‘We must establish a recovery administration for the North’

‘Unfortunately, the State of Israel thinks it still has extra time to build a plan for the North,” warns Michal Cohen, CEO of the Rashi Foundation, one of Israel’s largest and most influential foundations working to strengthen Israeli society. 

“According to surveys, 40% of residents don’t want to return or feel unsafe living there,” she says. “They can’t see a horizon to continue their lives there. These primarily are people who have the financial ability to relocate outside the region and whose children are already in educational frameworks elsewhere. 

“They have seen the gap in the quality of life between the North and the Center, and it will be difficult to bring them back.”

The Rashi Foundation strengthens Israeli society by driving social mobility and creating equal opportunities from birth to employment, with an emphasis on children, youth, and young adults in the geographic and social periphery. 

“We work with many municipalities in northern Israel,” says Cohen. “Even before the [current] war, we began building a plan to bring businesses to Kiryat Shmona, such as the accounting firm EY, to create more opportunities and improve the region’s education, employment, culture, and more. We help create social infrastructure for the municipalities so they can keep improving on their own.

“When the war broke out, the foundation provided immediate assistance to residents of the North and South with a focus on fulfilling their needs. We helped evacuees in hotels and created educational solutions for all ages. In the first stage, we responded to the specific requests they raised, and after a few weeks we started talking with them about strategic plans both in the medium term and for the ‘day after’ the war.”

She continues, “We believe that the more professional, robust, and financially sound a local municipality is, the better it will be able to provide services and create opportunities for its residents. Mayors have a huge advantage with a five-year term, making it possible to carry out processes that can build and improve society.”

EY, which is part of the Rashi Foundation’s business community, visited Kiryat Shmona and the northern region and enlisted at the beginning of the war to support and assist the Kiryat Shmona municipality.

“We are helping the Kiryat Shmona municipality assess the extent of the economic and business damage caused by the war,” notes Sharon Shulman, chairman and CEO of EY Israel. “We envision the city’s rehabilitation and progress towards optimal growth and are working with the officials to build a picture of the future,  to be ready for the ‘day after.’ We are very proud to participate in the national mission and are confident that the North, with all its unique resources, will return to prosperity.”

‘The community is falling apart’

Education is essential for Cohen. Before becoming CEO of the Rashi Foundation in 2017, she served as director-general of the Education Ministry for four years, after holding senior positions in the public educational sector. Her background helps her understand the importance of the education system in returning evacuated northern residents to their homes. 

“September 1 is a critical date,” she points out. “If there is a chance that the residents will be able to return, it is only if the education system in the North will be functioning properly. The fact that the state is dragging its feet and not using this time to prepare for the return is inexcusable. Parents and children need to be able to envision their future. 

“From a security standpoint, nothing can be guaranteed right now, but they need to know they are being taken care of. If educational frameworks do not open in the North at the beginning of September, an alternative must be found to reunite the community.”

Adds Cohen: “Unfortunately, the government’s efforts in the North have taken a backseat to those in the South.

They are not building a recovery administration because they don’t know when it will be possible to return. However, they should have already established an administration to work with the mayors and build a plan for the residents.” 

She continues: “In contrast to the residents of the southern kibbutzim, who are living as united communities, northern residents are scattered throughout the country. If the state does not take responsibility, it will be very difficult to help them.”

As for what will help bring the residents home, assuming the security situation permits, Cohen says we need to think about the children first. “If the education system, which is an anchor for families in every city, is not well organized and stable, those 40% will not return to the North, and we will find ourselves with fewer young families and a second-rate education. It can set back the socioeconomic situation of the region by many years.”

Cohen says there are three possible scenarios for residents of the North. One is the end of the war and a return to normal, which does not seem realistic in the near future. 

In the second scenario, the residents will be forced to return and live there while the fighting continues on some level, as they did in the South. 

The third scenario is that it will be impossible to return, but a response will be created for the communities as a whole.

“There is no perfect solution,” she says. “Take, for example, the children of Kiryat Shmona. Instead of being scattered among 200 hotels, we must prepare during these months and establish alternative schools in a particular area to preserve the shared experience of the children and the community. We have to build a plan for them. 

