Christians | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Empowering Activists to Work toward a More Tolerant Jerusalem – the Second in a Series

One of our main tenets at the JICC is to encourage and foster effective activism, empowering residents to improve their everyday lives. From MiniActive to the Emergency Readiness Networks, to the Railway Park, residents are affecting their immediate public sphere, one issue at a time.

Since last summer, one of our main avenues of activity has been fighting racism and xenophobia in the public sphere, and fostering cadres of activists to lend their passion and intensity to the effort. We hold deep respect for these activists, who are constantly thinking of new and creative ways to promote tolerance in Jerusalem. And in the most activist of ways, they are working toward turning these ideas into reality, and creating hope for all of us for the future of Jerusalem.

In order to give these activists a helping hand, three months ago, we held the first of a series of Open Space Technology meetings. At that meeting, nine initiatives were presented, several of which continue to be developed today, from engaging leaders to public campaigns to speaking with the ‘other’ in Zion Square.

As we mentor these initiatives, we know that it is also critically important to keep opening up pathways for new initiatives as well. For this reason we held a second meeting for activists, using the Open Space Technology, on Monday, March 2, 2015, also at the Jerusalem International YMCA.

YMCA Open Space March 2, 2015

This meeting was considerably smaller than the last (50 instead of 100 participants), but it was much more mature and effective and we were equally excited by the outcomes. A total of 6 initiatives were presented. They included a Facebook page aimed at summarizing news from East Jerusalem in the eyes of Palestinian residents, a new ‘debate’ format for “Speaking in the Square,” initiatives to expand the cadres of activists and different ways to instill messages of tolerance in the public sphere.

Discussing Effective Methods

This time, in addition to offering assistance in developing the strategic steps of the initiatives, we are also helping the different initiatives to “get the word out.” Together with the Jerusalem Foundation, we’re partnering with the Gug design agency, who were on hand at the meeting, who have begun to lend their expertise in public relations, public campaigning, and more. We’ll also be consulting the initiatives in other ways, as well, as needed. Definitely, this activist energy is going to grow and impact the city, and we will do everyhting to help it happen!

Naomi Roff2015-03-09T12:01:57+00:00March 6th, 2015|Asylum Seekers, Blog, Christians, Effective Activism, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, New Immigrants, Palestinians/Arabs, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Enriching the Toolbox of the Cultural Competency Coordinator: Passover and Easter Information Sheet

We’ve described here our process of producing information sheets for major Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays for Cultural Competency Coordinators from around the country. Thus far we’ve produced pages for Muslim Ramadan, Eid el-Fitr and Eid el-Adha, Jewish Ethiopian Sigd, Christian Christmas and New Year, Druze Eid el-Hader and Jewish Tisha B’Av and Asara B’Tevet.

We can now add Jewish Passover to the list:

Passover in Health Organisations 2014

The information had two parts: a sheet that explains the main issues that are relevant for Passover in healthcare organizations, and a Word file with suggested texts for posters in Hebrew, Arabic and English about the practice in Israeli healthcare organizations not to being Non-Passover-Kosher food in to the facility during Passover. In the past, we could see posters that either were not helpful for non-Jewish people, or were written in an insulting way, and were usually only in Hebrew. We hope that our text help to solve this.

Immediately after that, we published another sheet about Lent, Easter and Pentecost (and in Israel we need to know the practices of many Christian Sects in this context, Greek Orthodox, Catholic etc.).

Easter in healthcare organisation March 2014

Naomi Roff2014-05-13T20:23:16+00:00March 25th, 2014|Asylum Seekers, Blog, Christians, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Learning from a Model, Adapting to their Needs: Visit to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya

It’s not easy being a Cultural Competency Coordinator. There are so many aspects that need to be dealt with it can seem overwhelming. It is exactly for that reason that we formed the Cultural Competency Coordinators’ Forum, so that they would not need to go it alone. Even more recently we formed an offshoot – a Forum for Cultural Competency Coordinators from Public Mental Health Institutions – since the field of mental health is drastically different than general health care. The 8-member forum includes representatives from all 7 public mental health institutions in Israel – from Acco to Beer Sheva to Jerusalem to Tel Aviv – and was formed on the heels of our networking / feedback session, before the Manual for Cultural Competency Coordinators was published. This forum meets monthly.

Members have already learned a great deal from one another. For example, the coordinator from Be’er Ya’akov heard about the medical interpreter’s course at Abarbanel, and the course is being implemented at Be’er Ya’akov. Similarly, the coordinator from Mizra heard about the workshops we did for the administration at the Jerusalem Center for Mental Health, and in January it will start workshops for its 50 administrative and managerial personnel.

