Better Together - Kiryat Gat

A Farash Foundation site visit to see their incredible support for the Better Together program ....

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More on Israeli women

I've looked in the past at challenges faced by disadvantaged women in Israel. It's a really important issue, and not one that's given enough time and focus.

One of the key areas where you can see the challenge is in the field of employment ...

Here's the problem: disadvantaged groups face lots of barriers on the road to employment:
They tend to have very large families, there are often cultural barriers to employment. there are issues of stereotypes and discrimination. Many of these groups have lower education and all kinds of language barriers. They often have much less access to employment opportunities

So how are we doing? It's a mixed story ....

 In 2009-10, 61% of Haredi women worked, significantly up from 47% in 2009-10.

 The most dramatic growth has been with the employment of Ethiopian-Israeli women. In 2001, only 30% of Ethiopian-Israeli women were employed. By 2010, the rate more than doubled to 62%.

 Even among those with less than 12 years of education, employment rose from 26% to 46%.

 The low levels of education of Ethiopians contribute to a very large gap in average monthly earnings - 4,000 NIS compared with 6,400 NIS for all Jewish women.

 Arab-Israeli women face the biggest employment barriers, with only 26% of 25-64 years olds employed in 2009-10, up from 19% in 2001.

 36% of employed Arab-Israeli women work part time, most of whom cannot find full-time employment.

 By contrast, employment gaps are very small for women with academic degrees: 77% for Arab-Israeli women and 83% for Jewish women.

If you want more information and sources on these findings, message me, or contact my colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale. If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

Haredi Poverty and Employment

My colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale have done some fascinating research into Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) families in Israel, and the connection to poverty.

These are some of the really interesting bits (ok, it's all interesting)

 In 2011, 54% of Haredi families were poor.

 The high rate of poverty is very strongly related to low rates of employment.

 Poverty rates are also related to low earnings. There's a significant gap in monthly earnings:
Haredi men: 6,600 NIS vs. 11,500 NIS for all men
Haredi women: 5,200 NIS vs. 7,300 NIS for all women

 Therefore, education and training are critical to narrowing these wage gaps.

 The large numbers of children to support is a further factor contributing to the high rates of poverty

Look at this chart for the difference ....

If you want more information and sources on these findings, message me, or contact my colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale. If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

Israeli women

You would think, with a casual glance at the international comparisons, that Israel is doing great when it comes to the status of women. On issues like education and employment, the base lines look favorable. For example ...

51% of Israeli women ages 25 to 34 have at least a post-secondary education, compared with 42% of other western countries.

57% of Israeli women ages 15 to 64 are employed, on par with the average for other western countries.


And yet .... behind these averages lies a very different picture.
For some of our discussions we've been looking at two areas in particular, education and employment.

In the field of education, there are some really significant gaps in the education of disadvantaged women, even though there's been a lot of progress:

(1) In 2010, 59% of Ethiopian women and 41% of Arab-Israel women didn't complete high school, compared with only 5% of all Jewish women.
Many of these women hadn't even finished 8th grade.

(2) In 2010, Ethiopian and Arab-Israeli women had much lower rates than Jewish Israelis for getting secondary degrees: 20% for Ethiopians and 32% for Arab-Israelis, compared with 67% of all Jews. (Although you should note that both Ethiopians and Arab-Israeli women made considerable progress between 2001 and 2010—from 12% to 20% for Ethiopians, and 18% to 32% for Arab-Israelis).

(3) Passing Matriculation exams: Among recent high school graduates, the gaps are declining further. In 2009-10, 43% of Arab-Israeli 12th-grade girls and 35% for Ethiopian 12th-grade girls scored high enough on their matriculation exams to meet university entrance requirements, compared with 65% of all Jewish 12th-grade girls.

Girls from all groups are outperforming boys, particularly among the disadvantaged groups. The matriculation rates among boys were 28% for Arab-Israelis and 18% for Ethiopians, compared with 58% for all Jews.

If you want more information and sources on these findings, message me, or contact my colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale. If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

The Disabled in Israel ... the implications

I want to add a few more thoughts from an earlier post about the Disabled in Israel.

There are some serious implications about these high rates, and what they mean not just on an individual level, but as a reflection of what our social priorities are.

