Winter 2008/09 ■ No. 320 ■ USA $3.50 NIS 14 www.wizo.org International Aviv Seminar WIZO Ashdod shelter 25 years of refuge Sderot The campaign continues Michal Chelbin WIZO School graduate, now a famous photographer Managing Editor Ingrid Rockberger Winter 2008/09 l No. 320 l www.wizo.org Editor Hillel Schenker Editorial Board Helena Glaser, Tova Ben-Dov, Annual Subscription: U.S.$ 12.50, NIS 50. Single Copy: U.S.$ 3.50, NIS 14 Yochy Feller, Zipi Amiri, Esther Mor, Sylvie Pelossof, Rebecca Sieff WIZO Center, Tricia Schwitzer, Briana Simon 38 David Hamelech Blvd., Graphic Design Studio Orna Cohen Tel Aviv, Israel Photos Moshe Bitman, Alon Borkovski, Tel: 03-6923805 Fax: 03-6923801 Charlotte Brandon, Michal Chelbin, Internet: www.wizo.org Amnon Eitan, Yael Zur Published by World WIZO E-mail: [email protected] Publicity & Communications Dept. Cover: At the WIZO AVIV International Seminar: L to R - Idit Meleck (WIZO Australia) and Rose Krongold (WIZO Brazil) Photo: Yael Zur Contents 04 President’s Desk 05 Chairperson’s Column 06 Up Front 09 Mumbai Tragedy The WIZO Connection 10 A Safe Haven – 25th Anniversary 10 For 25 years, the WIZO Battered Women’s Shelter in Ashdod has helped women and children start new lives 16 14 Money Well Spent! Update on WIZO’s Sderot Campaign 16 An Outstanding Experience: The 2008 WIZO Aviv International Seminar Inspiring, stimulating and exciting were just some of words “the girls” used to described this years WIZO Aviv International Seminar 19 WIZO Miami Beach: The Heart of the Neighborhood The mayor says that this center in Ramat Gan, with its large variety of activities for women, senior citizens, youth and children, provides vital services to the community 23 Joyce Numann: The Guardians of Dutch Jewry The president of WIZO Holland tells us about her life, which reflects the story of Dutch Jewry, and describes how the WIZO chaverot are helping to maintain the community 26 Michal Chelbin: “Strangely Familiar” A graduate of two WIZO schools is making her mark on the international art-photography scene 30 Women in Politics 23 30 With the Knesset elections drawing near, WIZO Israel continues its work to train and promote female candidates on the municipal and national levels 32 Shalom, Farewell, but not Goodbye Some parting words and thoughts from the outgoing editor of WIZO Review 34 Getting To Know You – Making New Members Feel At Home Tips on how to make new members feel welcome – how to create a basis for a long-term productive relationship with WIZO 36 Prof. Gabriela Shalev: Our Woman at the UN Professor Shalev, former rector of the Ono Academic College and an associate professor of law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is appointed Israel’s first female ambassador to the UN 38 Making History Memories of accompanying immigrants from Cyprus in 1949 39 WIZO in Israel 26 42 WIZO Around the World CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Every time we send out a mailing of WIZO Review, many return to WIZO House ‘undelivered’. Please, if you move, to make sure you don’t miss a copy of WIZO REVIEW let us know your new address - by sending us your address label or sending an email if possible quoting the number on your address label to [email protected], giving us your full name and mailing address including postcode. Thanks! WINTER 2008/09 ❘ WIZO REVIEW ❘ 3 President’s Desk 2008 is certainly a year that experiencing, especially in the South. I am so happy that you we will all remember. Israel all responded to my call at the EGM to support the traumatized celebrated its 60th Anniversary educational staff in Sderot and the Gaza Belt. Sadly, another and showcased the unbelievable year has gone by and Hamas continues to launch Kassam accomplishments our young and mortar attacks on a daily basis and disrupt the residents’ State has reached. This day was lives. The implementation of the second phase of the Sderot exceptionally special for WIZO and the Gaza Belt campaign continues. for within the framework of its Over the years we have all experienced financial crises, festive celebrations, the State of however never on such an instantaneous global level. In order Israel recognized World WIZO’s to guarantee the continuous operation of our organization, the past and present blessed work World WIZO Executive conducted reassessments of budgets, before and since the establishment of the State of Israel, and needs and plans, and was forced to take and implement bestowed upon our movement the prestigious Israel Prize for painful decisions. lifetime achievement to improve and advance the Community However, I am more than confident that World WIZO is able and Society in Israel. to weather this storm, as it regards crises as a challenge and A young senator from Illinois, following in the footsteps of Dr. has always been able to adapt to the