“Even if there is no political or security solution on the horizon, it is inconceivable that they will have to wait until the end of the war. The state must take confidence-building steps to assist northern communities.

“The two issues that need to be addressed are employment and education, which are the engines of growth,” she explains. “The North has natural advantages – a beautiful landscape and open spaces. But when you move to a new place, you want to know that it has high-quality education for your children, good employment, and a strong healthcare system. 

“These are the key elements of our lives. We can’t solve all the municipalities’ problems, but we’re making progress in strengthening their ability to drive the engines of growth.”

How do they do that?

“We work with the municipalities’ human capital, analyze the situation based on data, and create strategic plans with them. We want the residents to participate in setting their own goals in life. We connect the authorities with large employment projects so that Kiryat Shmona or Nahariya, for example, can provide employment solutions for their residents. 

“Rashi does not operate in place of the municipality, but it connects it by bringing a professional body to build a strategic plan with it and business leaders who will invest in it.”

‘No clear policy’

One of those northern municipalities that the Rashi Foundation has been assisting since before the war is Kiryat Shmona, a city that has already known wars and difficult times. Nothing, though, prepared the residents for what they have been facing in recent months.

“This is an impossible situation, but no one asked us and there is no clear policy,” says Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern. “In the past, when I asked to see the evacuation plan for the city, the army told me that Beirut would be evacuated before Kiryat Shmona. Suddenly, we received an order to evacuate within two hours.”

Before the war broke out, the Rashi Foundation and Kiryat Shmona were working on a plan to develop growth engines for the city, focusing on domestic tourism and employment. The foundation connected the authority’s staff with the business community to take the project to the next level, but it was put on hold now that the focus is on helping its residents as evacuees.

“Our connection with the philanthropic sector is crucial because the state is not present. We therefore have to reinvent ourselves and create frameworks from scratch,” explains Stern. “I’m talking about setting up daycare centers, schools, and teachers when our residents are scattered all over the country. The Rashi Foundation helped us establish a temporary school in Eilat for 300 children, with soldier teachers and college students as staff. 

“In addition, with the help of the Rashi Foundation, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the Jewish Federations of Canada - UIA (JFC-UIA) and the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver (JFGV), we set up a special ‘boot camp’ for our high school students to help prepare them for the matriculation exams, each in their own field. This is something we could not have done without their help.”

Rebecca Caspi, senior vice president of JFNA, says: “Since Oct. 7, Jewish Federations have raised $830 million, with funds being deployed to help Israelis across the entire country. With so many critical needs to be met, we have also chosen to support young people by strengthening their resilience and helping them succeed academically and socially. Similarly, with so much focus on the country’s South, we knew that efforts in the North should not – and could not – be forgotten. 

“We are proud of the support we are providing all the evacuated communities and local authorities across the northern confrontation line, both directly and through trusted NGO partners like the Rashi Foundation. The Kiryat Shmona matriculation boot camp program is a shining example of that support.”

Stern says that he can understand the country’s lack of preparedness in the early days of the war but does not understand why there is still no organized government plan. 

“None of us was ready for this, nor was the country prepared,” he says. “There was no scenario of war with so many evacuees and for so many months. We’ve never had an event like Oct. 7, but now we must adapt to our new reality. 

“Local municipalities and government ministries are cumbersome and full of bureaucracy and legal advisers. One can understand the shock, but why is there no definite government plan to help the North even now, eight months later?”

Despite the difficult period they went through, and what still awaits them, Stern says he is optimistic about the city’s future. “We are working with the Rashi Foundation and other partners to strengthen the city’s education system. We want Kiryat Shmona to have the same opportunities that exist in the country’s center. 

“We had begun preparing a special food-tech program for the city before the war, and although this program stopped, the partnership continues. They were the first to embrace and help us, and we intend to turn the crisis into an opportunity.”

This article was written in cooperation with the Rashi Foundation.

Translated by Alan Rosenbaum.