Here are four of the findings from the research done by my colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale:


First, many of the disabled do have social networks, but they also have higher rates of isolation 
 14% of all working-age adults with disabilities and 25% of those with severe disabilities report frequent feelings of loneliness, compared with only 4% of people without disabilities.
 26% of people with severe disabilities report having no friends, compared with 7% of people without disabilities.

Second, many have achieved higher education, but at much lower rates than adults without disabilities 
 46% of all working-age adults with disabilities, and 34% of working-age adults with severe disabilities, have received a high-school matriculation certificate, compared with 64% of adults without disabilities.
 Only 20% of adults with severe disabilities have post-secondary education, compared with 38% of adults without disabilities.

Third, about half of working-age adults with disabilities work, but many more want to 
 52% of working-age adults with disabilities and 32% of people with severe disabilities are employed, compared with 74% in the general working-age adult population.
 Of those working-age adults with disabilities who are not working, 45% are looking for work or are ready to begin work immediately if they were offered a job.
 Satisfaction is high with the type of work and with work colleagues, but far less so with wages and prospects for advancement.

And finally - and maybe most importantly - the disabled face significantly greater economic hardships 
 Adults with disabilities who work earn an average gross monthly wage of NIS 6,361, and adults with severe disabilities earn a monthly average of NIS 5,000. This is compared with NIS 8,201 for people with no disabilities.
 Only 34% of working-age adults with severe disabilities report being able to meet monthly household expenses, compared with 64% of adults without disabilities.
 24% of working-age adults with disabilities did not buy necessary medicine because of the cost, compared with 10% of adults without disabilities.

If you want more information and sources on these findings, message me, or contact my colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale. If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

The Disabled in Israel

There's been a lot of misinformation about the situation of the disabled in Israel. My colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale have done some interesting research into what the integration looks like, and where the challenges are.

There are some really fascinating and important findings in their research. First and foremost ... there's a significant percent of the population living with disabilities: 

 About a million Israelis (a quarter of the working-age population), have at least one disability, and almost half of those have more than one disability. The rates of disability are much higher for Arab-Israelis and Ethiopian-Israelis.

 19% of the working-age population have a moderate-to-severe disability and 6% a mild disability.

 Over 260,000 individuals receive some type of disability pension from the Social Security Institute, and the numbers have been growing rapidly. Another 50,000 people receive disability allowances from the Israel Defense Forces. 200,000 receive other forms of on-going income support.

 Disabilities are associated with complex health challenges: Diabetes is 3 times greater and high blood pressure is 2 times greater among working-age adults with disabilities than among the general population.

 About 40% of working-age adults with disabilities have children under age 18, and 20% have children under age 10.


Second, about 200,000 children (8% of all children) have a disability, and 40% of these have multiple disabilities 

 About 18% of families have a child with a disability.

 Children with disabilities are over-represented among children at risk. One-third of all children identified by programs for children at risk have some type of disability.

 More than 154,000 children with recognized disabilities are in the education system (from pre-school to high school).
85% attend regular schools, expanding opportunities for students but presenting challenges for the schools.


Third, there's a growing recognition of need to focus attention on young adults with disabilities 

 Almost 40% of young adults who are not working or studying have a disability!

If you want more information and sources on these findings, message me, or contact my colleagues at Myers-JDC-Brookdale. If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

Better Together

I love "Better Together" .... I think it's one of the most innovative and impactful programs in Israel today.

It improves the lives of at-risk youth, and builds up the capabilites of communities and professionals around them. When you go see this program, you see the incredible changes that we can make in a neighborhood using partnerships between residents and service-providers.

We have some amazing partners who have helped make Better Together a success in over 30 locations around Israel. Because of their commitment, and our shared values, there are tens of thousands of Israelis whose lives are made better every day.

Choosing the North means limiting your possibilities

I was privileged to meet several inspiring young leaders of the Regional Youth Parliament in Nahariya the other week. 

What I learned from them was astonishing. 

Most of all, I walked away from the meeting feeling that I was looking at the future of the State of Israel, and that future was extremely impressive and remarkably talented.

Sigal, JDC’s coordinator for Social Intervention and Centers for Young Adults, had convened a small group to discuss the issues that young people face in the North.

When you have a situation, for example, in which there's no one in the Knesset representing the Upper Galilee, you see the immediate effects.

You get bad policy and you get government neglect.

