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Encouraging Mutual Understanding
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| AVI CHAI's primary mission in Israel continues to focus on the fostering of mutual understanding between Jews of varying commitments to Jewish tradition. The Foundation's flagship effort in this area, Tzav Pius, employs multiple strategies--educational, advertising, and public relations--to promote the value of pius or reconciliation. Similarly, the Foundation seeks to advocate and educate toward dialogue via other projects that operate in the school system, in informal educational settings, and various mass media.
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Eretz Acheret
A bi-monthly magazine that focuses on diverse perspectives regarding Jewish culture and contemporary Israeli life. Eretz Acheret provides often unconventional, but always in-depth perspectives on the Israeli-Jewish experience. Forty-six issues have been published through the autumn of 2008 to excellent reviews from critics. Since the magazine's debut in the fall of 2000, Eretz Acheret has earned a reputation as a high-quality journalistic enterprise that contributes to Israeli public discourse. It continues to receive enthusiastic reviews from academics, public figures, and journalists for its in-depth treatment of important issues, and for its commitment to giving expression to diverse voices in Israeli society. AVI CHAI has been one of its primary funders.
http://www.acheret.co.il/ |
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Haredi College of Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Haredi College, established in 2001, is an institution of higher education that operates in cooperation with other accredited academic institutions to provide degrees in a number of disciplines, including social work, medical laboratory technology, and business administration to haredi men and women. Beyond the academic programs, the college offers vocational tracks as well. AVI CHAI's funding enables the college to provide scholarships to haredi women, enabling them to acquire an academic education that will facilitate their integration in, and interaction with, the wider Israeli society. In addition, AVI CHAI's grant enables a series of extracurricular seminars for women that explore contemporary issues and their relationship to the haredi world, which are designed for students and open to the public.
During 2007/08, 366 women were enrolled in eight academic tracks and 120 male students studied in an academic preparatory track. This number grew to 498 women and 154 men in academic programs in 2008/09. To date, three classes - a total of 150 students - have graduated and received degrees in social work and laboratory sciences.
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Kehillot Sharot
A program to foster "singing communities" that bring together diverse audiences to experience, celebrate, and deepen their connection to Jewish culture via Jewish music, especially piyyut (liturgical poetry). Participants in kehillot sharot study selected liturgical pieces, led by traditional paytanim (singers of liturgical poetry), musicians, or writers, and learn to sing piyyutim. In 2003, at AVI CHAI's initiative, the Foundation piloted the first singing community in the German Colony of Jerusalem, with a remarkably diverse group of 40 participants who met weekly over ten weeks. The pilot phase was then expanded to four communities, including Tel Aviv and Netanya, and attracted expanded numbers in Jerusalem.
Now, in partnership with the International Cultural Center for Youth, the project currently is operating 14 groups around Israel (7 veteran groups in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Emek Hefer, Yerocham, Herzliya, and Haifa and 7 new communities in Jerusalem, Bar Ilan and Tel Aviv Universities, Tel Aviv, and Kfar Adumim) with some 250 participants. In addition, the project leadership provides in-service training for its facilitators and paytanim and runs programs during the week and on weekends for community participants and the general public.
www.piyut.org.il/communities |
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Keshet School
A K-12 school for religious and secular students, with about 700 students enrolled during 2008/09, committed to learning about and respecting diverse approaches to Jewish life. Keshet is one of the only schools in Israel where the program and staff comprise an equal balance of religious and secular. AVI CHAI provides support for teacher in-service and training, curriculum development, and support staff. AVI CHAI also provides a grant to the Keshet School Association to promote the Keshet idea of joint religious-secular education in other schools.
