Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Ramot Open Space Initiative – the second day!

Today we had the second day of the Open Space event (which consists of two evenings – on Dec 10 and 16 – see the update on the first evening). Most of the participants in the first evening, as well as a few new faces, showed up and continued the discussions on the future of Ramot. Upon their arrival, the participants received the summaries of the discussions from the previous event written by the discussion groups themselves.

Ramot Lay Leaders and Professionals at the Open Space

The second session was devoted to suggesting new implementation initiatives. Groups were formed to define these initiatives and ensure followup. The Ramot Community Council is committed to convening the groups in order to implement the Open Space outcomes. The Open Space steering committee will meet to make certain that the events would not remain a one-off activity, but that they would really be the beginning of profound participatory democracy in the neighborhood.

jicc2014-04-05T17:25:49+00:00December 16th, 2008|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ramot Community Dialogue, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Ramot Open Space Initiative – the first day!

Ramot Open Space Banner

In 2008, the Ramot Community Council asked the JICC’s assistance in creating a participatory community development process in the neighborhood. The selected model was Open Space Technology, a powerful methodology that encourages large groups of participants, in this case residents, leaders, activists and professionals, to engage in the process with both their passion and responsibility for action. In recent posts we updated on the preparations towards the two-sections Open Space event.

Assembly of the Ramot Open Space

Today we had the first day of the Open Space event (which consists of two evenings – on Dec 10 and 16). About 100 residents, staff members, and a few others that see themselves as involved in the neighborhood, came and actively participated in discussion groups on topics they themselves have raised. We were happy to see involvement by the local youth, including four 12-year old primary school students who came ready with their discussion topics and ran a few of the discussions as real pros…

Putting a discussion topic on the agenda

Diverse issues were raised: transportation, cleaning the neighborhood, education, activities for young adults, parks and much more. Each discussion group concluded with a summary paper of the main points discussed and first recommendations. There were two sessions, with 6-10 concurrent discussions.

A Discussion Group

The summary papers were typed and will be soon available on the Ramot Community Center website. They will also be distributed to the participants towards the next evening that will conclude the event.

Another Discussion Group…

The slogan of the event was “Now it is in our hands” and the main message that came out of it was that together, the residents and the staff of the community center can create a change in the neighborhood – with passion and responsibility.

Yet Another Discussion Group…

jicc2014-04-05T17:23:29+00:00December 10th, 2008|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ramot Community Dialogue, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Ethiopian Community, Talpiot, Dec 4, 2008

On October 2 we reported in the blog on some achievements in the community dialogue process in Talpiot Ethiopian Community. The first was in solving the issue of language at the main HMO Clalit health clinic in the neighborhood. The second was the agreement by all relevant agencies to enable the Ethiopian community to have a weekend synagogue in a public location called Beit Hakehila (the Community Hall). These were certainly good news, although we estimated that the story was not over, and that other issues awaited their resolution in this neighborhood.

Indeed, during the holidays, a few issues challenged the mutual trust that needs to be built between the relevant stakeholders. The “weekend synagogue” model was found to be a source for many conflicts, some of which we have described in the previous blog posting. It is important to note that this model is used all over Jerusalem where religious communities are granted permission to use public facilities for their purposes, when these are not in use during the weekends, for example public schools. In Succot, although they were explicitly asked not to do so, the Ethiopian community built a Succah in the yard of Beit Hakehila. The municipality, which owns the place, perceives this and other incidents as violations of the ontract signed by the Ethiopian community for the use of the place. Since the episode occurred during the municipal elections campaign, municipality officials did not react this time. Politics, as we have seen many times in Jerusalem, is a significant player in the field. The elections have now passed and we will soon witness the next steps in this story.

And as if this is not enough, a new dispute emerged. The Ethiopian community asked that its members would be allowed to use another neighborhood public venue, Beit Lazarus, for private celebrations. It should be noted that in the Ethiopian community, religious life-cycle ceremonies (weddings, Bar Mitzvah, etc.) are a public event where the celebrating family invites all the community to participate. Having a public/private celebration in the middle of the village was an option in Ethiopia, but it is not so in Talpiot, where most of the residents are not Ethiopians. The alternative is to hold the celebration in a public facility, which the authorities allocate for that purpose. However, in Talpiot such a solution was not achieved yet and the community asked that celebrating families would be able to rent Beit Lazarus for their events. The community Council that owns the place did not approve the request, stating that this public facility cannot be rented out for private purposes.

Practically, the community asked to use the place on Dec. 5 and Dec. 12, and threatened to hold demonstrations and protests if their requests were not answered. Last week, we found ourselves – the mediating team of Mosaica and the JICC – in meetings and conversations with the head of the Ethiopian community and the heads of the relevant authorities. However, it seems that the current lack of trust, resulting from the contract violations by the community at the synagogue, prevents such negotiations from being productive. Our experience shows that what is currently required is a process, that will probably be challenging for all sides, for the examination of the events that happened in the last months as well as their consequences for the trust building process.

