot is becoming much more cleaner and old Ramot…Every day the situation is improving…We have an excellent connection [with the municipal teams] and their willingness to work to help and improve. The Ramot team – each and every one are champions and they give everything for the residents and for a clean neighborhood.”

It was difficult to pick from the dozens of messages, recognizing and appreciating the work of the municipal teams.

We hope that municipal enforcement teams will take the work in Ramot as an example, and start giving tickets to litterers and polluters in neighborhoods throughout the city. Thank you too to Ilan Sasson, Director of the Enforcement Department, to Sasson Numa who connected between residents and municipal workers and made the magic happen, the regional coordinators, and to Itzik Nidam and Shai Moshe Moshe for the constant supervision.

Here’s the Facebook post in Hebrew:

And another post, from Haim Paniri, re-posting Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion’s post about the new enforcement efforts:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for its continued support of the Little Prince!

Naomi Roff2020-11-20T14:03:57+00:00November 20th, 2020|Blog, Effective Activism, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

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About Naomi Roff

Turning Activism an Effective Tool to Create Change: An Interview with Tal Alafi

A Collection of Small Changes Creates Significant Change

Connection between people – even during a time of social distancing