Naomi Roff | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

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So far Naomi Roff has created 501 blog entries.

Santé Israël – Go-to Site for Updates on the Coronavirus

We’ve posted here, here and here how Santé Israël has been helping French speakers – in Israel and even abroad – navigate the health care system in Israel.

Current page on coronavirus

Yesterday, on July 26, the Santé Israël web site broke its record – with 580 entrances to the site in one day! This was after posts on Facebook reached 7,500 people, with 600 engagements. This, too, was a record for the Facebook and website pages.

How did the word get out to so many people?

Well, there seem to be a number of factors. Over the previous week, Santé Israël director Marie Avigad shared the post to 50 groups and pages serving the French-speaking community in Israel. She also spoke about the coronavirus landing page at a Qualita Forum meeting. She also discussed it in a WhatsApp group for professionals and invited them to check out the web site. This was also just after many of the guidelines had changed, so there were a great number of people looking for reliable, comprehensive information, which can be found on the dedicated page for the coronavirus.

Keep up the good work Santé Israël!

Here’s the record-breaking post:

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

Naomi Roff2020-08-13T04:41:41+00:00July 27th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

MiniActive Youth: Providing Critical Enrichment in the Shadow of COVID-19

It wasn’t easy to be a young person in East Jerusalem this spring. As COVID-19 hit the region, East Jerusalem Parents Associations took an unprecedented step – they were the first to close schools in early March. And when restrictions were lifted in May, and Jewish schoolchildren returned to school, children in East Jerusalem did not – schools stayed closed until the end of the school year.

A festive day to kick off the summer

So when the month of Ramadan finished (end of June) and July came around, Palestinian children in East Jerusalem were going quite stir crazy. Fortunately, MiniActive youth was there to fill the void, with activities planned in accordance to Ministry of Health restrictions.

Activities kicked off with a special event, replete with clowns, and games, and parachutes and fun.

MiniActive Youth also met to work outside, helping in two different places.

Working outdoors, improving the environment

This past week MiniActive youth also started another environmental project. The curriculum was designed especially to reduce tensions that built up as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

For now, the girls are also able to meet inside

Here’s a post from the MiniActive Facebook page:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Model for their support of this summertime initiative for youth. And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2020-07-31T09:45:45+00:00July 24th, 2020|Blog, MiniActive|

Saying Goodbye to J. Elichay

Suha Taweel Kadry is one of our veteran Arabic teachers, as part of our Language Center, one of the largest schools of Arabic for Communication in Israel. This year, in 2019 – 2020, we had 240 students in five levels.

Yohanan (J.) Elihay, photo credit here

On Saturday, July 11, J. Elihay, the author of books used by the JICC, died at the age of 94. In response, Suha published an opinion piece in the Ha’aretz Daily newspaper. Here are a few sections from that piece.

Born as Jean Laraouh, he was a French linguist and monk who moved in 1956 to Israel, where he changed his name to Yohanan Elihay. He researched spoken Palestinian Arabic for decades and did his best to use the knowledge he acquired to serve as a bridge between the two divided peoples living in Israel. He won the Yigal Allon Prize for Exemplary Pioneering Activities last year.

Many Arabic teachers are familiar with his books. They all agree he was a kind person who loved the Arabic he researched and was endowed with generosity and a love of mankind. All who knew his books were amazed by the Frenchman’s expertise and by his comprehensive knowledge of both Arabic and Hebrew. Besides his linguistic talents, he was blessed with a well-developed sense of humor.

At the same time, both of their relationships with Arabic and Arabic culture were and continue to be complex. His books expressed chauvinistic views Palestinian society; she told herself that it was part of the era that he lived.

Over the last two decades, in my work as a teacher of Arabic as a second language, I had the opportunity to meet Elihay twice. The first time, we invited him to speak with my Arabic students at the Jerusalem Intercultural Center. I met him the second time at a lunch that one of the students organized in honor of the publication of his last dictionary. I was disappointed in the first meeting by his request to speak with the students in Hebrew.

“I don’t feel the Arabic flowing in my mouth, like it used to,” he explained. I convinced myself that age was taking its toll.

