New Immigrants | The Jerusalem Intercultural Center

Continuing to Develop Jerusalem Railway Park

We began our involvement in resident initiatives along the Jerusalem Railway Park more than two years ago, together with the Baka’a, Ginot Ha’Ir and Gonenim Community Councils and a number of local organizations and active residents. This was very soon after the entire length of the Park, which runs from the First Train Station near the city center south toward Malcha and out of the city, had opened.

Since then, the Railway Park has become one of the liveliest centers of activity in Jerusalem. Each month more initiatives are developed to enhance life in, on and along the park. Some examples include: MusiKatamon:

MusiKatamon Festival in August 2014

Meeting Point: Under the Bridge (Meaning, under the overpass that leads from the Katamonim neighborhood to Beit Safafa.) Led by the Muslala Group, but included a broad range of local institutions:

Meeting Point: Under the Bridge, Spring 2015

Chalk Festival, also in 2015:

Chalk Art Festival April 2015

Reading Station, an old bus stop that had been re-configured with bookshelves. People drop off and take books freely. (The video is in Hebrew)

BaRakevet (both “At the train” and “Train Bar”) Community Cafe

We continue to accompany the leaders of these initiatives, many of which are resident-led. On April 5, we held a meeting for all those interested in developing new, and refining older, ideas and initiatives. There were some 20 active residents there, some who had initiated the idea of the park, some who are operating social initiatives in the park, some were residents who live along the park, and others were youth from the Telem Scouts movement, from all over the city.

Meeting to discuss resident initiatives

At first we heard some updates of existing initiatives – BaRakavet, Reading Station, local treasure chests (places where people drop off unwanted items and pick up stuff for free). We also discussed several new initiatives – meetings with senior citizens, corner for petting and adopting pets, musical Kabbalat Shabbat at the Reading Station, jam sessions for Jews and Arabs, juggling and music at the Reading Station, a second-hand swap, and more.

Developing ideas, finding partners

Good luck to all the initiatives! We’ll keep you posted here on their development…

Naomi Roff2017-05-02T07:17:57+00:00April 13th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Larger Baka Community Council, New Immigrants|

New Neighborhood Tolerance Team in Talpiot!

How do you celebrate Shabbat? Tell us your Shabbat story…

Telling different Shabbat stories

This is what the newly-formed Talpiot Tolerance Team did in their opening event, which took place on Friday afternoon, April 1.

Event with Jerusalem’s diversity

Shabbat means different things to different people. For a short time on that Friday afternoon, Ultra-Orthodox (Chabad), Ethiopian, secular and traditional Jews all experienced together their own Kabbalat Shabbat, enjoying the traditions as well as their own interpretations.

Traditional taking of Challah before baking Challot

Advertisements to this event were prepared in Amharic as well as Hebrew, and there was a true Jerusalem mix of people at the event.

Amharic poster

The Talpiot Tolerance team is one of a growing network of Neighborhood Tolerance Teams that are being formed throughout Jerusalem. Each team is acting independently, and advancing tolerance in ways that the team members feel are most appropriate for them. There are currently teams in French Hill, Abu Tor / Al-Thuri, Katamonim, Katamon-German Colony, Baka’a, Rehavia, Nahlaot, and more are being formed each week.

Everyone’s hands knead the Challah

Many thanks to the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation for their support in promoting tolerance in Jerusalem.

Many forms of Challah

Here are some more pictures from the Facebook post on the event from the Hebrew-language Jerusalem Tolerance Facebook group:

Naomi Roff2016-04-15T11:16:48+00:00April 10th, 2016|Blog, Ethiopian Jews, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Just in Time for Springtime! Planning New Playgrounds in Gilo

Just in time for springtime – we’re helping residents and professionals plan more playgrounds.

After the outstanding success on Afarsimon St., we, together with the Gilo Community Council staff, began an additional public process of planning public playgrounds in Gilo. This time, it’s on Harduf St.

