Portland extends long ties with needy Kiryat Malachi

By PAUL HAIST

article created on: 2008-10-01T00:00:00

Ira Kerem of Jerusalem helps the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland stay in touch with needs in the Israeli development town of Kiryat

Malachi and the nearby region of Hof Ashkelon.

He previously did this under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Partnership 2000 program, and continues now for those Western U.S. communities, like Portland, whose ties to the region began with Partnership 2000 and have since evolved.

Kiryat Malachi is a town of about 22,000 people, 30 percent of whom are Ethiopian and 50 percent of whom receive some sort of social welfare, according Ann Bardecke who co-chairs with Gayle Romain the JFGP’s Overseas Special Projects Committee.
Part of the JFGP’s annual overseas allocation is discretionary. The Overseas Projects Committee studies and recommends how the discretionary funds should be applied.
Kerem was in Portland last month where he met with Bardecke to discuss needs in Kiryat Malachi and Hof Ashkelon.

Previously, Portland provided $47,500 to help repair the only soccer field in Kiryat Malachi. The project’s total cost was well over $100,000 and was considered vital for the welfare of the community where there are few options for entertainment.

The field is used for youth and adult soccer, but had been deemed unfit for further use, even though Kiryat Malachi’s youth team had won the Israeli national championship the year before. It’s loss, according to Kerem, would have been devastating to the community.

Portland also provided $30,000 from its Israel Emergency Fund and $5,700 in supplementary funding during the Second Lebanon War to create an emergency command and control center for Hof Ashkelon. Israel’s Interior Ministry and other private donors provided the balance for a project that enabled centralized coordination for the region adjacent to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

Bardacke said the project came about when Hof Ashkelon residents saw communities in Israel’s north near Lebanon taking similar steps. Near the volatile Gaza Strip, a similar project was deemed necessary for Hof Askelon. An unused bomb shelter in a community center was converted to house the facility.

Portland’s Jewish community also has contributed $40,000 to the development of a science center in Kiryat Malachi to provide an astronomy education program in partnership with Ben Gurion University.

“Ben Gurion University chose Kiryat Malachi High School as one of two high schools (for the program), but Kiryat Malachi couldn’t have done it without our help,” said Bardacke.
The challenges faced by Kiryat Malachi residents, especially the older Ethiopian immigrants, are daunting, said Bardecke. She said the older Ethiopian immigrants face difficulties in adapting to Israeli culture that their children do not. Language, for example, is a huge barrier, she explained, and Ethiopian men are especially challenged in coping with the loss of their traditional leadership roles.
One Portland resident has provided $15,000 a year to support a program for elders in Kiryat Malachi.
“The Ministry of Absorption supports some elder programs, but it’s not enough,” said Bardacke.
“There are lots of problems between the younger and older generations,” said Kerem. “The kids want to integrate, but the parents can’t speak Hebrew and the kids don’t want to speak Amharic.”
He said there has been a rise in divorce and family violence among the Ethiopians.

“The rules that kept families together in Ethiopia don’t work so well in Israel,” said Kerem. “The men desert because they feel they can’t do anything anymore.”

It’s hard on the Ethiopian children too, he said. Many of them go on to university, “but they need a lot of help. Most parents in Israel help their kids with school, but Ethiopian parents can’t.”
For the upcoming funding season Bardacke and Kerem pointed to the senior day center in Kiryat Malachi.

“There’s a lot of deferred maintenance—paint, irrigation, security, and the law mandates a (fire-suppression) sprinkler system, so the place faces closure,” said Bardacke. “We’re going to ask the committee to help; not a lot, $5,000 or $6,000.”
Another project they’re looking at involves the building that houses the Yedid program in Kiryat Malachi.

Yedid (friend) promotes social and economic justice in Israel through a national network of Citizen Rights Centers in disadvantaged communities. Yedid is the only national organization in Israel that empowers Israelis to break the cycle of poverty through free individual legal and social assistance, community education initiatives and grassroots organizing for social change.

Bardacke said the group’s operational costs in Kiryat Malachi are covered, but they don’t have funds for infrastructure in the former Pioneer Women’s building they occupy.
They need to install basic bathroom facilities and kitchen equipment and they want to develop the now unused second floor as a social center, said Kerem. He said that the Kiryat Malachi city administration is willing to wave property taxes on the site, but that cash for infrastructure needs to be found.

“There is no place to hold a dance,” said Bardacke, “so we’re asking the committee to help.”

Bardacke said that the committee will be asked to fund the currently unsafe staircase that leads to the second floor of the building. If the second floor is made useable, the city will wave taxes, pay utilities and provide a part-time staff member to coordinate use of the building.
Bardacke said there will also be some supplemental giving opportunities available for the Portland community for the renovation of the Pioneer Women’s building.
Persons interested in providing supplemental support should contact the federation’s Laurie Rogoway at 503-345-6473 or by e-mail: laurie@jewishportland.org
“The projects that people support in Kiryat Malachi continue your long relationship with the community,” said Kerem,” and the people of Kiryat Malachi are very grateful.”