And despite these conflicting feelings, she is saddened by the loss.

As I write these lines, and from the moment his death was announced, my telephone is being flooded with messages from students who felt the need to stop for a moment to show their respect for him. It is strange that I was the conduit through which they chose to express their feelings of loss. And it is even stranger that I feel his absence and the need to part ways, even though we didn’t know each other personally. Perhaps, and it is comforting to think of him this way, this non-Jewish land knew how to love him back. May Allah have mercy on him!

You can read the whole piece in English here, as well as the Hebrew and Arabic versions here and here respectively.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its continued support of our Language Center over the years.

Naomi Roff2020-08-08T05:12:11+00:00July 19th, 2020|Blog, Language Center|

Diversity and Inclusion in Times of Crisis – Jerusalem Foundation Switzerland Panel

The Jerusalem Foundation has been a strategic partner since the JICC’s establishment. So when our director Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir was asked to participate in a panel session for Jerusalem Foundation Switzerland, we were honored, and of course, agreed to speak.

Panel discussion about diversity and inclusion in times of crises

Here is how the Jerusalem Foundation described the panel:

The Jerusalem Foundation has implemented a variety of projects in Jerusalem during the Corona crisis to support those in need.

After an intense time, we would like to step back and look at the biggest challenges and the most important lessons learnt these past few months.

What is the impact in relation to diversity and inclusion of such a crisis on a city, that already has many challenges to overcome in normal times?

Join the journalist and author Peter Hossli in conversation with Hagai Agmon-Snir PhD, Director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, Shai Doron, President of the Jerusalem Foundation and Ruth Bloch-Riemer PhD, Member of the Board of the Jerusalem Foundation Switzerland.

Here’s a video of the entire session (in English). And of course, thank you to the Jerusalem Foundation for your continued support for the past 20 years!

It was also posted on the Embassy of Switzerland in Israel’s Facebook feed:

Naomi Roff2020-07-31T09:55:55+00:00July 15th, 2020|Blog|

Santé Israël: Helping French-speaking Olim during Coronavirus Pandemic

For many, dealing with the coronavirus included staying at home. For others, it entailed leaving an old home to find a new home in Israel. Santé Israël helped them get set up on the health care front. Moving to a new country is always difficult and learning the health care system is essential. Doing so during a worldwide pandemic, when health care systems are stretched to the max and rules and regulations are constantly changing and different in different locations, is even more critical. Santé Israël was and continues to be there to help.

Helping French-speaking Olim at all times

According to data from the Jewish Agency and immigrant organizations, there has been a significant rise in interest to immigrate to Israel among French Jewry. In order to provide information about life in the country to potential immigrants, the Qualita organization for French-speaking olim has created a website called Préparation à la alyah (preparation for aliyah): https: //www.preparation-alyah.com/

Through the website, applicants can schedule zoom meetings with people around the country, who can answer questions in a range of areas. who are in the country, and who can give answers to their questions in various fields. Santé Israël coordinator Marie Avigad invited to participate in the project to provide health information.

On Tuesday 30.6, she had her first Zoom session. It was with a woman who in the middle of the aliyah process. She’d heard about the website via an ad on Facebook. She had a very interesting aliyah story.

She, her husband and their 8-year-old daughter arrived in Israel on March 3, at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. They thought they’d be in Israel for a short while, and would be able to wait out the crisis in Israel, in a place they felt was ‘theirs,’ near people ‘like them.’ The next day, all flights out of Israel stopped, and they couldn’t go anywhere.

They stayed in Tel Aviv, and as time went on they decided to stay and make aliyah. They’ve almost finished the process. She asked for information about the health system in general and how to obtain health insurance. During the Zoom session she wanted to write down everything Marie said, but she didn’t need to. Using Zoom’s ‘Share screen’ feature, she was able to show her in real time all the information she needed: how to register with the National Insurance Institute, registering with an HMO, how to pay for the HMO, what is covered by the different types of insurance, how to change HMO’s if necessary, well-baby clinics, French-speaking doctors that are listed on the Santé Israël web site, and more. She was very grateful for the help she received.