changes and needs of Martin Luther King had a dream and made it come true by time, and be prepared for any eventuality. winning the Democrat Party’s nomination and then the hearts The Joint Partnership Venture for Computer Training for of all Americans, to become the first Afro-American President Unemployed Women – is one example. Now in its second of the United States. He called for Change and convinced year after seeing nearly 40% of the first year’s graduates the public that Yes We Can. successfully placed, this project is tailor-made for many of Were not these words the driving force that motivated our the women left unemployed as a result of the current financial Founding Mothers to change the status of women in their crisis. With few skills to suit the modern working place, this communities and the face of Zionism for ever? Have we not project enables them to find a new beginning and improve followed in their footsteps with our campaigns Making It All their circumstances. Possible and Together We Can Make A Difference? I have always regarded World WIZO as a driving force of change However 2008 will mostly be remembered as the year the and improvement in Israel and the Diaspora. Therefore I am globalization bubble burst. The global economy is characterized confident that when the going gets tough – our chaverot, who as a totally interconnected marketplace, unhampered by time are our backbone and strength will get tougher, rise to any zones or national boundaries. But in November we learnt that challenge and lead our service recipients to a better future. globalization has a downside – the collapse of the American mortgage banks and consequently the US stock exchange caused a global chain reaction bringing the true merits of the global marketplace into dispute. Obviously as a member of the global village, it has an effect on Israel’s economy as well. This adds to the continuous security problems Israel is still Visit our website: www.wizo.org WORLD WIZO EXECUTIVE Helena Glaser, Ruth Rubinstein, Ruth Tamir, Riki Cohen, President Chairperson Education Division Co-Chairperson Building, Chairperson Parents Home Raya Jaglom, Hassida Danai, Maintenance & Purchasing Nurit Pollack, Hon. Life President Chairperson Early Age Division Division Chairperson Beit Heuss Michal Modai, Esther Mor, Zipi Amiri, Hon. Life President Chairperson Fundraising Chairperson Publicity & Deputies: Tova Ben-Dov, Department Communications Department Janine Gelley, Chairperson of the Executive Sylvie Pelossof, Celia Michonik, Deputy Chairperson Miri Perlis, Chairperson Organization & Chairperson Public Affairs & Tourist Department Treasurer Education Department NGO Department Saya Malkin Yochy Feller, Ora Baharaff, Brenda Katten, Special Projects Chairperson WIZO Israel Co-Chairperson Building, Chairperson Public Relations Tourist Department Atara Ilani, Maintenance & Purchasing Department Ingrid Rockberger, Chairperson Human Resources Division Lili Peyser, Deputy Chairperson Publicity & Division Chairperson Tourist Communications Department, Department Managing Editor WIZO Review 4 ❘ WIZO REVIEW ❘ WINTER 2008/09 Chairperson’s Column nce again we are holding we aim for excellence. We want the child, who did not Oo u r A n n u a l G e n e r a l know where his next meal was coming from, to have the Meeting. No one could have opportunity to change the world and to make it a better foreseen that this MOR would place. be classed as an “Emergency” It is we in WIZO that are lucky enough to be in the position MOR purely for financial reasons of the “go between.” We are the ones who can donate the since the whole world, including money and influence the end result through our education of course WIZO, has been swept system. I have initiated reductions and cutbacks in our up in what is being labeled as a schools, and believe me, I was practically reduced to tears. Tsunami, totally by surprise. Every cut, for instance a cut in extra tutoring for Ethiopian But let us not get carried away pupils, is a loss that cannot be replaced. Maybe that (no pun intended), a natural Tsunami leads to hundreds of very pupil was destined to become the first Israeli prime thousands of fatalities. Life comes to an end. A financial minister of Ethiopian background, our own Barack Obama. Tsunami, on the other hand, forces us to think, to evaluate, Maybe he could have been a doctor. He just needed to and to come up with alternative solutions. It will not be be helped to be at the same level as everyone else, and, easy, but throughout the ages, as Jews, we have never due to financial considerations, that chance was being really had enough time in one place to be completely at taken away from him. ease. We have always had one ear listening for trouble, I know that as we plan for the upcoming year, we will be it anti-Semitism, or poverty.