On November 5, 2013 mental health forum had a special treat – a visit to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya. Why Nahariya? The first few meetings of the Forum had included introductions, peer learning and setting goals for the group, and after that it decided that it was time to learn from the field. Nahariya is a model example of both administration and staff being committed to making its care culturally sensitive to all its patients, and using creative means to do so.

Touring the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya

The Cultural Competency coordinators at Nahariya had participated in our first course for cultural competency coordinators in 2012, and have come a long way in a short time, thanks to the continued support of the management at all levels. We came to see how they did it, and how we can adapt their methods to mental health institutions.

The visit had 3 parts:

A presentation on how the hospital led the Cultural Competency training sessions for its staff. It was very important to the administration that local hospital staff lead the training sessions. This showed seriousness on the part of the hospital and sent a message to the staff that ‘we value this enough to dedicate two staff members for in-house training and integration, who will be here to follow up and make sure that the principles are implemented.’ Because the training was performed by local staff, there was more motivation, there was no need to wait for the training, and more help was on hand in assimilating the principles.
A tour of the hospital. Participants were taken to the hospital’s Muslim prayer room, one of only a handful in all Israeli hospitals, which was established in cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Services. They were also shown the hospital’s creative method of multi-lingual signage. The hospital had already had signage in Hebrew and English, but needed to add signs in Russian and Arabic, and did not want to spend the high cost of re-printing all the hospital’s signage. Its solution – printing the requisite signs on giant stickers that were stuck to the floor. What a novel idea!
Participants were also shown the pilot of a telephone interpreting system, which is being funded by the Ministry of Health. They first learned how the telephone system works. It uses a special telephone with two handsets – one for the patient and one for the physician. Both are listening to the interpreter, who is on the other side of the line, in a call center. The idea is that eventually all health care institutions in Israel will be hooked up to this system, and will be able to use it all day, every day, without having to wait for an interpreter to be on call in the building.

An example of a dual-handset telephone for interpreting

The day ended with participants discussing their thoughts on the most important points, and how they can assimilate any of the ideas into their own institutions. One action item that arose was the need for a Cultural Competency Manual dedicated to the unique needs of mental health facilities. We will begin to write this manual at the next meeting, which is in the middle of December 2013.

Naomi Roff2014-07-11T09:32:26+00:00November 10th, 2013|Blog, Christians, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Making a Mental ‘Switch’: Cultural Sensitivity Professional Development Workshop for Staff at the Jerusalem Center for Mental Health, Kiryat Hayovel Clinic

What is the essence of cultural competency? More than the manuals, more than the training sessions – cultural sensitivity is the switch in approach to the patient-caregiver relationship, from ‘let me make you better’ (on my terms, using my rules) to ‘let’s work together to enable you to heal’ (mutual communication, bridging communication gaps of language and culture, realization that one’s background and culture dictates one’s actions and reactions).

The intention of the workshop held on October 21, 2013 for members of the Kiryat Hayovel public mental health clinic, part of the Jerusalem Center for Mental Health, was to help the 25 participants make that switch in their approach. The all-day workshop included a discussion of the present situation, and staff members raised a number of examples of social and political tensions in the clinic. As in other Cultural Competency Workshops, we also covered a theoretical section, in which we went over basic aspects of cultural competency – interpersonal communication, core issues, cultural dimensions, medical interpretation, social and political tension and more. In the afternoon the medical actress joined us and we practiced 2 real-life situations.

The director of the Kiryat Hayovel Clinic was very cooperative, both during and after the workshop. He told us that he received positive feedback from his staff, and that everyone recognizes the need for changing their approach, with an emphasis on everyday work. He noted that many of the staff were aware of the concept of cultural competency, but this all-day workshop allowed them to concentrate solely on how cultural competency / or cultural sensitivity influences their work as mental health caregivers.

The workshop also made the director as well as the staff more aware of the need for medical interpreters (translators) when working with patients whose mother tongue is not Hebrew. The workshop therefore increased his motivation for including his staff members in the upcoming medical interpreter’s course at the Jerusalem Center for Mental Health in Givat Shaul.

Naomi Roff2014-04-11T18:41:23+00:00October 23rd, 2013|Asylum Seekers, Blog, Christians, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, New Immigrants, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Creating a Cultural Competency Learning Community

We’ve talked about our growing national network of cultural competency coordinators here before . As part of this effort, we held our quarterly workshop for 25 cultural competency coordinators from around Israel at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) on October 7. Participants came from hospitals as far north as Tiberias and Hadera, as well as the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv area. There were also representatives of the different HMO’s as well. This workshop focused on the Connection between the Community and Health Care Organizations.

