Grapevine, August 21, 2024: Appreciation where it’s due

If Jerusalem-based nonagenarian Moshe Sonnheim had not been senior teacher of Social Work at Bar Ilan University (BIU) for 24 years prior to his retirement, the immigrant from the United States might have been less sensitive to the plight of Israel’s many foreign caregivers, hailing mostly from the Philippines and from other countries.

After recovering from a near fatal bout of COVID-19, during which time he was looked after by his dedicated Indian caregiver Vincy Abraham, a certified nurse who cares for his wife who suffers from cognitive disabilities, Sonnheim became aware that not all caregivers are properly appreciated. (His wife, whom he met in Israel after making aliyah from Philadelphia in 1971, was a Dutch hidden child during the Holocaust.)

Following his retirement from BIU, Sonnheim decided to write a book in appreciation of caregivers. Inspired by Abraham’s dedication, he asked her and some of her compatriot colleagues to write down their experiences as caregivers within the framework of global aging and the attempt of governments, NGOs, employment agencies, and families to deal with this issue as more people live longer lives. He also turned to members of his peer generation for contributions to the project.

The end result was a small book called The Helpers, launched in June in the meeting room in the apartment complex in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona where and his wife live. The launch, at the Sonnheim’s Jerusalem home, was attended Philippines Ambassador Pedro “Junie” Laylo and his wife, Carijane Laylo, along with the contributing caregivers and senior citizens.

Abraham spoke briefly on behalf of caregivers from Indian. and April Joy Arquelada presented copies of the book to the ambassador and his wife on behalf of the caregivers in general ,weeping as she thanked Sonnheim for seeing caregivers as human beings instead of servants. For him, it was a moving and gratifying moment.

In early August, the Sonnheims and Abraham visited the President’s Residence to present a copy of the book to an enthusiastic President Isaac Herzog. As minister of Welfare and Social Services (2009-2011), Herzog had formulated plans for greater assistance to Holocaust survivors, integration of people with disabilities into mainstream society, improvement in the status of social workers, and other issues aimed at closing social, educational and cultural gaps.

■ THE INSENSITIVITY of the government is beyond belief. After the brouhaha caused on Independence Day by the decision of Transportation Minister Miri Regev – also in charge of ceremonies – to pre-record the ceremony on Mount Herzl and close it to the public, she was again put in charge of the October 7 remembrance ceremony. Her decision to again close the ceremony goes against the grain of everything that has happened in Israel since October 7. At a time when the world is increasingly turning against Israel, certain factions within the country are turning Israel against itself.

Members of kibbutzim and moshavim attacked by Hamas, asked to participate in the ceremony, have declined. There is a widespread boycott against the state ceremony at a time when the government has not accepted responsibility for ignoring reports by IDF lookout soldiers about what was happening in Gaza. As yet, there is no state commission of enquiry to determine where blame should be apportioned. There are hostages still in captivity with only a small number released and only a few bodies discovered and brought back to Israel for burial. People who witnessed the brutal murder of parents, spouses, siblings, and children are still living in trauma as are the families of hostages.

Members of some of the kibbutzim and moshavim that were attacked by Hamas, say that they have not been visited by a single government member. Most of the kibbutzim and moshavim will organize their own memorial ceremonies. Kibbutz Be’eri, which was the hardest hit, will in all probability have the largest attendance. It will be interesting to see which, if any, state or government representatives will be present.

■ THE BAD blood that exists between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant jogged the memory of Yossi Beilin, former holder of several ministerial portfolios, who, as deputy foreign minister, was a prominent player in the secret negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords. He was reminded of the animosity between Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, who between them rotated prime ministerial and defense ministry roles. Writing in the weekend edition of Israel Hayom, Beilin recalled that, despite their rivalry and their much publicized dislike of each other, the two had an intensely good working relationship, and held a private weekly meeting, which could sometimes last a long time. Despite their personal differences and the fact that when Peres was a hawk Rabin was a dove, and when Rabin was a hawk, Peres was a dove, politically, they were basically on the same page. They may not have been as hostile to each other as the public was led to believe. When Peres went to the hospital after Rabin’s assassination he bent down to kiss his forehead. That gesture spoke volumes.

