Israel Provides for Special Needs
2/1/13
As all the main political parties get stuck
into their largely negative campaigns, it is important to remind readers of the
great work that the Jewish State performs for all its citizens and for the
world at large. These recent examples
feature both government and non-government activities.
New and veteran immigrant (olim) families,
who have a special
needs child or adult at home in Israel have been granted further access
to a government and private sector outreach services. As of last month, they will now receive increased rent
subsidies. And it has just been
revealed that, thanks to the community outreach program of Iron Dome
manufacturer Rafael Industries, three employees with
mental disabilities have the vital job of manufacturing parts for the
IDF’s crucial defense system. Another
current news article featured Leket Israel, an organization that supports
Israel’s impoverished
citizens by salvaging non-saleable crops from farmers and unused food
from caterers and shipping them to 200 soup kitchens, homeless shelters and
other institutions.
Instead of maligning Israel’s
ultra-orthodox citizens, take a look at how enlightened organizations
behave. The Sami Shamoon College of
Engineering in Ashdod has launched a five-year degree program in civil and
software engineering, which has been tailor-made for the lifestyle requirements
of its 100
ultra-Orthodox participants – 70 men and 30 women. In another sphere, one religious woman has
proved that “in the IDF there is place for all parts of Israeli society. Tamar
is an example of the equality between
the sexes in Israel.” So said
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Israel Air Force’s first religious
woman navigator. Tamar was one of four
women to gain their wings at this year’s Israel Air Force Flight Academy.
A new program has been launched to
encourage young members of Israel’s Druse
community to stretch the limits of their potential to achieve
scientific or technological success.
The Technion Sparks program enables 200 Israeli-Arab Druse high school
students to take special science and technology courses at Israel’s Technion
Institute. The project is the
brainchild of Brig.-Gen. Hasson Hasson – the first Druse to serve as a military
aide to a President of the State. And
Israel’s Ethiopian
immigrants and their veteran Israeli support teams have much to be
proud of. No other population group has
risen so quickly to achieve such high university rates (42%). Just think of where the community was before
Operations Moses in 1984 and Solomon in 1991.
Israel’s most needy citizens, of course,
are those requiring medical help. The
Israeli National Health Council has just approved a NIS 300 million increase in
the budget for subsidized medicines, which will benefit an additional
300,000 Israelis. The majority
of the new money will be spent on preventative
medicine and pre-natal testing.
Alongside this, the Israel Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene
has launched a program of specially adapted Mobile Training Units for
agricultural workers nationwide. Vans
containing pullout touch-screen monitors and pick-of-the-crop courses in Hebrew
and Arabic, deliver in-the-field courses on accident prevention. See the larger MTUs in action in this video.
Israeli schoolchildren continually need
encouragement, despite the massive improvement in their math skills over the
last five years. For this purpose, Israeli company Slate Science is piloting
its award-winning mathematics learning "Ten
Fingers" program for tablets and smartphones at three Israeli
schools, in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Israel is also addressing international
needs. Following a recent visit by a
delegation from South Carolina, Israel’s NeuroQuest is to open a
development center in Charleston for its work in the early diagnosis of
Alzheimer’s disease. Then to encourage
research in India, the government of Israel is to give three-year scholarships
grants to sixty-six
post-doctoral Indian scholars to pursue research at top Israeli
universities. Israel is even working
with the Greek government to help
it out of its economic crisis. Top Greek officials have been visiting
Israel and presenting opportunities to invest in and own Greek
infrastructure. Israeli companies now
own several Greek hotels, the old Athens airport and one is in talks to buy
Greece’s national oil company. Other
international projects include cleaning up sewage in Slovenia
and Croatia and installing security systems in Spanish ports.
But we return to Israel for our final news
item. Fifty-three Jews from the Bnei
Menashe community of northeastern India needed to
return to their ancestral roots.
The Bnei Menashe trace their Jewish identity to a lost biblical tribe, exiled
from the Jewish State over 2700 years ago.
'It's a dream. We've been waiting for this moment for hundreds of
years,' said Ben Asher, 23, who arrived with his family.
So whatever you’re after, look to the
Jewish State.
Israel may have just what you need.
Michael Ordman writes a free weekly
newsletter containing Good News stories about Israel.
For a free subscription, email a request to
michael.goodnewsisrael@gmail.com
