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Israel
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60 Years
A Nation of Miracles
Spreading Wings of Relief
Around the World
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Gen. 12:3 And I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Gen. 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in
multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen. 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
It is not until the Messianic Era that Israel will be a part
of the seed of Abraham that will bless mankind. Yet, Israel
is even now endeavoring to practice the spirit of this
promise. |
Israelis Helping Arabs
Olive oil brings Jews and Arabs together — 2008.
Jewish and Palestinian agriculturalists are joining forces to raise
the standards of olive oil production, creating products for the new
gourmet olive oil industry.
Israeli doctors treat Iraqi
children with heart disease — 2007. Israeli pediatric heart
specialists from Wolfson Medical Center screened 40 Iraqi children
suffering from heart disease who were brought to Amman by Israel’s
Save a Child’s Heart. Abu Ahmed said his 12-year-old daughter,
Basita, underwent a successful surgery in Israel. “The Israeli
doctors, bless their hearts, stitched a notch in her heart. They
told me today that she recovered completely, and I’m grateful to
them and their country for helping us out. They [Israelis] are not
our enemies.” Bedouin
genetic defect identified by Israeli scientists — 2007. A team of
Israeli genetic researchers have identified a genetic defect that
causes a severe neurodegenerative disease in children resulting in
premature death.
Jewish and Arab children learn
‘hand in hand’ — 2006. The Hand in Hand schools in Jerusalem, the
Galilee and Wadi Ara are attended by Jewish and Arab pupils in equal
numbers. Each class has two teachers: one Jew and one Arab, one
speaking only Hebrew, the other only Arabic. The children become
fluent in both languages, but are learning much more, as do their
families. There are waiting lists of children whose parents want
them in the schools. A
healing place for children — 2006. Schneider Children’s Medical
Center is the most comprehensive pediatric tertiary care hospital in
Israel. Thirty percent of Schneider’s patients are Arabs from Israel
or the Palestinian Authority. Each year, patients travel from
neighboring Arab states like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq for
treatment. Israeli
researchers help stem mental retardation in Arab village — 2005.
Israeli scientists are turning around the high rate of mentally
retarded babies born in an Israeli Arab village.
Israeli project empowers young Arab cancer patients —
2005. Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center helps Arab youth — who
have suffered from cancer — express themselves through music, art
and theater. Israeli cleanup
of Alexander River wins international ‘Green’ award — 2004. An
Israeli initiative to clean up the Alexander River, which starts in
the Palestinian Authority and flows through the heavily populated
Sharon region of Israel is aiding the Palestinians by creating
reservoirs for water treatment.
Israeli doctors treat Palestinian children in ‘Saving
Children’ project — 2004. Thanks to a new partnership of Palestinian
and Israeli pediatricians, hundreds of Palestinian children have
been treated by Israeli doctors. Nearly 200 of 580 children that
were referred have already undergone major surgery at Israeli
hospitals at no cost to the families.
Israeli humanitarian groups determined to send relief
to Iranian quake victims — 2004. Israeli humanitarian organizations
have decided to send aid to Iranian victims of the lethal earthquake
which rocked the country, despite the Iranian government’s refusal
to receive help from Israel.
Iraqi infant has life-saving surgery in Israel —
2003. A week-old Iraqi infant has had an emergency operation in
Israel to correct a congenital heart defect, due to cooperative
efforts of the U.S., Israel, Iraq, Jordan, and Save a Child’s Heart
project. Israel aids Iraqi
people — 2003. Israel begins contributing to the efforts to help the
Iraqi people rebuild their lives.
Helping Bedouins to help themselves — 2003. Israeli
and foreign volunteers, together with Bedouin residents in the
Negev, joined forces to construct a solar-powered medical clinic for
mothers and babies.
Palestinian girl gets desperately needed kidney from Jewish bomb
victim — 2002. The family of terror attack victim Jonathan Jesner
donated one of his kidneys to 7-year-old Yasmin Abu Ramila, who had
been on dialysis for two years.
Helping Other Countries
Israel equips international doctors with survival
aids — 2008. Over the past two decades, 56 courses, consisting of
about 1,200 physicians, have been completed at Tel Aviv University.
Doctors come from over 100 countries: from Central and South
America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.
Israel’s post-tsunami work in Sri Lanka bears fruit —
2008. Three years have passed since the Asian tsunami. But an
Israeli-led initiative is still hard at work assisting Sri Lankan
cooperatives help devastated communities get physically and
economically back on their feet.
Israeli team works with Swazi surgeons to fight HIV —
2007. A three-member Israeli medical delegation is in Swaziland
teaching local African surgeons to perform circumcisions on men to
reduce their risk of contracting AIDS.
