'World

Imported Expertise

North American immigrants lead
Israel's nonprofit sector.

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David Portowicz, second from left, founded the Jaffa Institute, which helps

thousands of disadvantaged children and their families.

Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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March 24 • 2011

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hen David Portowicz was
a new immigrant to Israel
from Brooklyn in the
1970s, he began research on poverty
in Jaffa that would lead to his life's
work: the creation of a nonprofit
organization that now serves thou-
sands of disadvantaged children and
their families.
A doctoral student in social work
at the time, the small nonprofit he co-
founded in 1982, the Jaffa Institute,
today is a veritable force of nature
with 35 programs and an annual
operating budget of $6 million.
The institute runs afterschool
activity centers to help keep kids off
the streets, offers university scholar-
ships for 170 graduates of Jaffa pro-
grams, has shelters for runaways and
even provides music lessons.
"It's a mission of love Portowicz
says. "You work hard."
Portowicz is one of many immi-
grants from North America who
along with other English-speaking
immigrants to Israel have played

an outsized role in Israel's growing
nonprofit sector. For many, the same
idealistic instincts that prompted
them to leave comfortable lives in
North America, Britain and elsewhere
for Israel led them to top roles in the
Israeli nonprofit sector, and they have
brought with them a mixture of can-
do enthusiasm, background in grass-
roots activism and fundraising skills
that have helped make their projects
successful.
"We are talking about the kind
of people who are immigrants by
choice said Mon Tal, an immigrant
from the United States who founded
one of the most influential environ-
mental groups in Israel, Adam Teva
V'din, Israel Union Environmental
Defense.
"Many of us grew up in youth
movements where you are raised on
the idea that you are supposed to
change the world:' Tal said. "It's a cer-
tain kind of person willing to take a
chance and who could have been very
successful" in their home country.
"For some of us, the thought was that
if you are coming here, you might as
well have an adventure."
Over the last decade, the number

Imported Expertise on page 26