Including Haifa and the Galilee there are only 5 (out of 120) Members of the Knesset – and only one Government minister lives north of the Sharon (central area)! What happens, for example, when a badly-needed government grant for first-time home buyers in the North gets cancelled? “It’s a tree that falls in the forest and no one hears it,” they said.

The Youth Parliament is an attempt to make things heard, to help develop young leadership – not so much through demonstrations and noise, but rather through cooperation and advocacy. 

Volunteers like Simone and Einat are part of a round-table of opinions and talent that come together to discuss the four key issues that young people are facing: employment, housing, transportation and (maybe most importantly) “the system” – how to work together, cooperate, share information. And hopefully, down the road, to figure out ways of taking action for the benefit of the region and all its inhabitants.

There’s a huge learning process at work here, which is why the process itself is perhaps even more important than whatever the end-result(s) will be. The North has traditionally been seen as somewhat more apathetic. You trade off some rights for the famous quality of air and quality of living … but more on that in a moment.

The apathy comes together with a high level of cynicism about politics and politicians. 

But all the time people are leaving and there’s a spiral of despair and lack of motivation. You get low wages, there isn’t enough housing, there aren’t enough people pushing for change … so more houses won't get built, there won't be good wages, so people won't come North, and so on.

Netali, an impressive and articulate journalist who’s also working in the program, put it best: “choosing the North, as a young person, means limiting your possibilities. You have to limit to what there is, not what you want.”

Laila, the JDC Social Intervention Coordinator for Peki’in and the Druze sector, pointed out that the North is very passive, and has been so for a long time now. Even though there’s been some change in the past few years, we need people to get up and speak. In the Druze sector this is even more of a challenge - the gaps are widening there, there’s significant alienation and disconnect from the rest of society. Employers won't hire you, even Druze men who served in the army find it difficult to get good jobs. Laila is at the forefront of ways we think about how to meet this challenge.

Why is the North so weak, asked Sigal? Because, as one Knesset Member told us, we don’t speak with one voice. We don’t even know how to articulate the voice. That’s why we need the Youth Parliament here. And – even worse – there's no pressure on the media to cover the North when something does get articulated. What does the national media think about, when it covers the North? Netali was pretty clear: security incidents, major crimes, and the bizarre ‘and-finally’ stories of the guy who grew the biggest pumpkin and the girl who rescued a dog from danger.

It’s the voice that’s needed. And these amazing women are incredible talented voices for the North. They’re needed because without them, and the Youth Parliament, we won't succeed in creating a better Israel.

They're needed because they have a compelling and critical vision.

And they’re needed because … notwithstanding the myth of the quality of living in the North, as Netali told me, life expectancy in the North is actually much shorter! 

When you don’t advocate, and lobby, and organize, you get less social and medical services. 

And when you don’t have those, you die earlier.

This isn’t just a social issue. It’s a national security issue. But most of all, it’s a moral issue.

Not Nice People

Mishmarot Street, in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem, is maybe one of the most important streets in Israel. I went for a walk there on Shabbat, and stood right on the edge of the neighborhood.

Musrara (sometimes called Morasha) is right in the middle of Jerusalem, between the Old City, Meah She’arim and the Municipal center. Today it’s importance lies – among other reasons – in how increasing gentrification and the influx of immigrants have changed the neighborhood dynamics. There’s amazing street art and beautiful architecture, alongside neglected areas and rundown buildings. Every stage of architecture, from the last 130 years, is there. And there’s some fascinating cultural buildings and installations.

But what made Musrara’s name was what happened in the 1960s and 70s there.

With the massive housing shortage after the establishment of the State, thousands of new olim (immigrants) were moved into Musrara, which was right on the border with Jordanian-held Jerusalem. They were subject to daily attacks from Jordanian snipers, the neighborhood was rundown and many streets were basically open sewers.

On Mishmarot Street, also an open sewer through the 1970s, a group of second-generation Mizrachi Jews founded the Israeli Black Panthers. They were a protest group against all the injustice and discrimination by the Government, the lack of respect, the alienation and more. There were demonstrations, riots, and significant community organizing.

After meeting with Prime Minister Golda Meir, she famously called them, “not nice people.”

The events in Musrara, and the exposure of discrimination and alienation in Israeli society among more vulnerable Israelis, were critical, I think, in helping us get to where we are today.