Jerusalem through the eyes of our Program Officer and our partners
by Mitchell Price
As I reflect on my time in Jerusalem, my mind keeps returning to a phrase I heard from Gilad Sevitt, Founder and Director of Madrasa, an organization that teaches hundreds of thousands of Israelis to communicate in Arabic. He shared that “culture is an asset.”
And as I met with partner after partner, I realized how this concept is central to the ethos of so many of the civil society initiatives who are part of the network of the Jerusalem Model, a program of Jerusalem Philanthropic Initiatives (JPI). JPI was established by Leichtag Foundation and is now supported by an increasing consortium of funders who support the goal of leveraging Jerusalem’s diversity to become its core creative asset. In my role at Leichtag, I processed many of the first grants these initiatives ever received. It is amazing seeing the transformational changes they are ushering into society, and the new points of growth their organizations are currently going through.
I am excited to tell you more about the organizations and people I met with, sharing but a glimpse of the many ways they are contributing to Jerusalem civil society!
The Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents
Most Arab residents of East Jerusalem are permanent residents who pay taxes and are entitled to full rights pertaining to health and welfare services. However, large numbers don’t access these rights and benefits guaranteed to them by law. In many cases, cultural and language barriers (in addition to the political complexities of Jerusalem) make it harder for people to navigate through bureaucracy.
The Atta’a Assistance Center for the Rights of East Jerusalem Residents (Atta’a) is a grassroots capacity building program, empowering Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to obtain legal rights. Residents learn to fill out and submit forms; draft and send letters; and gather the necessary information and documentation, so that they can represent themselves in different offices. Atta’a also enables residents to know when a lawyer is required to sign and stamp documents, and when one is needed for more thorough care. The organization also works with government bodies to improve cultural competency and facilitate improved access to rights.
Atta’a is unique in that it specializes in cases found only in East Jerusalem. Because most residents have Permanent Resident status as opposed to citizenship, residents’ experiences are different. Laws are applied to them differently. Their approach to Israeli service-providing agencies is different. Atta’a rises to the challenge, and all its efforts are geared to meet the needs of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents.
The same day I met with Daud Aliyan, Director of the Center, he heard that a young boy who would have lost his vision without corrective surgery received approval to obtain the benefits he was legally entitled to by the government. Daud shared that one of his first meetings when he became director was with government officials who would have the power to make these lifesaving decisions.
0202: Points of View in Jerusalem
I had the pleasure to meet with Noy Mordekovitch, Executive Director of 0202, which aims to provide residents in Jerusalem with perspectives different than their own and to burst the bubbles each community lives in. Often Jerusalemites from different sectors grow up in entirely separate neighborhoods and school systems, and do not have access to one another’s news, stories, or ways of life. The organization seeks to reflect these competing narratives and zeitgeists in order to bring about understanding and change in the city.
To achieve their goals, they currently run a website and four Facebook pages, each providing access to news and opinions from different sectors of the city, in three languages – Hebrew, Arabic and English. In addition to their online news sites, they host panels, lectures, and tours to broaden the conversation on Jerusalem and amplify voices normally not often heard in mainstream media.
Madrasa
Madrasa is a social, educational and technological organization that teaches hundreds of thousands of Israelis to communicate in Arabic. Currently, over 95,000 Israelis are enrolled in at least one of Madrasa’s completely free colloquial Arabic courses. Additionally, Madrasa has over 200,000 monthly unique engagements with its various social media content. Madrasa also has partnerships with 50 different businesses, civil-society organizations, schools, universities, and government ministries who benefit from its educational and strategic projects.
Gilad Sevitt, the Founder and Director, excitedly informed me Madrasa helped pilot an Arabic speaking program in Jerusalem public schools. The academic year is wrapping up and the program was a huge success! The language lessons will be implemented into even more schools next year.
You can read more of Mitch’s adventures here:
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