http://www.keshet-s.org/ |
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Melitz Center for Jewish-Zionist Identity
A general support grant to enable Melitz to conduct various Jewish-Zionist educational initiatives. For example, Melitz plans to promote understanding of a new religious-secular covenant for Israel, which is based on dialogue and respect, rather than coercion and power. Prior to 2005, AVI CHAI funded publication of this covenant, which was drafted by Professor Ruth Gavison and Rabbi Yakov Medan, who represent divergent ends of the religious-secular spectrum. Their written collaboration recommends new accommodations for marriage and divorce, burial, conversion, Shabbat transportation and commerce, and the Law of Return, and represents the most comprehensive and systematic attempt to propose new religion-state arrangements in Israel. For their efforts, Professor Gavison and Rabbi Medan were awarded the AVI CHAI Prize in 2001. In partnership with the Israel Democracy Institute, AVI CHAI funded the publication of the full covenant document and popular-oriented summaries in Hebrew, Russian, and English, and established a website. In 2005, Melitz assumed responsibility for the Gavison-Medan initiative, and today seeks to disseminate its messages and promote public debate on its contents. AVI CHAI's grant enables Melitz to continue its valuable work associated with the covenant and to develop other important educational programs that strengthen Jewish identity among key Israeli populations.
www.gavison-medan.org.il |
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Olamot: Israeli Jewish Identity in Upper Nazareth
A pilot initiative to nurture a stronger connection to Jewish culture and Israeli Jewish society among Russian-speaking olim (new immigrants) and veteran Israelis. The pilot effort, which developed in response to an AVI CHAI-commissioned study of the Upper Nazareth Jewish community in 2003, seeks to strengthen ties between olim and veteran Israelis by focusing on their shared identity as Israelis, Jews, and residents of Upper Nazareth. The project envisions a community-wide effort, supported by municipal leaders, and assisted by group facilitators, professionals in community development, and lay-leaders. Together they seek to develop a town vision and plan, create educational and cultural programs targeting key local populations, and train local residents to facilitate programs on Israeli Jewish content. Currently, hundreds of participants of all ages are engaged in Olamot's activities and thousands more come to one-time events, mainly around Jewish holidays. By the end of 2009, it is expected that a fifth of the city's population will be involved in at least one of the project activities. It is hoped this program will serve as a model for similar efforts in other cities, some of which are now being explored for their potential.
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Tzav Pius
AVI CHAI's "flagship" enterprise in promoting mutual understanding among Israeli Jews, representing a multi-faceted effort staffed by the Foundation. Tzav Pius (in Hebrew: an order for reconciliation) initiates and supports a wide variety of educational and community-related projects, including school programs that bring together children from religious and non-religious schools, religious-secular youth soccer teams, joint social activism for youth and communities and dialogue groups for university students. Tzav Pius also sponsors large-scale public programs intended to engage thousands of participants in shared experiences such as "Meeting Together on the Israel Trail," which for the past three years has entailed hikes along the Israel Trail, attracting to date over 15,000 participants of diverse backgrounds who come to hike, study, and become acquainted with one another. Tzav Pius' most visible initiatives encompass a variety of media activities that promote messages of understanding, respect, and solidarity among Jews of different approaches to Jewish tradition. These include Internet-based initiatives, such as the popular website, The Pius Arena, which brings together writers of different world views to discuss contemporary concerns and Yesh Dibbur, a weekly radio program on a Haredi radio station. In 2008, some 26,000 Israelis took part in Tzav Pius' large range of activities, becoming our partners in promoting dialogue and better understanding among different segments of Israeli society.
www.tzavpius.org.il |
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Yesodot
Promotes democracy education within state religious schools. Established in 1996, Yesodot seeks to confront the view, prevalent within the religious Zionist community, that halacha and democracy are incompatible. Yesodot promotes alternative halachic assumptions that endorse democracy, tolerance, and pluralism. Yesodot began its work with courses for principals and school leadership teams in which over 500 school personnel participated, representing more than half of Israel's state religious schools. Yesodot currently works in 76 schools (elementary, junior high-schools, and high-schools) to promote democratic values, mainly through the introduction of new curriculum and teacher training. Yesodot also has developed courses on Judaism and democracy for faculty and students at religious teacher training schools. AVI CHAI is a significant funder of Yesodot activities.
www.yesodot.org.il |
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