JDC in Israel -

Turning Jewish Caring into Action

JDC’s mission in Israel is to represent North America's Jewish Federations in helping Israeli society enhance its own capacity to meet the needs of its weakest and least fortunate members. Thus, JDC always works with Israeli partners through strategic interventions to develop or improve the responses that Israelis themselves offer to its most pressing social needs.

This work is supported by Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute research on the nature and cope of the needs and the effectiveness of any existing approaches.  The responses JDC and its partners develop together are ultimately integrated into Israel's own social-service system. Once this has occurred, JDC is able to phase out of a given project, making effective assistance available to Israelis throughout the country who can benefit from it. 

JDC's current service-development priorities include:

Children and Youth at Risk: Protecting Israel’s 330,000 children and youth at risk by helping to prevent abuse and neglect where possible, promote early detection, and to ensure effective care for the victims.  Implemented through Ashalim – JDC’s groundbreaking partnership with the Israeli Government and UJA-Federation of New York, programs promote:

The Elderly: With Israel’s elderly population now 670,000 strong and growing, JDC’s programs, implemented through its ESHEL partnership with the Israeli Government, focus on:

• Community-based services: to allow the elderly to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible, and to address specific challenges such as poverty.
• Education: Health-promotion, social and other initiatives to enhance quality-of-life for the elderly and help them remain healthy, active and independent.
• Institutional care: To develop nursing-home capacity where needed, and ensure high standards of care and treatment throughout the country.
• Information and training for those who work with and care for the elderly.

Vulnerable Immigrant Groups: Helping immigrant groups such as the growing Ethiopian-Israeli population to overcome long-term integration challenges.  Program priorities address:

• Education: Boosting Ethiopian-Israelis' achievement in early-childhood and formal schooling, particularly through the 11-city PACT (Parents and Children Together) partnerships with select American Federations and communities.
• Family- and community-based integration: Responding to the multiple challenges that adults and children face individually, as families, and as immigrant communities.
• Employment: Culturally-tailored language and training programs enhance immigrants' ability to understand and succeed in the Israeli workplace.

'From Poverty to Independence': To overcome the cultural, behavioral and other barriers that keep some 500,000 welfare-dependent working-age Israelis from finding and keeping decent jobs, a new JDC/Israeli Government partnership is developing services that will bring:

• Pre-Employment Assistance to enhance welfare dependents' "employability" through training and counseling programs tailored to the specific needs of different groups.
• Enhancing Conditions for Employment by encouraging employers to hire the "hard-to-employ" and removing barriers – such as regulatory disincentives and lack of child-care and other practical support – that frustrate welfare dependents' efforts to work.
• Support in the Workplace that helps workers adapt to workplace expectations, mediates with employers to resolve conflict, and promotes career mobility. 
• Long-term Self-Sufficiency by building attitudes and practices, such as responsible time and financial management, that can enhance individuals' long-term independence.

Civil Society and Service Effectiveness: In an era of ever-tighter social-service budgets, JDC helps strengthen Israel's overall capacity to respond to social challenges by:

• Cultivating Civil Society and helping build a more effective voluntary sector that can take on a larger role in assisting those in need.
• Enhancing Government Service Capacity by boosting cost-effectiveness by facilitating reforms, developing senior social-service managers at the national and local levels.
• Maximizing use of resources by fostering cooperation among the Government, voluntary and business sectors in the delivery of assistance to vulnerable citizens.