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their continued support of Santé Israël over the years.

Naomi Roff2020-08-13T04:38:31+00:00July 10th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

Diversity and Inclusion at Work for the LBGTQ Community

The month of June is Pride Month. To help celebrate that month and to raise awareness about the LGBTQ community in the workplace, we held a Zoom meeting about diversity and inclusion in the workplace for the LGBTQ community on June 29, together with the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity.

Including the LGBTQ in the workplace

The discussion, moderated by our own Rachelly Ashwall, included Hila Goldstein Porat, from the Optibus Company, Alon Madar, Director of the LGBTech, and Noa Tron, Director of the Israeli Forum for Employment Diversity. Hila spoke about the employer’s standpoint; Alon spoke about how the LGBT community deals with diversity in the workplace, and Noa spoke about the complexity of integrating members of the LGBT community alongside all the other identities in the workplace.

After the session Alon thanked us:

This was a significant opportunity to present and discuss the inclusion of LGBT people in employment, in a way that hasn’t been done until now…Thank you Rachelly and Hagai…who, together with Noa … brought the subject of inclusion of LGBT people in employment to light, and helped us bring it to the fore in a significant way.

Here’s a video (in Hebrew) of the Zoom meeting:

Many thanks to the 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 Roff2020-08-08T05:15:17+00:00July 5th, 2020|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Mark Your Calendar – 10.6 – A Day to Celebrate the 106 Municipal Hotline

On Sunday morning, Daniella crawled out from under her blanket,

Brushed her teeth, put on a mask,

Left her house to go to school, and suddenly saw

That a dog had done his business. Everyone crowded around, all in a huff,

Only Daniella didn’t understand all the fuss

“Why don’t you just register a complaint in the 106 app”?

(It reads like a children’s rhyme in Hebrew, below.)

The 106 hotline in a children’s rhyme

One of the huge accomplishments of the Little Prince – Cleaning Up Jerusalem Together (and the blog category about it is here) is that it has put clean streets at the top of the Jerusalem Municipality’s agenda. As such, it was only natural that the day to celebrate the work of the 106 Municipal Hotline – held appropriately on 10.6, the tenth of June – be produced in collaboration with activists from the Little Prince. Designed and planned online (coronavirus restrictions prevented any in-person events) It included virtual tours of the 106 Municipal Hotline, plays for children about how to care for their environment and engage the Municipality, the ‘Story of a Garbage Can,’ app competition, trivia games, and more.

Official flyer

Here’s how it started.

Efrat Givaty, one of the leaders of the Little Prince, came up with an idea, which at the time seemed crazy, to create a 106 Appreciation Day. It would be a day of love and responsibility for Jerusalem. A day in which residents would commemorate activism and their ability to influence their environment. A day to look around, to take responsibility, and to be involved so that the city can be a better place for all of us.

We started to dream and began envisioning exhibits of sanitation equipment (garbage can, receptacle, underground can, etc.), alongside a photography exhibit at Safra Square, children riding on garbage trucks with sanitation workers, a huge event in the park, tours of the 106 hotline and more. We brought all these ideas to a meeting at the 106 hotline on March 8, which dealt with a number of issues. When the idea of 106 Appreciation Day came up, they might not have understood exactly what we wanted, but they politely went along, smiling in agreement.

And then came the coronavirus. And like everything, 106 Appreciation Day stopped in its tracks, gone.

As soon as the restrictions were raised in mid-May, contact was made with the 106 hotline and joint work began again.

This was really a joint effort. Betty Testa, the 106 hotline manager, invited residents and professionals from the operations department to think together and work together from the outset. In fact, no planning or preparation was done without the residents. It was truly a joint venture from the start, with ownership of and responsibility taken by all partners. Throughout the (total of two) weeks in which the work was done to prepare for the day’s events, the brainstorming, decision-making, planning and execution were shared by the different professionals at the hotline and operations department – and the residents. Despite the differences between the employees and residents, there was a sense of one organic team working together and mutually for a common goal, without tensions, without gaps. Really, really, together.

This is one of the great successes of this day – professionals and residents can work together to achieve common goals in the city, each contributing its abilities and skills in a way that leverages and empowers the final product.