Meeting in Gilo

Unlike the first playground, this time the initiative for the playground came from a Gilo resident, who complained to the local city planner about the noise that was coming from a neighboring playground. This began a long process in which the planner went through the appropriate channels in the Municipality while the resident recruited additional community members willing to fix the playground. On March 21, 18 residents, half of them children, as well as the Gilo Community Council staff and the regional planner from the Municipality, began planning a new playground. Residents raised ideas and discussed their needs, and drew up and prioritized design principles. The children actively participated in the discussion, in a most productive and inspiring way.

List of design principles

Examples of some of the principles:

Appropriate for ages birth – 12
Landscaping appropriate for senior citizens
Planning that prevents crowds gathering
Multi-purpose equipment (e.g. one piece of equipment that includes ropes and swings and bridges, etc.)
Hourglass clock to time turns on the different equipment
Expanding the playground instead of passageways
Planting to enable shaded areas
Soft, environmentally-friendly pavement

The list will be sent to the Municipality and will form the basis for its planning. The next meeting will take place with residents and Municipality representatives in the playground in order to present a number of alternatives and to reach agreement on the best planning for the playground.

It was a fascinating and effective meeting, and we are proud to be assisting the Gilo Community Council staff and residents in this process. Next month – a similar process on Shamir St.

Naomi Roff2016-04-09T10:59:02+00:00March 31st, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Gilo, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants|

Santé Israël – Creating Both Real-life and Virtual Community

Santé Israël isn’t just a web site – albeit an incredibly rich, information-laden web site – anymore. It is also creating real-life community. We’ve already rolled out the web site and Facebook page, and the next step is to create a real-life community surrounding the virtual one for French-speaking immigrants – one that will better enable access to Israel’s health care system and improve the community’s health care.

Since the beginning of March we’ve been bringing the electronic information to the people. We began in Bayit Vegan. Sante’s coordinator, Marie Avigad, introduced the web site to a group of 15 – 20 women. The women were very enthusiastic and interested in the web site, for themselves as well as for friends and relatives here, as well as those in France. They asked about different aspects relating to Israeli health care – prescriptions, referrals, hospital and outpatient coverage, payment for ambulance, emergency medicine hubs, medical interpretation, what the site tells about the different HMO’s.

Sante in Har Homa

The hit of the evening – an information sheet about how to prepare for a trip to the doctor, as well as the link to the WAZE social GPS app that is embedded in the site. Thus, a patient can be guided to the nearest clinic / hospital via WAZE, via the site. At the end of the evening, the women asked how to put a shortcut to the site on their cellphone screens so they always have it handy.

Our next stop was Har Homa. There, the evening included not only an introduction to Sante Israel, but also a lecture by nutritionist Yael Sayag-Shofen from the Maccabi HMO, who spoke about the myths of nutrition, or how to promote good health thanks to a truly balanced diet.

Yael Sayag-Shofen, nutritionist

This project has been made possible thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation, which works under the auspices of the Foundation of French Judaism (FSJU) and the Rashi Foundation.

Naomi Roff2018-06-04T04:48:50+00:00March 18th, 2016|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, New Immigrants, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

Katamonim Tolerance Team – A Neighborhood Meets Itself

The burned bridge between the word ‘Salaam’ and the word ‘Shalom’

Between the word ‘Kalib’ and the word ‘Lev’ (heart)

Between the word ‘Hoob’ and the word ‘Ahava’ (love)

Between the word ‘Urshalem’ and ‘Yerushalayim’

Between the word ‘Mai’ and the word ‘Mayim’ (water)

Between the word ‘Ivri’ (Hebrew) and the word ‘Aravi’ (Arabic)

Between the word ‘Wachad’ and the word ‘Echad’ (one)

Between the word ‘Allah’ and the word ‘Elohim’

This is part of a poem by Yosef Ozer, which was composed by the Ecout ensemble, which played at the first meeting of the Katamonim-Rasco Tolerance Team – A Neighborhood Meets Itself which took place on March 10. The Katamonim-Rasco team joins a growing network of Neighborhood Tolerance Teams, part of an overall effort to promote tolerance in Jerusalem, that we’ve been leading since the summer of 2014, thanks to the support of the UJA-Federation of New York and the Jerusalem Foundation.

