A secular Israeli, a Moslem Arab, a Haredi man and a national religious settler meet on a Jerusalem street following a car accident… Sounds like the beginning of a Israeli joke? This is actually the reality of routine work of the volunteers at United Hatzalah, Israel's immediate response emergency organization.
Our recent visit to Hatzalah's national headquarters took place on a scorching July day during which we joined a tourist in her 60's visiting from Boston in a moving and exciting tour led by Daniel Katzenstein, Director of International Relations for the organization.
The tour had three focal points:
- the well-stocked equipment and emergency supply storeroom, serving 1800 trained volunteers all over the country,
- the highly sophisticated dispatch room with its advanced GPS locating system and connections to the army's Home Front Command,
- and the modest conference room where films are shown
We also saw the Ambucycles, met some young Haredi men serving in the national service program and witnessed an actual event which was displayed on the computers and then relayed to nearby volunteers in the field.
Our guest was very touched by the film demonstrating an actual rescue case and delighted by another which showed an interview with Alan Dershowitz. She genuinely felt that providing the funds to equip an additional Ambucycle would literally save lives, and donated $2,500 for the purchase of the appropriate paraphernalia.
We now leave it to United Hatzalah and their dedicated staff to pursue a long term and meaningful relationship with their new friend, joining together with her and others to provide a very important service to the people of Israel.
Amutot: See and Join our Catalogue of Experiential Visits to Non-Profits: http://israelgrants.com/images/stories/catalogue.pdf
Tourists and Israelis interested in participating in a pilot visit to any of the experiential visits in our catalog are invited to contact Alisa Maeir-Epstein, the Catalog Project Director at - 0545-872260 Email – alisa@israelgrants.com
As part of our initial pilot visits, we took a group of four to visit with The Haifa Foundation. The visitors, all over 50 years old, were conveniently received at the entrance to Haifa by Mr. Shmuel Propper, Deputy Director of The Haifa Foundation who immediately told them to address him as Sam, if Shmuel was too difficult to pronounce! The visit continued in this vein - friendly, humorous, accommodating and enjoyable, with an explanation in excellent English. The visitors loved "Sam's" enthusiasm about the city.
Amongst the sights that were included in the 1 1/4 hour tour of Haifa, were projects funded by the Haifa Foundation, locations attesting to the impressive growth of the city and its future direction, and sites that emphasized the variety of cultural groups which live there. Shmuel also shared information about the funding of projects and amounts needed to complete them.
The guests had plenty of time to ask questions – all of which were nicely answered. In two locations, the group left the car and toured the spot – a community center in a predominantly Ethiopian neighborhood, and an abandoned park which is slated to become a highly sophisticated community recreation park.
At the end of the tour, the visitors received a nice brochure and contact information was exchanged. The ball is now in the Haifa Foundation’s court in terms of being directly in touch with the participants and hopefully gaining their support and cooperation.
Join our Catalogue and see more about the Haifa Foundation in the Catalogue of Experiential Visits to Non-Profits: http://israelgrants.com/images/stories/catalogue.pdf
Tourists and Israelis interested in participating in a pilot visit to any of the experiential visits in our catalog are invited to contact Alisa Maeir-Epstein, the Catalog Project Coordinator at - 0545-872260 Email – alisa@israelgrants.com
The Elijah Interfaith Institute, led by
Dr. Alon Goshen- Gottstein, was awarded a $200,000 planning grant by the John
Templeton Foundation, for the planning and piloting for a inter-religious study
of the concept of religious genius as a new category for the study and
appreciation of saints and holy people in world religions, creating thereby a
new area of academic study and identifying the commonalities in this field
among the world's religions. The purpose of the grant is to test the idea and
to prepare a much more substantial multi-year project that would cultivate the
notion of religious genius and take it to the academic and religious
communities worldwide.
