Ethiopian Jews | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Cultural Competence Training – Ir Ganim Clalit Clinic (part 2) – March 23, 2009

Today we held the second part of our first workshop on cultural competency in serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem. The training was delivered to all staff members of the Clalit Primary Care Clinic in the Ir Ganim neighborhood.

Michal Schuster at the Second workshop in Ir Ganim Clalit clinic

This time we focused on the use of interpreters (telephonic and face-to-face) in the clinic, as well as learning how to work with a cultural liaison. The Ir Ganin clinic employs a part-time Ethiopian Cultural Liaison, funded by the Ministry of Health. We used simulations to improve the learning process.

Using a cultural liaison in a simulation

Building on the positive feedback we have received, this training will be provided to the other clinics that serve Ethiopian population in Jerusalem.

A nurse participating in a simulated case

jicc2014-04-07T19:16:21+00:00March 23rd, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants|

Ethiopian Community, Talpiot, March 12, 2009

We continue with our efforts, together with Mosaica, to create better dialogue between the Ethiopian community in Talpiyot and the many agencies that serve them. Although some achievements were made (reported in previous posts), the main difficulty of lack of trust and understanding still persists.

Today we (Mosaica and the JICC) had a meeting with most of the establishment agencies, community council, welfare department, absorption authority etc., were we presented our analysis of the situation, including three major challenges. According to our analysis the main problem is the proliferation of agencies that work with the residents concurrently and with no coordination between them. This can be harmful in any place, but it is worse when serving the Ethiopian community, which finds it hard to navigate the Israeli system. The second challenge is the cross-cultural communication, which is not working well due to the different value systems of the cultures involved. The last pressing issue is the tendency of the Ethiopian community to attribute the behavior of the agencies to racism. The fact that almost all professional staff members are not Ethiopian, and that they have never learnt how to work with the Ethiopian community, does not make the situation easier.

Our suggestion was to provide cultural competence trainings to the agencies that work with the Ethiopian community, as well as train the community leaders to deal with the agencies who serve them. We are pleased to report that the agencies accepted our proposal and a few dates were secured for trainings. In parallel, we will meet with the leaders of the Ethiopian community to talk with them about this new proposal.

jicc2014-04-07T19:14:12+00:00March 12th, 2009|Blog, Courses, Cross-Cultural Communication Trainings, Cultural Competence, Ethiopian Community - Talpiot Community Dialogue, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants|

Cultural Competence Training – Ir Ganim Clalit Clinic – March 2, 2009

Following a strategic planning process for adapting Clalit’s clinics to Ethiopian patients, we held today the first workshop on cultural competence in serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem. The work with Clalit is a component of the Jerusalem Cultural Competence in Health Project initiated by the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation. In this project we aspire to make the Jerusalem district of the Clalit HMO much more culturally competent.

This specific workshop was delivered to all staff members of the Clalit Primary Care Clinic in the Ir Ganim neighborhood. The clinic serves 450 Ethiopian families, most of which arrived to Israel about 10 years ago. Our approach to cultural competence trainings, based on international experience, is to provide tools that will be relevant to other cultures in the neighborhood as well. Yet, in this training, emphasis was given to the unique Ethiopian case.

First workshop in Ir Ganim Clalit clinic

The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center has developed a training based on a series of case-studies. Some of the cases are raised by the participants themselves and others are formulated specifically for the training and presented by the JICC staff with the help of a professional medical actress. In Ir Ganim we were happy to work with an artist, Ethiopian by origin, that played the patient in these case simulations. Through the analysis of the cases, the participants learn relevant models and tools: how to create better patient-provider inter-cultural communication, cross-cultural communication tools, best ways to work with interpreters and tele-interpreters and, importantly, how to deal with culturally-oriented political issues that may divert the staff from its professional work. Our experience shows that in Israel, probably more than in other Western countries, political issues related to racism, religious coercion, and other inter-group tensions, may create major challenges to the staff.