Katamonim-Rasco meets itself

This first meeting was entitled “Katamonim Songs, ” and featured the poet Almog Behar and the Ecout ensemble. The ensemble performed songs from its “Katamonim Songs” E.P. that tells the history, the experience and the life stories in the Katamonim neighborhood in Jerusalem. Later on they spoke with Almog Behar and Inbal Jumpshid on the album’s songs and the neighborhood, identity and political connections.

Listening to Ecout

Michal Shilor, our JICC coordinator, summed up the meeting:

We listened, we experienced, we laughed and were excited by the close-knit music, song and discussion with neighborhood residents on accepting the ‘other’ in the neighborhood, on nostalgia, on recognizing the humanity of people regardless of their association with a particular group. Step by step, we’re making cracks in the walls and bringing the hearts of Jerusalemites together.

Here’s the link to a video taken at the meeting:

Naomi Roff2016-07-22T11:54:39+00:00March 14th, 2016|Blog, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants, Promoting Tolerance in Jerusalem|

Window to Mt. Zion – Keeping the Mountain Clean of Hateful Language

It all began with this Facebook post:

Post about stickers on a tourist sign

A January 7 Facebook post about a number of stickers that covered Arabic writing on a Mt. Zion vista.

Later in January, hateful graffiti was sprayed on the Dormition Abbey, the Armenian Cemetery and the Greek Seminary. The Municipality cleaned up that graffiti immediately, but left other racist graffiti and stickers that had been placed there at different periods. Some of them even covered up signs to important Christian or Muslim tourist sites or routes.

Vandalized sign

Windows to Mt. Zion volunteers (this is our project, together with Search for Common Ground and support from USIP – read more about it here) rose to the task, and since then has been reporting these nuisances to the Municipality. Thanks to these reports and the dedicated work of our regional supervisor, the stickers and graffiti were cleaned up.

Clean signs

Mt. Zion is now sticker-free! But our volunteers are still around, in case more hateful stickers are being seen on this lovely and sensitive site!

Naomi Roff2016-12-21T13:11:51+00:00March 9th, 2016|Blog, Christians, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Mount Zion, New Immigrants, Palestinians/Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews|

Baka’a Open Space Town Meeting

We’re back in Baka’a! We worked intensively with the Baka’a Community Council a few years ago, and more recently have focused on specific nearby projects and areas such as the Railway Park, Talpiot, Abu Tor. But we’ve come back home, helping the community council to hold a community town meeting using Open Space Technology to re-jump community initiatives.

Introduction to Open Space Technology

There were about 30 residents – young and old, immigrants from the US and France, religious and secular, as well as a group of youth in wheelchairs from the “Step Forward” organization.

Working in small groups

This meeting on March 2, 2016, brought up 12 different initiatives: a group to accompany children walking to school; developing edible forests; activities for immigrant youth from France; mutual assistance in the neighborhood; wall gardening; development of groups to advance tolerance in the neighborhood, and more.

Capacity building is one of the most important aspects of our Deliberative Democracy work in Baka’a – both with the residents and with the professional staff as well. Our job is that of mentor, helping the staff help the residents help themselves. Stay tuned for more developments!

Naomi Roff2018-09-01T07:32:48+00:00March 5th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Larger Baka Community Council, New Immigrants|

Lechayim! From the Future Site of Barrakevet Cooperative Community Cafe

Let’s raise a virtual lechayim, to the future permanent location of Barrakevet, a volunteer-led Cooperative Community Café, that will be located along the Railway Park.

Raising a virtual lechayim

Barrakevet is one of the initiatives that we’ve been mentoring as part of our Deliberative Democracy work with activists from the Katamon-Baka’a – Katamonim area along the Jerusalem Railway Park (See here and here for more), thanks to support from the UJA-Federation of New York. Thus far, they’ve set up shop out in the open, sometimes next to the bus-stop-cum-library called the Reading Station, sometimes other places, but always requiring good weather to operate.

