that after a heavy rain their tent camp was flooded and kibbutzniks came down from the hills to rescue them.) We were first taken on a tour of the neighborhood. Mavolyn melted into tears when she met the children in a Moadonit (a safe environment for at-risk children who could not go home after school for fear of being abused by a male relative). They were being tutored by volunteer high school students. We were shown how adult children of the original residents were now able to purchase their apartments from the state at a very reasonable price. It was obvious that those buildings were cared for with pride by the new owners, while the others were allowed to decay. Our visit to the Matnas (Community Center) was Children at Pardes Katz.
depressing. It was basically a shell of a building (constructed with Project Renewal funds); the interior of Following a morning visit to Yad Vashem, most of
the building was essentially unfinished. The Wolfson
the other chairmen and their accompanying party were
family of England had pledged the naming gift but never
scheduled to visit their Project Renewal neighborhoods.
finished paying the promised sum and work had stopped
We had the afternoon off, we thought, until we were
on the Center. Its director, Pnina Gutman, was in a daily
approached by a chunky spitfire of a woman, Sarah Josef,
battle with the Bnei Brak municipality for funds, which
an activist (volunteer). Sarah insisted we accompany her
were minimally and grudgingly provided to Pardes Katz
and quickly led us to a cheroot (Arab taxi). And so we
because of its non-ultra orthodox direction.
were introduced to Pardes Katz and two other activists,
Finally, the Goldmeiers, the Lefcoes, Connie, I and
Tzion Shaked and Chaim Avraham, both veterans of the
the three activists crowded into a miniscule living room
Israeli Air Force and several wars. Project Renewal had
with 10 other community leaders, and enjoyed a delicious
paid for a course in how to become a community activist.
taste of Iraqi home hospitality. We promised to come
(Sadly, years later, Chaim Avraham’s son, Benyamin,
back and to help.
was wounded, captured and killed while patrolling on the Lebanese border. I had attended his bar mitzvah and
hood in ultra-orthodox Bnei Brak (the famous religious
M
town named in our Haggadah), was about the same size
decade earlier, along with an additional $168,000 second
in population as our Jewish community. The neighbor-
line in support of Israel’s needs following the Lebanese
hood was inhabited mainly by Iraqi, Yemeni, Morrocan,
war of 1982. Federation President Marc Jacobson,
and Iranian Jews brought to Israel in the 1950’s during
Executive Vice President Bob Gast, and I went to Israel
Operation Magic Carpet. At the time, Israel was just
to meet with the board of the Matnas, representatives of
getting on its feet after the War of Independence and had
the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Israel State Social
practically nothing to offer them. At first they lived in
Service professionals and Municipality of Bnei Brak
tents, then in shacks called “Asbestonim,” and finally in
leaders. We asked them to decide what project Tidewater
tiny state-owned apartments that were quickly outgrown
should undertake.
visited Chaim and his wife when a street in the neighborhood was named Benyamin Avraham Street.) Pardes Katz, a traditional but not Haredi neighbor-
as the immigrant families multiplied. (Sarah remembered
orty Goldmeier went on to have the most
successful Annual Campaign in the history of Tidewater up to that time, finally sur-
passing the dollars raised during the Yom Kippur War a
In 1984, a small mission of young adult leaders went to Israel and visited Pardes Katz. Among others on the
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