Our Jewish Federation has enjoyed a warm and mutually supportive relationship with the municipalities of Afula/Gilboa in northern Israel. We are part of the Southern New England Consortium, or SNEC, which is comprised of thirteen Federations throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Most of the contributions from our Federation have gone to security, health care and living bridge projects. We have:
- Provided 91 safety doors and emergency call buttons for elderly people in the Gilboa regional council.
- Provided a $100,000 donation for a guard in each kindergarten in Afula for one year.
- Provided a $140,000 donation to establish the first Mogen David Adom emergency ambulance service in Gan-Ner, a community village in the Gilboa region.
Established a Pain Management Clinic at HaEmek Hospital in Afula.- Built a small dental clinic which serves between 200 – 240 children monthly in Afula’s Alon Yizreal elementary school.
- Donated $50,000 to renovate 10 bomb shelters in Afula; install 8 air conditioners in 7 bomb shelters in Gilboa; and install one air conditioner and 4 computers in a bomb shelter at the principle school in Bustan El Marj.
- Our Oral and Dental Health curriculum served 10,500 children between kindergarten and sixth grades in three regional councils or municipalities: Afula, Gilboa and Bustan al-Marj (an Arab municipality which includes four villages and is located above Afula).
- We have established the first and only Dental Clinic and Oral Maxillofacial Unit at HaEmek Hospital in Afula. The hospital serves 500,000 Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze.
IDF field hospital in Haiti ‘overwhelmed’
Dr. Ofer Merin
When Dr. Ofer Merin and his medical team arrived in Haiti, they were met by hundreds of patients.
Some had chest injuries, others had open wounds, but one thing was clear.
“If they’re not treated, they’ll die,” Merin, the chief of the Israel Defence Forces field hospital in Haiti, said in an exclusive phone interview from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Merin is in charge of some 120 IDF nurses, physicians and medics, one of the largest medical units in Haiti at this time. His unit arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, three days after the country was hit by the strongest earthquake it has experienced in 200 years.
The death count in Haiti has yet to be finalized. The European Union estimates that it’s reached 200,000 since the earthquake struck on Jan. 12, with two million left homeless.
Merin’s team left Israel on Jan. 15.
“We had meetings all day [Jan. 13]. The preliminary plan was I’d fly with an army plane to Haiti the same night…
Then [the IDF] decided to send a big medical mission,” he said.
Merin’s medical team was joined by about 120 rescue workers on the 14-hour flight to Haiti. They landed in Port-au-Prince on the afternoon of Jan. 15, but had to wait for a separate cargo plane packed with medical equipment to arrive before setting up the field hospital.
“The cargo plane landed at four in the morning, [and] we started to build up the hospital. By 10 a.m. [Jan. 16], we received the first patients,” Merin said.
While flying to Haiti, Merin and his team talked logistics. Upon arrival, they were shocked.
“There were hundreds and hundreds of wounded people on the streets,” he said, adding that patients began to line up before the hospital had been set up.
Merin’s days start early, at about 5 a.m., and although they’re supposed to end at 12 a.m., it’s hard to turn down a patient.
“I’m just up all the time, patients come in the day, evening, night. They just keep on coming,” Merin said. “We are overwhelmed with patients.”
The field hospital often sees more than 100 people every day and performs around 50 surgeries per day. Most patients have to wait up to 10 hours for what could be life-saving treatment.
Merin, who is a surgeon at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem and who worked in a Toronto hospital for several years, says many of the injuries are orthopedic, such as fractures and open wounds. Those with more serious injuries probably died before they could be treated, he said.
When Merin landed in Haiti, he found unique challenges.
“The hospital… is a reserve hospital, which is meant for… soldiers. It doesn’t have any people treating any children, illnesses, women giving birth,” he said, adding that experts and equipment were brought in for the mission.
Apart from healing wounds and binding broken bones, the hospital has helped about 10 women give birth as of last Thursday. Merin is also seeing patients as a result of local violence. By last Thursday, the hospital had treated about seven or eight people with gunshot wounds.
The hospital, which has an emergency room, a neonatal unit for newborns, X-ray machines and blood-test labs, has begun to see more repeat patients, but it doesn’t have the resources to treat many in-patients, Merin said.
“We’re working in a very different environment than any of us are used to. We’re getting patients that we would keep for days [in regular hospitals]. We’re doing our best to discharge them,” he said. “We cannot afford to keep too many in-patients. We can manage 40. We’re getting 50 or 60. We can not go beyond these numbers.”
After the first three or four days, the field hospital started to run out of equipment.
“No one thought we’d [see] those numbers [of patients],” Merin said, adding that staff was sent to the city’s abandoned hospitals to gather more supplies.
“There was no point of time since we came here that we didn’t… treat people because of a shortage of equipment,” he said.
Since the initial earthquake, there have been several aftershocks, the largest of which was a 6.1 magnitude quake that hit about 56 kilometres from Port-au-Prince. While Merin’s field hospital wasn’t affected, he has seen several patients who were.