■ DRUZE RESERVISTS who have been fighting in the North and South will be honored this coming Friday, August 23, at a special event in Dalit al Carmel hosted by Mayor Rafik Halabi and Deputy Mayor Eyman Faro and reservist officer Benny Ben-Ari. At the family oriented event, parents, spouses, siblings, and children of reservists will tell stories about what the combatants encountered on the battlefield. There will be games and competitions for both children and adults. Perhaps other municipalities will follow the Dalit al Carmel example which gives the reservists a feeling of being appreciated, and their families an intensified sense of pride.

■ PRESIDENTS, prime ministers, and foreign ministers get to a lot of places and have a myriad of experiences that elude the general public. But it’s not always fun being surrounded by bodyguards, and sometimes having to introduce early morning appointments into already crowded schedules. A case in point this week was the meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Isaac Herzog, which took place at 8 a.m. This was Blinken’s ninth visit to the region since October 7. At this rate, he will break the record of Henry Kissinger, who during the Yom Kippur War was credited with introducing shuttle diplomacy.

■ FOR WHAT is believed to be the first time in a hospital in Israel, North Medical Center, Poriya (NMC) medical teams will undergo “hope enhancement” training to strengthen and implement tools for hope and resilience among staff, patients and their families

In conjunction with the opening of the Helmsly Rehabilitation Center at NMC, Gisha L’Chaim (Life’s Door) held a fundraising event called Conversations on What Really Matters and succeeded in raising a quarter of a million shekels for the implementation of the project in this new and so far only rehabilitation center in the North.

“Medical services cannot succeed without patient rehabilitation,” said NMC director Dr. Noam Yehudai. “Due to the war and the thousands of wounded, civilians and soldiers, the importance of rehabilitation has increased sevenfold,” he added. “Physical rehabilitation is only part of that, there is also mental rehabilitation and community rehabilitation for northern Israel. To achieve this, we need hope, and that’s why we have utilized the best in the field.”

The event, initiated by Gisha L’Chaim/Life’s Door founders Dvora Corn and Prof. Ben Corn, was held at their home in Caesarea. He is a world-renowned oncologist, hope researcher, and lecturer at the Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine. The around 100 guests who attended learned that the North Medical Center will join Life’s Door as a “partner of hope.” This means that all NMC’s medical, rehabilitation, and nursing teams will attend hope workshops led and facilitated by Life’s Door, using innovative and digital means, which provide tools to enhance hope and strengthen resilience. The project is particularly significant in preparation for the opening of the Helmsly Rehabilitation Center at NMC.

Dr. Yehudai also addressed the rehabilitation process expected for the children of the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the northern Golan Heights who were injured by the UAV launched by Hezbollah: “All the children who were injured will need rehabilitation within a month.” Today, the closest rehabilitation center is Beit Loewenstein in Raanana, but within a month the first pediatric rehabilitation department in the North, at the new Helmsley Rehabilitation Center, followed by additional departments.

There were, of course, several physicians among the guests, as well as academics and people from the hi-tech sector, including Druze entrepreneur Kofta Halabi.

Also present was Prof. Shai Davidai, a senior lecturer in the Management Division at Columbia University, who made international headlines for his firm stand in the face of the anti-Israel demonstrators who tried to prevent him from entering the university after October 7

“For the past 10 months my life has been a rollercoaster,” he said. ”There were a lot of highs, being able to reach out and connect with strangers and hug them and cry, and there were complete lows like being barred from campus. It was a very personal, painful experience. I went and hid under the covers and licked my wounds, but then I decided that I had to do something and that action will lead to hope. I don’t know if it’s like that for others, but for me the transition to action gives me hope.”