Medical Ethiopian professional artist in the Ir Ganim training

The second part of the training in Ir ganim will take place on March 23. In the meanwhile, the feedback provided at the end of the training indicated that this was a very important and fruituil training experience. We all look forward to the next meeting.

Our next step following the training in Ir Ganim is to provide similar trainings in the rest of the Clalit Jerusalem district clinics serving the Ethiopian community.

jicc2014-04-07T19:11:01+00:00March 2nd, 2009|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants|

Clalit HMO Update on Adapting Clinics to Ethiopian Patients – Dec 8 2008

Following previous meetings on adapting Clalit’s clinics to Ethiopian patients, the representatives of Clalit and the JICC discussed today the detailed plan for cultural competence in serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem. The meeting was very fruitful, and based on many insights, a detailed workplan is currently being formulated. First training will be held in February in the Ir Ganim neighborhood, followed by similar two-days trainings in all relevant clinics. In parallel, signage and other adaptations to this community will be applied.

At the meeting we’ve received an update that according to schedule all the relevant clinics are now fully equipped to provide the “Tene Briut” tele-interpretation services in Amharic. It is important to emphasize that unfortunately, up to this point, this is the only tele-interpretation service existing in Israel in any language!. It is our hope to find the means to create tele-interpretation services in additional languages, such as Arabic and Russian.

jicc2014-04-05T17:11:59+00:00December 8th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

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|

Clalit HMO Update on Adapting Clinics to Ethiopian Patients

Following a steering committee meeting on adapting Clalit’s clinics to Ethiopian patients, a meeting was held between the head of the Clalit committee and the JICC to define the main components of the cultural competence in health program in the city, as well as first steps. Clalit is the main HMO serving Jerusalem’s residents. One of the first steps decided upon was to ensure that the Amharic teleinterpretation service of “Tene Briut” would be expanded to all Clalit’s clinics in Jerusalem. The JICC introduced this service in Jerusalem, and the Clalit’s Talpiot clinic, serving around 500 Ethiopian patients, was the first to adopt it. Today, we were informed that permission was granted by Clalit to incorporate the service in the other three relevant clinics in Jerusalemite as well as in four suburban clinics that serve the Ethiopian community. The teleinterpretation service provides a major improvement in health care for this community, which suffers greatly from language and cultural barriers.

jicc2014-04-05T05:18:07+00:00November 14th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

Clalit HMO, Kiryat Yovel – adapting clinics to Ethiopian patients – November 6, 2008

Today, a steering committee of Kupat Holim Clalit (the largest Israeli Health Management Organization), the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and the Jerusalem Foundation met for the first time. This committee focuses on cultural competency of the Clalit HMO when serving the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem (read more about this project here).

The meeting took place in the Kiryat Yovel clinic, one of the clinics that serve the Ethiopian community. Representatives of most of the relevant clinics attended, as well as Dr. Sarit Avishay, the medical director of the Clalit HMO Jerusalem district. Many cultural issues and appropriate responses were discussed. In general the first important steps in each clinic include providing Amharic tele-interpretation services (of Tene Briut), conducting trainings to staff, communicating with the local Ethiopian community and assigning staff members as Cultural Competency Officers. It was decided that the JICC staff, together with the Clalit staff, would map the main cultural competency issues. The Kiryat Menahem clinic was suggested as the first clinic to undergo pilot training.

Next week the JICC staff will meet with the Clalit committee head who was assigned to promote the first steps of the process.

jicc2017-05-26T20:06:19+00:00November 6th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts|

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|

Gishurim Annual Conference – October 27 2008

On October 27, 2008, the Gishurim Program, which is a program to help Community Mediation Centers in Israel, had its annual conference. 300 participants from all around the country attended the conference, definitely the largest ever meeting of the community mediation centers in Israel.