Merin doesn’t know how much longer his unit will stay in Haiti, but he knows why he’s there.
“To help people in need,” he said.
'Ray of light in Mideast'
Israeli-Arabs travel to W. Bank after new crossing opens [The Media Line].
Israeli, Palestinian Neighbors Get American Boost
The Media Line interview with Executive Director Rob Zwang - Audio clip
Tony Blair (left), Governor Qaddoura Moussa of Jenin (center), and Federation Executive Director Robert Zwang (right)..BROKERING THE PEACE
Local contingent travel to West Bank on mission
As Palestinian, Israeli and international dignitaries celebrat ed the re-opening of a West Bank border crossing this month, an envoy from Southbury sat among them.
Unlike international movers and shakers present for the highly heralded reconnection between Israel and Jenin — a city once labeled the suicide bomber capital of the West Bank — the Connecticut contingent did not boast lofty titles like prime minister or secretary.
For the rest of this story Click here.
Below is an article that appeared in the January 29, 2010 edition of the Republican AmericanBelow is an article that appeared in the
3 Siblings from Southbury Leave Smiles as Legacy
The benevolence of three siblings who spent their final years in Southbury's Heritage Village will make smiles brighten for people halfway around the globe.
After four years of planning, the Federation, Jewish Communities of Western Connecticut finalized plans this week to establish the Sophie, Joseph and Mark Brinker Dental and Maxillofacial Clinic on the grounds of the Ha'Emek Medical Center in northern Israel.
The late brothers practiced dentistry together for years in New York City before moving to Southbury about a quarter-century ago. Sophie, who died in 2000, worked as an accountant for Look magazine and later moved to Southbury.
The Hospital of Peace, as Ha'Emek is called, treats Arab and Israelis and has earned a reputation as a bastion of coexistence in a once violence scarred region near the West Bank-Israeli border. The dental clinic will operate similarly on its grounds, treating both Arabs and Israelis from three munici palities who are uninsured or underinsured. There, patients may receive everything from cleanings to oral surgery free or for a nominal fee.
"It's not just a dental clinic, it's a clinic for coexistence," said Robert Zwang, executive director of the Federation.
Pictured at left (center) with Bob Tendler (left)
and Dr. Dan Goodman (right).
Zwang called the initiative a tangible part of ongoing peace proliferation efforts fostered by the Southbury-based organization and a contingent of local volunteers.
Established through an initial investment from the Brinker fund of about $300,000, the clin ic will likely open about nine months after contracts are signed.
"What we're able to do is help change the culture of oral health care, which can have a broad ef fect ... on their general well be ing," said Zwang. "It's also an opportunity to demonstrate the value of coexistence in this area where 40 percent of the popula tion are Arab Israelis."
The work dovetails with Fed eration efforts to expand collab oration between local Arab and Israeli officials in that region.
A Connecticut contingent is trying to cultivate business and jobs in an area where they are sorely needed, especially among Palestinians.
The idea is that improving conditions and working togeth er breeds peace.
Already, money from the Brinkers has benefited oral care in the municipalities of Gilboa, Afula and Bustan El Marj, where more than 10,000 children in kindergarten through sixth grade received dental kits and education.
Zwang and a contingent of lo cal volunteers including Dr. Michael Matzkin, who runs a dental clinic at Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, traveled to the region at least a half dozen times to plan the clinic.
It took a lot of negotiations, said Zwang, explaining that everyone from the local teach ers' unions to the largest health care provider in Israel, Clalit, had to be consulted: "It really was this huge, coordinated ef fort that was born from a blank canvas."
The clinic that will bear the Brinkers' names as well as the Federation's will be staffed by a dentist, hygienists and others. The number of people it serves depends upon the ability to se cure supplemental funding. The Federation will make an alloca tion from the Brinker fund based on reports submitted an nually.
Money is also being sought from other Jewish Federations around the state with which the group partners, as well as organizations in Israel and indi vidual gifts.
The Federation has Peace in the Middle East "Covered"
This past August 2009, The Federation - Jewish Communities of Western CT brought three Middle Eastern leaders – two Israelis and one Palestinian – to Connecticut to share their successful model for peaceful coexistence. This was the result of a Federation effort that began in November of 2008, to assist and support the developing relationship between Gilboa and Jenin.
This past week, these historic events culminated in a remarkable and generous act that perpetuates the trust and mutual respect that has been growing between the two regions. At the request of Daniel Attar, Mayor of Gilboa and his friend Qaddoura Moussa, Governor of Jenin, our Federation has enabled the people of Gilboa to provide 2,000 warm blankets to the people of Jenin, many of whom will have no heat for the coming winter.
To view the ceremony and hear what these heroic leaders have to say, play the video at right . If you should experience any technical difficulties you may also view the movie by clicking here.
To help us continue to support peace efforts between Israel and Palestine, as well as provide services to our local community, click here. Thank you!
Israel: Leader of Business Innovation
Dan Senor, co-author of 'Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle,' discusses with CNBC how Israel has managed to become a leader in business innovation.
Airtime: Wed. Oct. 28 2009