■ AFTER A 10-month stay at the Neptune hotel in Eilat, the last of the evacuated residents of Sderot returned to their homes. The 257 room Neptune Eilat, part of the Dan Hotels chain, became a symbolic annex to Sderot, given that all the occupants were from the southern city. (Nearly all the hotels in the Dan chain have become a home-away-from home for thousands of evacuees, with hotel staff going out of their way to pamper them and provide special activities for children.) Signs of the extent to which Dan staff’s efforts were appreciated were the bouquets of flowers that departing guests from Sderot presented to the hotel’s general manager Arnon Lavi, reception manager Linoy Ohayon, and guest relations manager Ofira Cohen. Children among the departing guests went from floor to floor of the hotel, distributing flowers to each and every member of staff and thanking them for their attention and special care. Lavi said that bidding farewell to the last of the guests from Sderot had been an emotional experience. He wished them well and expressed the hope that they would enjoy a good life of peace and quiet.

■ AMONG THE permanent cast of one of Israel’s best-loved satirical programs Clearing the Head (Nikui Rosh),under the direction of the late Motti Kirschenbaum were Rivka Michaeli, Tuvia Tsafir,and Dubi Gal – all of whom, now in their late 70s and 80s, are still performing. Almost half a century ago, when there was only one television channel (excluding Educational Television) people sat glued to their black-and-white screens while the trio, together with the late Sefi Rivlin and others, produced skits that evoked loud belly laughs. The show was pure joy with a cornucopia of talent. In a recent radio interview, Dubi Gal was asked about the difference between Nikui Rosh and present-day satire. “We had more respect for the administration,” he said, but in terms of relations between the public and the government, he regretted that not much had changed. His interviewers played a segment from one of the skits in which he appeared calling for the resignation of all the government and all the legislators, and for everything to start afresh from scratch. How familiar that sounded.

■ FIVE EMBASSIES based in Tel Aviv have joined forces to host a photo exhibition at the ANU Museum in Tel Aviv on September 1, which happens to be the 85th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. But the photo exhibition by Erez Kaganowitz is related to a more recent war – the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has brought so much destruction and death and has prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens to neighboring countries – primarily Poland – and to Israel. Led by the Polish Embassy, the event is co-hosted by Ukraine, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden. Ironically, the ANU Museum is headed by Russian-born Irina Nevzlin, whose father, Leonid Nevzlin, is one of its key financial supporters. Neither approves of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in addition to which Irina is married to MK Yuli Edelstein, who was born in Ukraine. The title of the exhibition is Refugees for the Second Time: Ukrainians in Israel.

■ THE AMERICAN Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), announced this week that Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Hadas Minka-Brand has been named the new executive director of JDC Israel. Minka-Brand, a highly esteemed organizational psychologist and 25-year IDF veteran, will take up her new position on September 15.

JDC CEO Ariel Zwang was pleased to welcome Minka-Brand to the JDC team at a time when social needs are mounting in the aftermath of October 7 and the ongoing war.

Minka-Brand is the former head of the IDF’s Behavioral Science Center, where she commanded hundreds of organizational psychologists and sociologists. She has held numerous senior leadership roles during her 25-year of service in the IDF, including as senior advisor to three IDF chiefs of staff and the Intelligence Directorate, and as the head of the IDF’s Behavioral Science Research Institute.

Among her numerous accomplishments, Minka-Brand played a major role in Tnufa, the IDF’s strategic multi-year-plan, and led initiatives to promote equal opportunity and reduce social gaps among the ranks, as well as efforts around digitization and data-based technology.

She retired from the IDF not long before the Hamas October 7 onslaught, but instantly volunteered to return after the catastrophe and became chief psychologist and part of the Senior Command Team of the Israeli Military Hostage Family unit, which works to ease the suffering of those who continue to wait for their loved ones to be returned from Gaza.

Minka-Brand is well qualified for a number of positions. She has an MA in Labor Studies from Tel Aviv University and a Ph.D in Sociology and Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She’s a graduate of the IDF’s Military Behavioral Sciences College Training and of the Wexner Senior Leaders program at Harvard, and has published dozens of professional articles.

JDC’s post-October 7 emergency response efforts in Israel have directly aided more than 250,000 of the hardest-hit Israelis. Additionally, JDC has provided training and tools for more than 42,00 professionals engaged in crisis response and trauma programs, and guided more than 1,800 NGOs and municipalities providing emergency services and relief around Israel.

greerfc@gmail.com