Courses | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

The Folklore Tale as a Facilitation Tool – Opening of a Training

The second cycle of “The Folklore Tale as a Facilitation Tool, for Awareness, Empowerment and Dialogue” has started today in the JICC. Shay Schwartz, the course facilitator, is an experienced group facilitator and storyteller and in the past an actor, director and script writer. In recent years Schwartz mainly focuses on developing models for using stories in different contexts, in particular in dialogue, therapy, personal and cultural identity search, and cultural empowerment. The twenty-sessions-long course will train group facilitators to utilize stories as a facilitation tool, especially in conflictual settings.

First meeting of the course

This is the second time for the course to be offered to relevant Palestinian and Jewish professionals in Jerusalem. Feedback from the first cycle was excellent and we hope that this year’s course would also enable participants to utilize this unique methodology in their work.

jicc2014-04-05T05:14:29+00:00November 9th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Facilitators Trainings, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Palestinians/Arabs|

Meeting of the Jerusalem Employment Coalition – November 5, 2008

Background: The JICC initiated an employment coalition in Jerusalem in 2005. To begin with the coalition’s main focus was the Welfare-To-Work program that was implemented at the time in Jerusalem, and in three other locations around the country. This program, the first of its kind in Israel, generated much controversy between experts from the government, business sector and NGOs active in the area of employment. The JICC invited the many agencies and businesses that were involved in the implementation of the program or in opposing it, to cooperate in the employment coalition. The coalition enabled the organizations to conduct an effective dialogue that made it possible to improve many aspects of the program. Unfortunately, such a coalition was not mirrored in other regions in Israel where the W2W program was implemented.

Toward 2008 coalition members suggested to upgrade the mission of the coalition and to become the Jerusalem Employment Coalition. A main focus of the JEC is to find ways to advance the adaptation of the employment field to the diverse identities in the city. In the bimonthly meetings, hosted by various coalition members, participants increase their exposure to, and understanding of, diverse aspects of the professional work in this field, and look for synergy and partnerships that would address the needs of the Jerusalemite identities.

Today we held a meeting at the Governmental Employment Service in Jerusalem. Thirty coalition members listened to Mr. Nimrod Alon, the director of the Jerusalem District, and discussed the services provided by this agency. The main issues that were raised related to courses offered to ultra-orthodox women and to unemployed Ethiopians. Two sub-committees will continue to meet in order to address the adaptation of governmental employment services, as well as help employers adjust their businesses to these identities.

Jerusalem Employment Coalition – November 5 2008

The next meeting will be held at Teva, an Israeli biotech company that works closely with employment assignment services.

jicc2014-07-11T08:34:43+00:00November 5th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Employment, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Outside Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Employment Coalition, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

The Arabic-Hebrew Studies Center in Jerusalem – Beginning of the 2008-09 class

On the week of October 26, 2008, we began another year of the language courses at the Arabic-Hebrew Studies Center.

These intensive courses are intended for professionals and leaders who need language skills in order to be more culturally competent in their work and activities. Participants include Jewish-Arab facilitators and project managers, Jewish lawyers who help Arab residents to gain their rights, Arab activists who work with Jewish NGO partners, people from the business sector who seek cross-cultural collaborations, and more. This project is funded by our strategic partner, the Jerusalem Foundation, with whom we share the belief that whoever works in an Arab-Jewish environment must have adequate knowledge of the two languages. Regrettably, up until now this approach is not well acknowledged in Israel. However, in Jerusalem, thanks to this project, we can see a significant shift.

Indeed, after only a few years, the results are noticeable. Jerusalem is probably the only city in Israel where most Jewish-Arab staff members have a good command of both languages. This transition has also affected the JICC itself – all our staff, including administrative staff, has elemental knowledge in both languages. Not many Jewish-Arab organizations can be proud of such an achievement – and remember that the JICC is not a Jewish-Arab organization, its West Jerusalem-East Jerusalem work is just a part of its undertakings

This year, in response to high demand, we opened two beginners’ classes instead of one and still had to screen the candidates. The intermediate course, which two years ago hardly had enough participants, filled up very fast, and the advanced course is also almost full. Just a year ago this group was half empty – there were simply not enough candidates for the higher level. The intermediate and the advanced groups are populated mainly by graduates of previous years.

