eretz » our Israeli homeland
Shmuel Rahmani/Times of Israel
Overcoming
Obstacles
Miki Berkovich and Tal Brody after winning the European Cup
championship in April 1977.
Dream Team
One of Israeli filmmaker Dani Menkin’s earliest memories is
being taken by his father out into the streets of Tel Aviv on
Feb. 17, 1977. There they joined the huge crowds celebrat-
ing the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team’s victory against the
Red Army Moscow team in the semi-finals of the European
Championship.
Menkin, who was 7 at the time, was one of 150,000 ecstatic
revelers crammed that night into what is now Rabin Square.
Now 46, Menkin has never forgotten that euphoric moment
and was recently compelled to memorialize it through his new
documentary film On the Map.
The Maccabi Tel Aviv team’s against-all-odds defeat of the
Soviet superpower’s team electrified the nation.
In a post-game interview, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s American-
born captain Tal Brody expressed Israel’s mood: “We are on
the map, and we are going to stay on the map — not just in
sports, but in everything!”
Less than two months later, in a slim one-point victory,
Maccabi Tel Aviv beat the highly favored Italian champions
Mobilgirgi Varese to win the European Cup finals. Since then,
Maccabi has made it to another 17 European championship
final games and won five of them.
Foundation Polls
Israelis On Trump
Loten Aroch was born with cerebral palsy. During
her senior year in high school when Israel Defense
Forces officials visited, her desire was to be a sol-
dier just like everyone else. Parents, teachers and
friends gently attempted to dissuade her so she
wouldn’t get let down.
Her parents even accompanied her to army reg-
istration where they received the doctor’s verdict
that she was exempt from army service, but Loten
wasn’t deterred. She joined the Special in Uniform
program as a volunteer and, after one year of vol-
unteering, was accepted as a fully enlisted soldier
and received her choger, the army identification
card.
Now, Loten reached another milestone — she
was promoted to corporal.
“Special in Uniform is a very unique program
that enables young people with autism and other
disabilities to join the Israel Defense Forces
and, in turn, Israeli society,” said Nina Paul of
Cincinnati, the Jewish National Fund’s Women for
Israel president and member of JNF’s task force on
disabilities. “We are very proud to be here today to
support them and Loten.”
Donald Trump
— Jerusalem Post
Loten
Aroch’s
dream was
to serve in
the IDF.
Lior Mizrahi/Flash90/Times of Israel
— Renee Ghert-Zand, Times of Israel
Beyond The Reach?
A study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel
found that real wages among non-government employees
were similar to those in 2001, even though labor productivity
rose 15 percent. In other words, workers have no more buying
power despite producing 15 percent more.
Gilad Brand, author of the study, said the stagnant real
wages are not because employers are failing to increase pay
but because housing and food have become disproportionately
more expensive in Israel in the last decade.
People who own their own apartment are doing OK, Brand
said, but the rise in apartment prices has changed the distri-
bution of income in the economy.
This rise in apartment prices adversely affects those who
haven’t accumulated enough capital for a down payment —
40 December 8 • 2016
The upscale Mamila neighborhood in Jerusalem.
now averaging about $156,000 — a daunting task for the 32
percent of Israelis who don’t own one.
— Simona Weinglass, Times of Israel
A new poll conducted by the Ruderman
Family Foundation in Newton, Mass.,
found an overwhelming 83 percent of
Israelis envision President-elect Donald
Trump as a “Pro-Israel president.”
The study polled 500 Israelis that
when asked if President-elect Trump
would be a Pro-Israel president, 83
percent responded with a yes, while 17
percent thought otherwise.
The poll, conducted by Dialog,
asked Israelis a number of questions
surrounding their views on the recent
U.S. presidential election, its impact
on Israel and if the anti-Semitic events
that have occurred in the U.S. since the
election are troubling.
The poll also revealed that 42 per-
cent of those surveyed think there is
“no chance” that Trump will scrap
the Iran Nuclear Agreement, only 3
percent think the President-elect will
undoubtedly execute on his promise to
move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem;
and 48 percent are concerned about
the increase in anti-Semitic incidents
that were reported in the U.S. since the
Trump victory on Nov. 8.
“Our poll of Israelis regarding
the new U.S. administration and
its impending impact on Israel and
American Jewry shows that Israelis are
optimistic that President-elect Trump
will be a friend of Israel while at the
same time they are concerned about
the growing incidents of anti-Semitism
in the United States and its impact
on the American Jewish community,”
said Jay Ruderman, president of the
Ruderman Family Foundation, which
focuses on strengthening the relation-
ship between Israel and the American
Jewish community.
“Israelis have faith in a strong rela-
tionship between the United States and
Israel, but are worried about the new
reality for their fellow Jews in America.”