Life-saving surgery for children
exposes big heart of Israeli organization — 2007. Since Israeli
doctor Ami Cohen founded Save a Child’s Heart in 1992, more than
1,600 children from Third World and developing countries — some of
which have no relations with Israel — have received life-saving
heart surgery. In addition to bringing the young patients to Israel
from places like Gaza, China, Rwanda and Ethiopia, the organization
has also flown Israeli surgeons on hundreds of missions to these
countries to treat children on site.
Israeli eye surgeons restore sight
to patients in developing world — 2007. Two Israeli eye surgeons
have restored eyesight to hundreds of cataract patients in the
developing world. Under the sponsorship of The Israel Foreign
Ministry Center for International Cooperation (MASHAV), they have
been visiting remote corners of Uzbekhistan where cataract blindness
in patients is severe due to neglect.
Israeli medical team trains
Ethiopian doctors to battle AIDS — 2006. A group of Ethiopian
doctors and health care professionals were recently in Israel to
learn about a unique approach to treat AIDS patients that Israeli
doctors have developed. The ‘multi-disciplinary approach’ provides
AIDS patients with a team of health care professionals working
together to ensure that patients show up for clinic visits, and
follow drug regimes at home. This is the fourth group of Ethiopian
health care professionals to visit Israel, and they will return home
to train other doctors, nurses and case managers.
Israeli agricultural know-how helps the developing
world bloom — 2006. They used to grow opium poppy, but farmers in
Afghanistan are now growing new ‘energy crops’ to create biofuel,
thanks to Agroproject. The agricultural development consultancy
company is involved in dozens of projects worldwide, from the
rainforests of Cambodia, to war-torn Angola. Using Israel’s
expertise in agritechnology, Agroproject helps farmers in developing
countries identify and cultivate new sustainable crops that will
improve standards of living, help the economy grow, and bolster
regional development. The aim of Agroproject is to give hope to some
of the world’s poorest.
Israeli doctors deliver new smiles — 2006. A dedicated team of
Israeli plastic surgeons are giving new smiles to children in the
developing world free of charge. Under “Operation New Smile” the
doctors from Sheba Medical Center have traveled as far as Peru,
Nepal and Vietnam, bringing their high-quality medical expertise to
correct a devastating and disfiguring birth defect that can also
affect eating, speech, and hearing: cleft lip/palate disorder. Each
“Operation New Smile” trip brings new hope and a new smile to 30-50
children in the Third World.
Israeli agricultural know-how helps Angola grow their
own — 2006. Thanks to a joint Angolan-Israeli venture, for the first
time Angolans are producing Israeli varieties of produce such as
eggplant, tomatoes, and cucumbers, and are lessening their reliance
on buying imported vegetables. Changing the daily lives and diets of
Angolans, Israeli company Green 2000, which together with local
Angolan company Copinol SARL, has set up an 11-acre farm called
Terra Verde, outside the city of Luanda.
Oridion helps SARS patients breathe easier — 2003. An
Israeli company has joined the fight against the SARS virus by
donating its electronic monitors, for patients who are not attached
to artificial breathing devices, to hospitals in the Far East.
Within Israel
The modern version of the Torah Commandment
“Gleanings” — 2006. Leket is a new initiative that seeks to save and
distribute much of the 25% of Israel’s food and agricultural produce
that would otherwise go to waste. The name Leket is the Hebrew word
for the Biblical commandment to allow the poor and needy to gather
the “gleanings of your harvest” (Lev. 23:22). Leket is also the
newest project of the Table to Table organization, which was created
to fulfill the commandment of Leket in its most efficient form.
Every year in Israel, millions of pounds of excess
prepared and perishable food are thrown in the garbage. Serving as
Israel’s umbrella organization for “food-rescue,” Table to Table
collects excess and unsold food from catered events, corporate
cafeterias, army bases, food manufacturers, grocers, farms, and
packinghouses all over the country, and delivers the food to
non-profit agencies serving those in need.
Since its inception in 2003, Table to Table has grown
from a one-person campaign to an operation with 700 part-time
volunteers and eight full-time employees. Every week, it collects
over 10,000 meals, 40 tons of fruits and vegetables, and tens of
thousands of fresh products.
According to official statistics,
24% of Israel’s population, including 738,000 children, lives under
the poverty line. The new Leket project seeks to rescue food even
before it starts to be food. With the permission of farmers, the
Leket volunteers enter fields and orchards at the end of the harvest
to gather produce that has not been picked. The volunteers spend
several hours in the fields, and their bounty is delivered by Table
to Table to various charity organizations around the country.
Some 1,000 volunteers take part in the Leket project
each week—school students, IDF units, policemen, hi-tech employees,
volunteers from abroad, and others. Avi Akuni, one of the
initiators, says, “They all consider it a privilege to be involved
in this mission.” |