The meeting included a panel discussion of 4 different perspectives:

Mr. Pekadu Gadamo, director of the Tene Briut organization, which works to improve health care for the Ethiopian community in Israel.
Mr. Or-El Ben Ari, director of the Ministry of Health’s clinic for migrants and political asylum seekers at the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv.
Rabbi Zvi Porath, rabbinic consultant to the ALYN Rehabilitative Hospital
Mr. Gabriel Pransky, the Pransky Project

Each member of the panel spoke about his organization, and the connection each one has to health care organizations. Mr. Ben Ariand Mr. Paransky also distributed information sheets about their organizations. Click here to see the Refugees Clinic information sheet and here to see the information sheet on the Pransky project.

We’d like to focus on two of them, Mr. Ben Ari, from what was formerly referred to as the Refugees’ Clinic, and Rabbi Porath, from ALYN. Mr. Ben Ari first described his clinic. Located in the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, the clinic serves the tens of thousands of refugees and political asylum seekers that live in the Tel Aviv area, none of whom have health insurance. Instead, they often rely on hospital emergency rooms for care, and then only in real emergencies. And it was found that many of the emergencies could have been prevented if they had sought medical care earlier. The clinic was established in 2008 by the Israel Medical Association and other partners and staffed largely by volunteer doctors and other medical personnel. In January 2013 the clinic came under the auspices of the Israel Ministry of Health. Today it includes a staff of 20 and offers a range of medical services, from regular clinics to urgent care facilities, operated by the Terem organization. In the discussion, Mr. Ben Ari asked the cultural competency coordinators to make the clinic known to the refugees / asylum seekers they treat, since after they are released they rarely seek follow-up care that the clinic can provide.

The coordinators were fascinated by the clinic. For most this was the first time they had heard of the clinic and its activities. They were so excited about it that they asked to have a tour. This is now being organized.
Another of the speakers was Rabbi Zvi Porath, of ALYN Rehabilitative Hospital. Rabbi Porath, himself Ultra-Orthodox, has done groundbreaking work in his position as an advisor to the staff and on Jewish law. In most hospitals the Rabbi deals mainly with issues regarding Kashruth and Sabbath observance, Rabbi Porath is the first hospital Rabbi in Israel to utilize his role for cultural competency issues as well. He advises both the staff and patients, especially when there are instances in which there are questions of Jewish law as it relates to specific treatments. Rabbi Porath not only gives his own advice, but also knows whom to go to when other authorities’ opinions are needed. This is because each community within the Ultra-Orthodox world follows its own community leaders, but not necessarily leaders from other communities. In this way Rabbi Porath is not only a consultant and an advisor, he is also a mediator, helping the ALYN staff provide the best care for all its patients, sensitive to the cultural traditions of its Ultra-Orthodox patients and their families.

The participants were also very interested in Rabbi Porath’s work, since all of them deal with issues of caring for Ultra-Orthodox patients in ways that are in line with their strict reading of Jewish law. Many even scheduled private meetings with him, to see how he could help in their respective organizations.

Naomi Roff2016-02-27T15:01:19+00:00October 10th, 2013|Asylum Seekers, Blog, Christians, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Ultra-Orthodox respond to our request to condemn hate crimes against non-Jews

In mid-December 2009, we were approached by the Mayor’s bureau with an interesting request. For many years, churches and clergies are harassed in Jerusalem by extremist Jews. These harassments include spitting, cursing, offensive graffiti, trashing dead cats to the gardens of the churches etc. There are mainly two geographical areas in which this phenomenon occurs. One is the Mea Shearim neighborhood, an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish area in which there are some old active churches – e.g. Ethiopian, Polish, Romanian and Russian. The other is the Old City of Jerusalem – mainly the Armenian Quarter and Mount Zion (where, by the way, the Jerusalem Intercultural Center is physically located).

Recently, the representatives of the churches at the Mea Shearim area approached the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jerusalem Municipality and asked them to make an effort to stop these hate crimes. A meeting was arranged with the Mayor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and churches’ representatives to discuss the issue. Prior to the meeting the Mayor’s bureau requested that we, with our connections, will approach the leaders of the Eda Haredit, one of the extreme Ultra-Orthodox groups in Jerusalem. “Chances are slim” – they told us at the bureau – “but maybe you will be able to get their cooperation in the matter”. As a reminder, the Eda Haredit boycotts the Municipality as an illegitimate regime in the city, and throughout the years has led many struggles and demonstrations against it, including in the past few months. On the other hand, a formal statement by this extreme body may affect most of the less-extreme ultra-Orthodox Jewish world.