Gishurim Conference Assembly 2008

The conference was implemented through the Open Space Technology and was facilitated by Daphna Barashi-Aizen, an organizational psychologist, and Tal Kligman, from the JICC. The conference focused on how community mediation centers can become more culturally competent in serving their diverse target audiences, and also in responding to the diversity amongst their staff and volunteers. Dr. Hagai Agmon-Snir, the JICC director, gave the keynote presentation about the case study of cultural competence in the health system also in reference to the mediation centers. Following this presentation the participants discussed insights and initiatives in smaller groups. The summaries of the discussions were presented and follow-up initiatives were formalized for the coming year.

Setting Discussion Topics for the Open Space Sessions

A main discussion topic was the Acre riots and “the day after” – in all multicultural cities and communities in Israel. A few dozens activists and mediators came from Acre and helped the others to understand the background, the events and the probable consequences in Acre. Many other discussions touched upon the incorporation of new immigrants and different religious denominations into mediation centers. The discussions provided important insights for the activists in Acre as well as for those active in other places. The context of cultural competence offered an important framework for these discussions.

Open Space Discussion Group

All discussions and follow-ups will be documented on the Gishurim website and through the help of the Gishurim program, some of the initiatives will be implemented. The Gishurim program is being operated by Mosaica and the Jerusalem Intercultural Center.

jicc2015-11-01T18:09:21+00:00October 27th, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Ethiopian Jews, Gishurim - Israel Community Mediation Centers, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Outside Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Ethiopian Community Synagogue – Mediation meeting, Talpiot, October 2, 2008

After a seven-year struggle, the Ethiopian community in Talpiot at last got a synagogue. As a result of the community dialogue project, facilitated by the Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center and Mosaica in Talpiot, the Ethiopian community received the right to use the local Community Hall as a synagogue on weekends and holidays.

When Mosaica and the JICC were summoned to the neighborhood in May 2008, the Ethiopian community was engaged in deep conflict on many different fronts with most of the local governmental and non-governmental agencies. In the Community Dialogue process we managed to bring all these stakeholders to the table and begin to tackle the relevant issues.

The first success was achieved immediately after the first assembly in June 2008. During the meeting several elderly members of the community attested that due to language barriers they do not receive proper care at the local Kupat Holim, the HMO clinic that serves most of the Ethiopians in the neighborhood. The residents described their apprehension in taking medications, not being sure whether the doctors actually understand their explanations and therefore prescribe them with the right treatment. The clinic director, who attended the meeting, decided without delay to make use of a tele-interpretation service in Amharic, provided by Tene Briut [a “basket of health”]. Starting in August 2008, Talpiot’s HMO became the first health service in Jerusalem to use tele-interpretation (in any language).

The next major concern of the Ethiopian community was indeed the synagogue. Surprisingly, during the second assembly in July, a temporary solution was declared for weekends and holidays and in addition a building permit was granted meaning that a permanent venue will be available in 2-3 years time. This fast progression demonstrates the readiness of the sides to achieve a resolution to this issue. In September, with much excitement, the community began praying in the Community Hall. In parallel, additional issues were identified for discussion and resolution through the Community Dialogue path.

However, the happiness about the synagogue was premature. The solution was far from optimal. Time-sharing in a room at the Community Hall, which during weekdays is used by the welfare department as a daycare for kids at risk, was found to be a real challenge, and conflicts emerged around issues such as furniture, prayer books, cleaning, etc. We found ourselves micro-managing a conflict between the Ethiopian community and the daycare.Today, several days after Rosh Hashana prayers, we had a three-hours mediation process, mainly focused on the location of one small cabin holding prayer books… Of course, the cabin was not the real issue of the mediation. Rather we had to untangle many inter-cultural aspects and perceptions, with every potential solution dangerously nearing racism or child neglect… definitely a challenge. Eventually a short-term solution was reached for a few days, with a hope that a better solution will emerge by the end of the week.

We all know that the synagogue, with all the complexities it presents regarding turf issues in the neighborhood, will attract our conflict management skills and resources for quite a while. Our challenge will be to help the many stakeholders using the Community Hall build trust and find stable and mutually acceptable solutions.

jicc2017-05-26T20:06:17+00:00October 2nd, 2008|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Ethiopian Community - Talpiot Community Dialogue, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Inter-Cultural Community Dialogue|

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