Two who are making a difference in the fight against poverty in Israel.
The big news coming out of Israel of late is the ongoing political fallout from the Winograd Committee report. Since that topic is covered elsewhere on our website and in other publications, I want to highlight two other news items from the Israeli press that are perhaps under the radar and warrant our attention. Both fall into the “people making a difference” category, despite the fact that one concerns a government minister and the other a small nonprofit organization.
Less than three months ago Labor Knesset Member Isaac Herzog took over a Social Affairs and Services ministry that was leaderless and being managed poorly out of the Prime Minister’s office. At the time, there was some controversy about Herzog taking the position; he was viewed as a successful Minister of Tourism entering into a “no win” situation to address the growing poverty challenges of the country.
Knowing the minister personally, I was not surprised to learn that he has already come out with a new, potentially far reaching initiative. Ha’aretz reported earlier this week that “Minister Isaac Herzog is drafting a plan to distribute food to the country’s neediest citizens.” The paper reports that he was inspired by a High Court of Justice petition filed by aid group Latet, which asked the court to rule that the state must ensure the basic subsistence of its weakest population. In the current situation, according to the article, the Israeli poor rely on a wide variety of nonprofit organizations to receive basic food items. According to Herzog, “it is a social stain on the state that only nonprofit organizations distribute food and the government has abandoned the arena.” The minister believes the High Court petition should be a catalyst to in-depth discussion defining the extent of the state’s obligations.
Herzog has seized responsibility from the Justice Ministry for the formal response to the court and hopes to convince the parties, both governmental and nonprofit, to meet and discuss a joint strategy. At this writing, Latet plans to continue their legal approach to force the government’s hand.
However it plays out, I am impressed that Herzog rejected the traditional government response of “the court case has no merit” and instead found Latet’s suit a starting point for addressing the desperate poverty in Israel.
Ha’aretz also this week featured NISPED (https://ameinu.wpengine.com/about/israel_partners.php), the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development, one of Ameinu’s principal social justice partners, highlighting a much lower profile but equally compelling story. The article explains that “the government decided in 2005 that children should be provided food at the schools, although only a little over half of the eligible children are benefiting from the decision thus far.” NISPED is commended for turning the situation into a double win. They have offered a course in industrial cooking to a group of 11 Bedouin women. Ha’aretz reports that the training will “transform the local school’s lunch program into a cooperative run by women, most of them single mothers. The aim is to transfer the income generated from the lunch program to women of the surrounding area and to provide the schools with fresher food that is prepared in the village and not by companies in Be’er Sheva.”
How about that? Children from economically challenged families receive fresh food for lunch and Bedouin women are given assistance to set up small businesses. This a great example of the old adage “think globally, act locally.” We are proud to be affiliated with NISPED.
If you have gotten this far in my posting, you deserve a laugh. Earlier this week I received an email from Jerusalem Online that caused a double take. The subject line read:
“IAF strikes Jihad rocket firing squad in Gaza & Kugel recipe”
What is this? Has the Israeli army taken a position on the never-ending argument between noodle and potato pudding? Is Jihad using kugel as a weapon? Is nothing sacred?
It turns out that there is an explanation.
Our Ameinu web marketing advisor tells us that this is a well known e-commerce gimmick; readers of e-newsletters love to click on recipes. So to our readers whom we aim to please – what types of recipes should we publish?
