Thursday, March 29, 2012

Sharansky's Visit to Tikkun Olam!

Today, Tikkun Olam hosted Natan Sharansky for a visit in the Coexistence Track.  For those who don't know, Sharansky is the Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, a former member of Knesset, and probably most famously, was imprisoned in a Soviet work camp for 9 years for his activism in the "Refusenik" movement -- trying to enable Soviet Jews to escape and make Aliyah.  Today he visited the Coexistence group in their apartment to hear about the amazing work they're doing, and to visit one of their volunteering places.  Read more about Sharansky here.

Here's a picture of him with Ronald Reagan:


And, more excitingly, here's a picture of him with Tikkun Olamers:


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Women's Empowerment in Jaffa

Sam, an alum of the last semester of Tikkun Olam's Coexistence Track, wrote up this excellent blog post about Safa Younes.  Safa runs "Aros El Bahar", a women's empowerment organization in Jaffa where some Tikkun Olam participants volunteer.  

Among the interesting tidbits:
Is coexistence a reality in Jaffa?
  • Sometimes no, I don’t always feel it. Sometimes people live here, but they are not really here. The rich people, in the new places. You can’t see them in the community because they work somewhere else. They come to live in the houses but aren’t a part of the community. But there are also Jewish people, some of them living here for years, who are involved in the activities in Jaffa, in groups, so we do see them. And they are trying to be  a part. And this is beautiful.



And we're accepting applications now for the 5 and 10 month Tikkun Olam programs beginning this September.  Live in Jaffa, get involved and help make coexistence a reality (you can even work with Safa) -- click here to learn more, and click here to get started on your application.