So we gave it a try… We knew that the Halachic (Jewish Law) part was easy. According to the Halacha, such hate crimes are sinful due to many reasons. But we did not have a way to know whether the Eda Haredit Rabbis would agree to write a condemnation against these deeds. Indeed we used our connections, and to our great surprise we got a fast response saying – “of course, we will write such a formal statement”. Moreover, a member of the innermost circle of the Eda’s management, Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, was assigned to attend the meeting at the municipality to ensure that the Christian representatives will receive the clear message directly. We received the letter within a few days from our request:

A translation of the letter (thanks to Rabbi David Rosen):

Beth Din Tzedek of the Orthodox Jewish Community

26A Strauss St.

Jerusalem

Fax:02 6221317

Tevet 7, 5770
Dangerous Provocation

Recently repeat complaints have been heard on the part of non-Jews from other religions regarding assaults and insults with which irresponsible youth have harassed them in the city and in particular in the vicinity of Shivtei Yisrael St.

Aside from the Desecration of the Divine Name involved in this which is a very serious sin indeed, such provocation of gentiles is forbidden by our rabbis and may also heaven forbid lead to tragic consequences for the Jewish community at large, May the Ineffable One have mercy.

We thus call on all who are in a position to act to end this shameful phenomenon through means of persuasion, to rally forward as soon as possible to eliminate this blight, so that our camp may be one of peace.

And may the Holy One Blessed be He spread His tabernacle of mercy, life and peace over us and all Israel and all Jerusalem; and we wait for and look forward to the coming of our righteous messiah speedily in our days, amen.

Signed this day by the ecclesiastical court of justice, here in the holy city of Jerusalem

Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch (the Head of the Beth Din Tzedek of the Orthodox Jewish Community)

Rabbi Naftali Herzka Frenkl

Rabbi Yakov Mendel Yaravitsh

The meeting at the Mayor’s office was very good. Rabbi Pappenheim talked convincingly about the Jewish approach to harassment and was very empathetic towards the harassment stories conveyed by the clergies. On the way out, Rabbi Pappenheim discussed with us possible next steps. This was very interesting as from the point of view of the Municipality, the meeting was the end rather than the beginning of the process. But Rabbi Pappenheim thought differently, and since the meeting we are making efforts together with the Eda and himself to prevent future harassment events. It is important to emphasize that mostly these incidents are not conducted by members of the Eda Haredit, but what drives the leaders of the Eda to continue the process is their leadership role and a sense of shared responsibility.

A few days following the meeting, we got another letter from the Eda:

The second letter was very similar to the first, except for three significant alterations. First, Rabbi Weiss, the main leader of the Eda Haredit is now himself signed on the statement. Second, the letter refers to acts against gentiles not only at Mea Shearim but also at the Shimon Hatzadik area. When we called to check about this change, we found that it was made since there are also harassments of Muslims at Sheikh Jerah and the Eda leadership added this locale to make sure it would be widely understood that the letter is against the harassment of both Christians and Muslims. Third, the statement now gives a clear directive for all those who are able to act to prevent further harassment.

The full story was covered in the press. First, the Ultra-Orthodox newspaper “Bakehila” published a long article with photos from the meeting with the Mayor and the clergies (in Hebrew). Then it was covered in Haaretz in Hebrew (http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1139305.html) and in English (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139705.html). Our involvement was mentioned in all of these articles. Here is an excerpt from Haaretz:

Poland’s honorary consul in Jerusalem approached Avraham Kroizer, the mayor’s adviser on ultra-Orthodox affairs. The latter turned to members of the Eda Haredit and to Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, director of the Jerusalem Intercultural Center, closely tied with the group. [our emphasis]

Eda Haredit representatives denied that members of their community were involved, but said it was possible that “fringe youth” who had participated in the demonstrations were causing the problems.

In recent years, and particularly in the past few months, there have been several incidents in which Palestinians have also been attacked in the area separating the western and eastern parts of Jerusalem. Agmon-Snir and Kroizer said it was not by chance the appeal had been made to the Eda Haredit, even if they were not responsible for the attacks, because rabbis from that community could lead other ultra-Orthodox to follow in their footsteps. [our emphasis]

This is not the end of the story, as we continue the process to minimize such hate crimes in Jerusalem.

jicc2016-11-07T19:41:15+00:00January 5th, 2010|Blog, Christians, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

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