Their ultimate goal is to obtain an old train car as a permanent home. One of the first steps in this process is finding a suitable location for this car, which was the goal of initiators’ recent tour together with municipal officials along the Park. Final locations are still being discussed, but it’s important that the dialogue continues. They’re also discussing different models and partnerships for operation. Next step will be to get that car…

Near the Gonenim Park

Below is a short movie that was made of the tour (in Hebrew) .

May we soon be toasting lechayim from the Barrakevet cafe!

Naomi Roff2017-05-02T07:43:45+00:00March 5th, 2016|Blog, Deliberative Democracy, Effective Activism, Identity Groups and Conflicts, Jewish Religious Denominations, Jewish-Palestinian/Arab, Larger Baka Community Council, New Immigrants, Railway Park|

Petition! Santé Israël Website – Example of Helping French-Speakers in Israel in Healthcare

“For years, the Pharmadom Foundation has helped the most vulnerable populations in Israel to seek and support emerging or not covered by government requirements. This is what led us to recently create the Santé Israël (“Health Israel”) website, which has quickly established itself as a valuable tool to help French Olim to navigate the Israeli health system.”

This is what the Pharmadom Foundation said about our Santé Israël website in a recent petition that seeks to enable French-trained pharmacists to practice in Israel without being required to take certification examinations.

Pharmadom petition site

Santé Israël was launched in September 2015, and was developed thanks to a partnership with Pharmadom. Santé Israël is a mobile-friendly website makes Israel’s health care system accessible to French speakers. The site offers comprehensive explanations about Israel’s health care system, which is vastly different from that of France, as well as its four main health funds.

We’re happy to be a prime example of their work. Many wishes for success with the petition!

Many thanks to the Pharmadom Foundation for their ongoing support of the project. The Pharmadom Foundation works under the auspices of the Foundation of French Judaism (FSJU) and the Rashi Foundation.

Naomi Roff2018-06-04T04:48:50+00:00February 18th, 2016|Blog, Cultural Competence, Cultural Competence in Health Services, Cultural Competence in the Workplace, Employment, Identity Groups and Conflicts, New Immigrants, Santé Israël - French internet platform on the Israeli healthcare system|

Neighborhood Tolerance Team in Baka’a Gets Underway

What is common in the following experiences?

“The train (on the old Ottoman line) was our alarm clock – when it went past our house every morning at 7 am, mom knew it was time to get up and get ready for school.”

“We rode our broken scooter to the YMCA to get into the Hapoel soccer game at halftime, with sunflower seeds in hand. We came back on foot, tired but happy, scooter in tow.”

“We didn’t lock our doors then. We knew everyone’s family backgrounds: Kurdish, Iraqi, Turkish, Moroccan. We didn’t know what “Ashkenazi” (Jew of Eastern European descent) or “Mizrachi” (of Middle Eastern descent) was. We were one big family.”

“The jelly cake at the Smadar Cinema, and Chechik who would stop the movies in the middle to yell at us to be quiet. We also learned to smoke at the Smadar Cinema.”

At the Smadar Cinema

These are all common experiences that were shared last week at the Baka’a Neighborhood Tolerance Team’s first meeting. Dozens of residents came to listen and to tell stories about Baka’a of yore, from the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. The stories brought together new and veteran residents, young and old families as well as students, in reminiscing about Baka’a’s fascinating past.

Baka’ah meeting

In such a diverse neighborhood it was important to bring the unique texture of the neighborhood to the fore. We have found in our work to promote tolerance in Jerusalem, that tolerance is not only something that must be practiced toward the far-away ‘other’ – Arabs, the Ultra-Orthodox. Tolerance begins in our neighborhoods, with our neighbors, in the local supermarket and post office, in the way we treat other people. The first step in treating them in a tolerant manner is to get to know them on a more personal basis. Thus, the fascinating stories of neighborhood veterans were a perfect way to launch the Baka’a Neighborhood Tolerance Team.