Flyer in Arabic

All along, it was clear that the day’s activities would be available to all parts of the city: the ultra-Orthodox, Arab East Jerusalem and Jewish West Jerusalem. Activities were tailored to be culturally, programmatically and linguistically-sensitive, as were all publications.

Flyer for the ultra-Orthodox public

Usually, there are separate publications so that residents in different parts of the city do not really know what is going on in East Jerusalem, West Jerusalem, or among the ultra-Orthodox. For 106 Appreciation Day the publications were both integrated and separate, so that anyone could “peek” into what was happening in a different area of the city. The municipal spokesman’s office went along with all our requests and created impressive and high-quality products. Here’s one example of a video they made:

Now, we can’t go back. June 10th, 10.6 as the Israelis write it, has been established as ‘106 Appreciation Day.’ Together we created a framework and content. Now we get to fantasize and dream for next year. Here’s a second video, a behind-the-scenes look at the 106 hotline:

Here’s the summary Facebook post from the Little Prince Facebook group:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation, the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Naomi Roff2020-07-11T17:54:54+00:00June 19th, 2020|Blog, The Little Prince - Cleaning Jerusalem Together|

MiniActive – Providing Emergency Assistance to Single Mothers in the Wake of the Coronavirus Crisis

Every year, during the Ramadan holiday, our MiniActive network of Palestinian women in East Jerusalem distributes food packages to needy families during the Ramadan holiday. You can read about their first distribution here.

Organizing food packages for needy single-parent families

But this year, due to the coronavirus crisis, needs were far greater, and many families, especially single mothers, needed extra assistance. So MiniActive organized a second shipment of food packages. Through its network of 1,000 women and through advertisements on the Internet and social media, MiniActive identified 50 families – mainly single parents – that urgently needed food and baby supplied.

Helping those who’ve been left behind

Packages were delivered throughout East Jerusalem, including:

Kufr Aqeb;
Anata
Jebel Mukaber
Silwan
Ras el-Amud
Wad Kadum
Wadi Joz
Old City

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for their emergency assistance in this project. And many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and to Natan for their ongoing support of MiniActive!

Naomi Roff2020-07-10T07:27:29+00:00June 10th, 2020|Blog, MiniActive|

Shavuot / Pentacost on Mount Zion – Article in the Davar Newspaper

Last week was the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. In addition, many Christian denominations celebrated the Pentecost. Occasionally these holidays coincide on the calendar. On Mount Zion, especially before Window to Mount Zion began operating, these two holidays were also the source of a great deal of tension. Since the beginning of Window to Mount Zion, tensions have substantially subsided. (You can read about that here, here, and here.)

This year, in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, prayer services for Shavuot and the Pentecost were among the first to meet, after more than two months of standstill. However, attendance was extremely limited, mainly to those performing the ceremony.

Preparing to perform the Pentecost ceremony

It was, however, covered in the media. On May 31, 2020, the Davar newspaper wrote about the Window to Mount Zion project. You can read the Hebrew article here.

The article describes both the Shavuot and Pentecost ceremonies, and the place the JICC – and Window to Mount Zion – has had in ensuring peaceful prayer services over the past few years.

“When we moved here [to Mount Zion, in 2006], the atmosphere was very tense,” describes Merav Horovitz-Stein, Coordinator. “In the beginning, we focused on making connections. Afterward, we organized meetings with all the organizations and institutions on Mount Zion, like a tenants association, where we talked about everyday matters. In 2016 graffiti was sprayed on churches here. For the first time, [in at least hundreds of years] we came out with a joint condemnation of the act, which included all organizations here. Trust began to build between residents. It turned out that there are people on the other side of the wall.

During the Christian Pentecost and the Jewish Shavuot services, [which both take place at the David’s Tomb complex], project volunteers [who’ve undergone special training] join the police and help to keep the peace. “We understood that people are coming from the outside and are trying to interrupt the ceremonies and prayer. Our volunteers speak different languages (English, French, German), and they basically explain what’s going on. This is how they calm the tension. We hold discussions with those who protest. Our presence created a kind of intermediary, independent of any interests, that contributes to keeping peace between communities, and between different communities and the police,” explains Stein.