Additional meetings will take place this week trying to decipher the way to resolution.

jicc2014-04-05T17:10:20+00:00December 4th, 2008|Blog, Ethiopian Community - Talpiot Community Dialogue, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, New Immigrants|

Tsur Baher – educational issues – December 1, 2008

To continue the community process around education in Tsur Baher, we held today another meeting at the office of the head of the municipality Education Department.

Yet this was a different meeting, where the Tsur Baher school principals were invited to present their schools, including facts and issues that can affect decision-making in the future. This was the first time that a group of municiapl officials and community residents sat together to listen to such comprehensive presentations.

The meeting lasted two hours. At its conclusion it was decided that the next meeting in January will be held in Tsur Baher and will focus on responses to the main issues raised in the presentations.

After a year-long process it seems at this point that some trust and common understanding is shared by the stakeholders of this process.

jicc2014-04-05T17:08:41+00:00December 1st, 2008|Blog, Education, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Palestinians/Arabs, Tsur Baher Community Dialogue|

Ramot Open Space Initiative – calling the public to come and join!

In recent posts we updated on our process with the Ramot Community Council to create a participatory community development process in the neighborhood, using Open Space technology.

The Ramot Community Center is currently investing much effort to publicize the community meetings that will take place on December 10 and 16. Meetings are being held with school boards, youth movements, community organizations, synagogues and all other entities that can be part of the process. We meet regularly with the community worker/organizer of Ramot to help and guide the process. It is our hope that this process will serve as an important landmark in community participation and in affecting the fate of this neighborhood.

Look here for the invitation to the Open Space events. This invitation calls anyone and everyone that lives in Ramot, or feels that they want to impact the future of this neighborhood, to join us for these events.

jicc2014-04-05T17:06:40+00:00November 30th, 2008|Blog, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Ramot Community Dialogue, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Rabbi Bob Kaplan in Acre

Rabbi Bob Kaplan, Director of Cause-NY (of the JCRC-NY) and our New York partner in the New-York Jerusalem Experts Exchange, toured Acco today as part of his visit in Israel. Rabbi Kaplan presented to local leaders and mediators the inter-identity crisis intervention model he uses in NYC. With the help of the Gishurim Project, a Community Dialogue and Mediation Center is currently being established in Acco. The meeting was set in order to help the center in its research and development process for designing the optimal implementation of such an institute in Acco. The recent events in Acco highlighted the urgent need for community dialogue and mediation in the city.

Acco

About 40 participants from various identities and agencies arrived to the meeting where Rabbi Kaplan and Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir (JICC’ director) presented various models from NY and Israel.

Kaplan and Agmon-Snir at the Acco meeting

The principal invitees to the meeting were the Imam of Acco, Sheikh Samir Asi and the Chief Rabbi of the city, Rabbi Yossef Yashar. They both had to attend a meeting with Israel’s President, Mr. Shimon Peres, on the same morning, but Rabbi Yashar saw it as important to open the meeting and discuss some of the issues with Rabbi Kaplan.

Acco Chief Rabbi Yashar and Rabbi Kaplan

Following the main assembly, the Community Dialogue and Mediation Center staff conducted a working session with the visitors from NY and Jerusalem, where next steps were formulated and peer consultation with the JICC and CAUSE-NY was put in place.

Acco Community Dialogue Center staff and the guests

Acco Community Dialogue Center staff with guests

jicc2015-05-16T19:26:21+00:00November 27th, 2008|Blog, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, New-York Jerusalem Experts Exchange - NYJEE, Outside Jerusalem|

Last Meeting of the Distance-Learning Community Dialogue Course

The 14-weeks long Distance-Learning Community Dialogue Course concluded today. The course consisted of five distance-learning units and five face-to-face meetings. The twenty participants requested an on-going peer group that will accompany their community dialogue initiatives. We hope that the Gishurim program that sponsored the course will be able to provide this service. The course facilitators, Dr. Orna shemer and Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, will probably facilitate these peer meetings.

Feedback Session of the Community Dialogue Course

In their feedback, the participants stated that the course has significantly leveraged their ability to plan and initiate responses to community conflicts and opportunities. During the course they presented and discussed the various initiatives they were developing in their community dialogue and mediation centers. This was the first ever community dialogue course of the Gishurim project and we hope it will be repeated in the future.

jicc2014-04-05T05:23:21+00:00November 25th, 2008|Blog, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Outside Jerusalem|

Lod – Rabbi Bob Kaplan meets the Mayor

Rabbi Bob Kaplan, Director of Cause-NY (of the JCRC-NY) and our New York partner in the New-York Jerusalem Experts Exchange, visited Lod today as part of his visit to Israel. The purpose of the visit was to present the Inter-Identity Crisis Intervention model Bob uses in NYC. In a special meeting of the Lod Multicultural Forum, together with Lod’s Mayor, the NYC model was introduced and compared to the model currently implemented in Lod, with the support of the JICC.

