Editor's Letter
jarc
Israel's Future Dangles
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and make a difference. Each pioneer mentors 10 kids a few
days a week. Indeed, kids are more apt to look up to young
adults not long removed from their formative school years.
Sherman has it right: "We cannot afford to have a third sec-
tor in Israel. If we're going to be a viable, productive country
and compete in the open marketplace, we better have a well-
educated population. Israeli kids can't even go into the army if
they don't graduate from high school."
Strong willed and long on influence, Sherman has the
moxie to make things happen within the Jewish Agency.
Youth Futures is funded three ways: JAFI, diaspora sponsor
communities, Israeli philanthropy. Detroit would be a sponsor
in the Central Galilee, its Partnership 2000 region. At
Federation CEO Robert Aronson's urging, our sponsorship
would be in memory of Sherman's father, Max Fisher, the
Franklin philanthropist and communal giant who died in
2005. Youth Futures currently embraces 3,000 kids; the cost
averages $1,500 per child.
I keep thinking how Ariel Sharon responded as he watched
a presentation about Youth Futures at a joint meeting of the
Israeli government and JAFI last November. As Sherman
recalled, "He was fascinated with the concept and our plans.
Without strong
schools, Israel will
be treading water
regardless of how well
it fares politically.
He was very animated and asked a lot of questions."
Clearly, Sharon knew the value of investing in education as
a means of trading poverty for hope.
Time will tell how successful Youth Futures is at turning
wayward kids into achievers. Still, Israeli kids with talent and
drive but who are disadvantaged have almost no chance of
succeeding.
The Detroit Jewish community can't afford to stand on the
sidelines. But we must protect our Annual Campaign —
tightly allocated amid stressed economic times. I like Federa-
tion's idea of tapping into funding from the challenge grant
tied to the Campaign to raise the projected $300,000 a year
for Detroit Jewry's one-third share to aid 640 Central Galilee
kids. 0
NTS TO POND ER. ..
. vital component of what binds us as a people is
weakening. Students at the edges of Israeli society,
especially in the Galilee and Negev, aren't mastering
the rigors of learning and lessons of opportunity. Student per-
formance has plunged on international tests, especially in
math, science and reading. Grammar school illiteracy runs 60
percent. Factors include unmotivated
students, disconnected parents and less
classroom funding.
We can't let this brainpower steadily
erode. We're in this together. Israel's sur-
vival hinges on educating its kids.
So the diaspora can't just focus on
Israel's headline-grabbing political trou-
bles following Prime Minister Ariel
Robert A. Sklar Sharon's incapacitating stroke and
Editor
Hamas) victory in the Palestinian parlia-
mentary elections, important as those
landmark events are.
Education is a societal pillar. Without strong schools, Israel
will be treading water regardless of how well it fares political-
ly.
Flashback 20 years: Israel's educational system was one of
the best in the world, before the first wave of
Palestinian terror from 1987 to 1993. Today,
more than 350,000 Israeli children ages 6-18 are
considered at risk. Every third child lives under
the poverty line, a 50 percent jump from six
years ago.
With the Palestinians now five years into a
second wave of terror, Israel has been forced to
shift more federal funding than ever to defense.
If that didn't tighten the noose around the
schools enough, 1.5 million immigrants, largely
Ethiopians and Russians, arrived during the
1990s. It proved to be a tough — and expensive — absorp-
tion process.
The net result included two less hours in the school day
and parents struggling to cover extracurricular activities.
I share this tale of despair as the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit contemplates joining the new Youth
Futures program of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), a
global partnership to secure Israel's future as the Jewish state.
The aim of Youth Futures is to close the educational social
gap in Israel. Cleveland and Toronto are among seven diaspo-
ra communities already taking part.
Youth Futures has exciting prospects and a Jewish leader
from Detroit at the helm. "What we're trying to do is have
every student graduate high school and either get through
some sort of skill training, like with computers, or go on to
vocational training school," says Jane Sherman of Franklin, a
JAFI Board of Governors executive committee member who
chairs the Israel Department.
What's anticipated may well auger a breakthrough. "In the
younger grades," Sherman said, "our goal is to have role mod-
els as well as mentors so that these young children get
through the system in the correct way so they won't slip back
come high school."
The choice of role models is outstanding: young adults ages
21 and up who have just finished the army or are enrolled in
universities. These "Pioneers in Jeans" commit to three years
of work on stipend wages to go into peripheral communities
Should Detroit Jewry help support
Israel's schools?
What does the future hold for Israel's
school kids?
E-mail: letters@thejewishnews.com
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Februray 2 • 2006
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