Making Life Easier
Counting On Us
Eshel program allows elderly Israelis to enjoy
more security and independence.
Jewish Agency seeks diaspora
JESSICA STEINBERG
Exclusive to the Jewish News
Moshav Bnei Dror
t isn't easy growing old when your husband
has dementia, your eyesight is worsening and
your- pension money varies from month to
month. But Bilha Mitrani, 76, isn't the kind
of person who lets those minor details bother her.
"I'm not a poor lost soul," says Mitrani, who
immigrated to Israel in 1943 from Istanbul, the
I
The security situation has added an additional
danger, as many farming communities in the north,
center and south are located along the Seam Line,
the border that separates Israel from the Palestinian
areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, creating an
additional sense of isolation and insecurity for the
older residents.
"They don't want to go live in old age homes, they
want to be close to nature," says Tziona Keren, direc-
tor of the Herut day center (built by JDC), who
helps coordinate the services. "They want to stay in
Left: Bilha Mitrani stands with Yehiel Yanai, Eshel program worker, near an emergency light provided by the emer-
gency fund at Moshav Bnei Dror.
Right: Tzviya Dekel tests the emergency call button system in her apartment kitchen on the moshay.
European side, as she likes to emphasize. "I like to
think that I'm at my peak, not at the bottom."
But she does have her limitations, and they
include bad eyesight and a limited pension that is
the result of the Mitranis' 52 years on Moshav Bnei
Dror, a farming cooperative that was privatized and
now can't pay regular pensions for its lifelong mem-
bers.
"It's a pension of good intentions," says Mitrani,
and it wont necessarily last. ),
When she was approached by the Emergency
Supportive Community for the Elderly, a project
created by the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC) and supported by the United
Jewish Communities emergency campaign, she
jumped at the opportunity.
"I can't change a light bulb, and I can't wait for
my daughter to get here after work," says Mitrani,
who has two daughters, one of whom lives on Bnei
Dror. "I just need a little help here and there."
As part of the JDC/Eshel program — which helps
youth at risk, immigrant populations and the elderly
— the JDC has been focusing part of its efforts on
older people, like Mitrani, who live somewhat isolat-
ed lives in former farming communities. These eld-
erly residents who settled the land can't afford to
move elsewhere and are often living alone.
"
their homes, but they don't feel as secure as they once
did. So they need an additional framework."
Using the Eshel self-sufficient economic model,
the JDC has created what it calls emergency sup-
portive communities in 34 areas throughout the
country, which include facilities, services and per-
sonnel that help the elderly with their daily living as
well as events stemming from the security -situation.
If possible, the participants pay a monthly rate of
100 shekels per person, or 110 shekels per couple.
An initial $500,000 grant from the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit is offering a head
start to five communities: Sderot in the south, French
Hill in Jerusalem, Emek Hefer near the country's cen-
ter, Gilboa toward the north, and Lev Hasharon, in
the country's center, where Mitrani lives.
The Detroit community grant will be spread out
over three years, at which time the program will
have become self-sufficient, with at least 200 paying
households that will allow the services to continue
without JDC or Federation funding.
A Watchful Eye
As participants in the program, Mitrani's husband
now spends part of each day at the day center in
MAKING LIFE EASIER on page 15
funds for communal needs.
HARRY KIRSBAUlvi
Staff-Writer
CO
my two years ago, Jewish Agency for
Israel (JAFI) Chairman Sallai Meridor
was faced with a shrinking budget
because a larger portion of funds raised
in Jewish communal organizations in the diaspora
were staying put to serve local needs.
Now that the Palestinian intifada (uprising) has
crippled the Israeli economy and shredded morale
for more than 2'12 years, Meridor has come to
thank Jews in the United States for their "extraor-
dinary efforts."
"The ramifications of the war in
Israel are becoming more serious,
and we count on the Jewish people
to be with us," said Meridor on
March 3. He was in Detroit briefly
before heading to New York City,
Palm Beach, Washington, D.C.,
and then back to Israel.
"Israel emergency campaigns have Sallai
dramatically increased the allocation Meridor
to the Jewish Agency," he said.
"We've made a lot of changes in the programs,
given the circumstances. We had to respond to
critical needs and to change strategies."
When 35,000 immigrants came to Israel in a
time of war and economic depression in 2002, he
said new programs had to be developed for those
immigrants from France and Argentina.
He also said the connection between high
school kids in Israel and the United States had to
be retooled.
"Many youngsters were not allowed by their
parents to come to Israel, so we increased the
number of Israeli young volunteers who come out
to the communities," he said, citing close to
1,800 Israeli counselors in the diaspora, with 37
in Detroit. We sent hundreds of Israeli volun-
teers, again fresh out of the army, to Jewish
schools and JCCs around the country to make
sure that the connection continues. They heard
the truth from the source, not the way it's being
fed by the media.
"The Jewish Agency is not an independent
organization, it's a big global partnership with the
Jewish people," he said
With a budget of $400 million, almost $200
million from North America's United Jewish
Communities, Meridor says it sends a message to
everyone how deep Israel is in the hearts and
minds of people.
Money raised by the Israel emergency campaign
helps in two ways: a direct partnership and a
manifestation of solidarity, he said.
COUNTING ON US on page 15
3/ 7
. 2003
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