Thursday, July 28, 2011
We began the morning with USY group 6 to describe the day, and then by 8:45 we were on our way to Hod HaSharon - we had a bit of a transportation issues and a group of 9 USYers were being checked out by a doctor, and before we got out of town, 7 were cleared to join us so we doubled back to get them.
In Hod HaSharon we met Mitzvah hero Dr. Linda Mosek, founder of Click, a series of projects that benefit, occupy, and support older adults in Hod Hasharon. There are workshops, a craft kit factory and social programs, including a recently completed multi-week seminar on computers and social networks and e-mail so that these seniors can be in closer touch with their families. Linda, a master social entrepreneur keeps coming up with great ideas to benefit and improve the lives of the seniors in Hod Hasharon. As I told the teens, don't think that these people are just having fun doing art projects. In some cases, these are life saving activities; people who contemplated suicide, were shut ins or who weren't eating are now socializing, earning additional income and creating meaningful relationships were they didn't have those before. It is amazing work.
We returned to Jerusalem (just ahead of the gay pride demonstration and parade) to meet Yael Rosen, the social worker who is in contact with all Righteous Gentiles living in Israel through the organization that she works for, Atzum. Yael shared stories of the rescuers with the teens, and the teens made Rosh HaShanah cards for the rescuers. Atzum is helping these magnificent human beings in their golden years, helping them live in dignity and also bringing them together when possible to get together. We at Mitzvah Heroes Fund see this as a unique privilege to participate in this mitzvah of Hakarat HaTov (appreciating the good in life) and we are proud to financially support Atzum's work with this and other projects.
There have been a lot demonstrations this summer in Israel, many based on economic issues. Facebook has played a major role in facilitating people joining a page on a particular issue, and then those friends of the page communicate and plan a demonstration that then thousands of people can attend. The first major demonstration this summer was over the removal of government supports for cottage cheese and that all 3 major dairy producers raised their prices (the same amount, to about $2.25 a container) and as a result of the protests the prices droped about $0.70. Tonight (I'm writing this Saturday night after shabbat) there is a big demonstration over the high cost of housing in Israel. There are tent cities set up in protest all over - I've seen them in Gadera, Netanya, Jerusalem, Kiriyat Malachi. The cost of living is rising, salaries are not. Social networks are playing a huge role. To understand the phenomena, check out Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody.
I ended Thursday with a transportation challenge. With the Gay rights demonstration, many streets in the center of Jerusalem, including Agron St where I was with the USYers, were closed. I was going to Pardes Hanna (north of Hadera) to play poker. I ended up taking a 45 minute bus ride to the Central Bus station in J-lem, an express bus to Tel Aviv and the train to Pardes Hanna - 3 hours of travel. Had a great Falafel in the train station, though so it worked out. Also, I lost 4 Shekels (about $1.20) but had a great time.
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