One of the Arabic Beginners Course 2008-2009

This year we also added another aspect to the courses – although we focus on the spoken dialect, the participants will learn to read Arabic. The formal Arabic (Fus’kha) is very different from the spoken Palestinian dialect, which is taught in all our courses, so the students will not become readers of formal Arabic. However, they will be able to read names, signs, newspaper headings and similar – literacy at its best. This will be the next significant shift, as most Arabic-speaking Jewish professionals are unable to recognize their own name written in Arabic.

jicc2014-04-05T05:07:56+00:00November 5th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cultural Competence, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Language Center|

Medical Interpretation Training – Alyn – October 30, 2008

Today, the first ever medical interpretation training in Jerusalem has commenced (see report on YNET, in Hebrew). This training is part of our efforts, together with the Alyn Hospital’s management, to transform Alyn into a cultural competent hospital, probably the first of its kind in Israel. The work with Alyn is a component of the Jerusalem Cultural Competence in Health Project initiated by the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation. The three days training is offered to ten staff members of Alyn hospital and four national service volunteers from Hadassah Ein-Karem Hospital. The cultural competence program in Alyn also includes training to medical, para-medical and non-medical staff (a pilot training was held a month ago; improving the hospital setting and signage towards different identities; raising awareness about these issues in the hospital; and appointing staff who will be responsible for promoting cultural competency throughout the hospital. The cooperation of the Alyn management in the process is of great help.

Alyn Medical Interpretation Training November 2008

The medical interpretation training encompasses theoretical lectures on translation and interpretation, presented by Prof. Miriam Schlesinger and Ms. Michal Schuster from the Bar-Ilan University, simulations, and language-specific training on medical terms and usage, in this case in Arabic, Russian and Amharic. The Alyn hospital currently formalizes regulations on how to effectively utilize its trained staff as interpreters.

Alyn Medical Interpretation Training November 2008

jicc2014-04-05T05:03:44+00:00October 30th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services|

Community Dialogue Course – Third face-to-face-meeting

On October 28, the third face-to-face national meeting of the community dialogue course took place. During the meeting the 20 course participants presented a written summary about the community dialogue tools that they have been investigating in the literature. This process continues the online discussion of the tools on the distant- learning platform of the course. The analysis, to be completed on the next meeting, serves to concertize the community dialogue approach and principles. Following this process, working in peer groups, the participants began to analyze their own community dialogue processes.

jicc2014-04-05T04:57:52+00:00October 28th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue Course|

Distance Learning Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue Course

As a part of the Gishurim Program, which is an Israeli program supporting Community Mediation Centers in Israel, an Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue Course is offered to 21 professionals and activists from all over the country. The Community Dialogue approach, developed by the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center, is taught by Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir (Director, JICC) and Dr. Orna Shemer (Department of Social Work, Hebrew University). The course is heavily based on a distance-learning platform, and the participants research, learn and discuss through the internet, which is a great way to improve learning, overcome geographical barriers and enhance internet skills that are nowadays very helpful in community work. In addition, there are face-to-face meetings that add another important learning opportunities.

The curriculum focuses on methodologies for deepening democracy in a community, creation of better community partnership and solidarity, defining a community public sphere which is more just, and defining the conditions for a flourishing multicultural community. The course that began in September 2008 is taught in five units of two weeks each.

The Gishurim program is jointly operatied by Mosaica and the Jerusalem Inter-Cultral Center.

jicc2014-07-11T05:06:47+00:00October 6th, 2008|Blog, Courses, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue Course|