The most significant thing we learned was that we needed to get to know the area well and to be in continual contact with all the organizations and institutions. You can’t create a positive dynamic if you don’t know their challenges and unique strengths well. There aren’t any steadfast rules. One of the JICC’s principles is that it operates according to the needs that arise from the field. We create connections and respond to the needs that arise. The successes belong to the ‘locals.’ We provide our expertise, the framework. But the success is theirs,” Stein sums up.

May we continue to be able to provide this positive framework for a long time to come.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation for its ongoing support of the JICC on Mount Zion, and for the Window to Mount Zion project in particular.

Naomi Roff2020-07-10T06:44:13+00:00June 5th, 2020|Blog, Mount Zion|

Saying Goodbye to David Ehrlich

In late March, David Ehrlich, founder and owner of the ‘Tmol Shilshom‘ legendary coffee house in Jerusalem, passed away suddenly, and we’d like to take a minute to pay homage. We’ve known and worked with David for almost 15 years, and he will be sorely missed.

David Erlich, from Tmol Shilshom's Facebook page

David Ehrlich, from Tmol Shilshom’s Facebook page

On Wednesday, May 27, 2020 the Ha’aretz daily newspaper published an article about him. You can read it in Hebrew here. Without knowing our joint history, journalist Nir Hasson called us and said that David’s views and approach to others were so much like ours, that we must know him.

We didn’t just know David, he was our long-time partner.

Our first encounter with him was when he was on the board of the Jerusalem Open House (a Jerusalemite community center serving people of all sexual orientations and gender identities) in 2006, when the Eidah Haredit section of the Ultra-Orthodox community was staunchly against holding the World Pride Parade in Jerusalem. We at the JICC led a deep and emotionally-charged process, together with the Open House and senior members of the Eidah Haredit. It was a difficult and emotional process. David was the one who did not give up his fellow board members and made them understand that they must speak with those opposing them, that they must seek peaceful solutions, even when there were those who said that there was no one to talk to. He insisted that the Jerusalemite spirit could bring about creative solutions that were appropriate for everyone. And the result was a huge and hugely important success, for the Open House and for Jerusalem as a whole.

Hasson’s article recounts that time:

The leaders of the Open House needed to go around with body guads, but Ehrlich and other activists in the community decide to try and meet with the leaders of the Eidah haHaredit. The connection was made by Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, Director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, which specializes in making connections above and beyond ideological and identity gaps. “David led the approach that we speak with everyone who wants to talk. There’s no such thing as ‘there’s no one to talk to,'” remembers Agmon-Snir. “He was the most sensitive and sympathetic person in the meetings, he broke the ice in minutes. Remember that this was a situation in which both sides were really afraid to come to the meeting. Members of the Open House thought that they’d be physically assaulted, and the Haredim were very afraid – they were sure that the homosexuals would arrive naked to the meeting. The Haredim, who knew the Pride Parade up close, were convinced that people have sex as they march down the street. David and Noah Satat told them, ‘Look, it’s not San Francisco here. The real gap isn’t even with you [the Haredi community], the real cultural gap is with the LGBTQ community in Tel Aviv. We’re nerds, and it’s cold here in Jerusalem.”

Even after the work on the Pride Parade, David continued to be a valued partner of the JICC and our efforts to advance tolerance in Jerusalem. He hosted numerous events at Tmol Shilshom – from those of Jerusalemite Day of Diversity, Mental Health Week, Tolerance Week, 0202-Points of View from Jerusalem, and much more – discussions, panels, performances – and even birthday celebrations for 0202… What we understand today, the importance of being a mensch in Jerusalem, taking care of everyone, listening to everyone, accepting the ‘other,’ David understood decades ago.

Here’s JICC Director Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir’s Facebook post (in Hebrew) just after David passed away in March:

And here’s another one, this week, as the article was published:

David, you’ll be sorely missed.

Naomi Roff2020-05-31T15:40:31+00:00June 2nd, 2020|Blog, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

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