Rabbi Kaplan at the Lod Municipality

Orit Yulzari, Director of the Lod Community Dialogue and Mediation Center, was an intern at Cause-NY a few years ago. Upon her return to Israel she began receiving on-going consultation from the JICC. As aprt of her work she initiated the Lod Multicultural Forum which focuses on ways to make Lod a more culturally competent city and importantly it also serves as the city’s inter-identity crisis intervention team. A few weeks ago when there was an arson of a synagogue in Lod the forum was used for this purpose.

During the presentation, the Mayor and all the participants emphasized the importance of the Crisis Intervention Team. Insights and tips from similar work in NYC were discussed.

Update, Nov 25: just a few days after this visit, Orit Yulzari received a call about an incident at an Arab school. A 10-years old kid threw a stone at a police car and the police officer slapped him and called him “Hammas member”. Orit and the Mayor immediately got to the place and ensured that the incident was appropriately dealt with. The fast intervention assured that no disinformation and incitement took place. Later on that day other members of the Forum met with all the relevant sides.

jicc2015-05-16T19:26:19+00:00November 23rd, 2008|Blog, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, New-York Jerusalem Experts Exchange - NYJEE, Outside Jerusalem|

First Training to Municipality Absorption Neighborhood Workers

The Jerusalem Municipal Absorption Authority employs about ten Absorption Neighborhood Workers in the city. Their role is to assist new immigrants (Olim) who live in their neighborhoods with all the daily matters that those are typically challenged with. While these workers are usually new immigrants themselves, they cannot, of course, know and understand the cross-cultural issues relating to all immigrant communities that live in their neighborhoods

The municipal Absorption Authority, which is responsible for the recruitment, training and mentoring of the Absorption Workers, approached the JICC to conduct a training on cultural competency to this staff. The goals of the training are to leverage their work by making them more aware to cultural issues and to encourage them to become the voice for cultural competence in their neighborhoods. Our hope is that in time they will encourage local Community Councils and centers, local government agencies and branches, health clinics etc. to become cultural competent. Practically, this means that the scope of their influence will expand to include all identities living in their service area and not only new immigrants.

Today, November 19, we conducted the first training in the series that provided the Absorbtion Workers with an introduction to the field of cultural competence, including examples from health and many other applications relevant to their daily work. At the end of the training participants expressed their satisfaction with the level and scope of the training and that they look forward to future sessions. The rest of the training will cover topics such as cross-cultural communication, tools for cultural competence, case studies and simulations, and stages for making an organization cultural competent.

jicc2014-07-11T08:37:46+00:00November 19th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cross-Cultural Communication Trainings, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, New Immigrants, Outside Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Municipal Elections in Jerusalem!!!

Yesterday, Jerusalem’s secular mayoral candidate, Mr. Nir Barkat, won the municipal election with 52% of the vote. His ultra-orthodox opponent, Rabbi Meir Porush, was close behind with 43%. The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center cannot, of course, support any of the candidates, as one of our most important functions is the enabling of fair dialogue and negotiations between the many identities in the city. The members of the JICC board, representing different groups in the city – Palestinians and Jews, ultra-orthodox and members of other religious denominations – supported various candidates.

Nevertheless, most of the 31 members of the newly elected City Council are new to their role, and they too represent many different identity groups and attitudes. It is our role to help them create effective and profound dialogue amongst themselves, as well as between them and the Jerusalem residents.

The JICC aspires to promote Jerusalem as a Culturally Competent City – and we hope to convince the new Council to adopt this approach. We will try to enhance the impact of the Jerusalem Employment Coalition on the decisionmaking process in the municipality. The municipality is a member of the coalition, which was founded and is facilitated by the JICC. In addition, the JICC has already started a dialogue process between main ultra-orthodox and non-ultra orthodox groups touching upon the issue of living together in Jerusalem. We would like the municipality to be a partner to the thinking process and to the implementation of the outcomes.

In recent years, we attempted to improve the dialogue between the municipality and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, most of whom feel alienated from the municipality and therefore ban the elections. We hope that this dialogue will now intensify and result in better infrastructure and services in East Jerusalem.

To conclude, we see the elections’ results as an opportunity for positive change in the city, hopefully through the cooperation of the many rival groups at the City Council. To respond to these new challenges and opportunities the JICC will shortly initiate meetings with City Council members.

jicc2014-04-04T12:54:41+00:00November 12th, 2008|Blog, Citywide Religious Denominations Dialogue, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Employment, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, On Jerusalem, Palestinians/Arabs, The Jerusalem Employment Coalition, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|