Advice for jump-starting a career in Israel after aliyah

Rachel Gang, living her dream as a therapist in Israel.

By Megan E. Turner

It was the need that attracted Rachel Gang to Be'er Sheva. The need and the opportunity to answer it. "I really liked the southern part of the country, and I saw that Be'er Sheva was lacking resources for mental health services," said Gang, 29, a social worker and educator who made aliyah from Baltimore in the summer of 2018. "I’ve always been social justice-oriented, so I didn’t want to go to Tel Aviv or the center -- I wanted to go where there’s a need." And that’s exactly what she did after spending summers and an academic year teaching English in Israel's north and south.

"Even in the U.S. I always worked in 'the frontier,'" Gang said, "usually in an education-related field, whether it was as a teacher or a social worker." When deciding on where to live in the south, community life was an important factor in Gang’s decision, and Be'er Sheva's revival as an attractive, hip city for young people -- thanks to projects spearheaded by Jewish National Fund's Blueprint Negev -- made it the perfect place to call home. "It’s also more affordable than the center," she said.

Fashionistas for Israel: Hip T-shirts, Golda Meir jean jackets help JNF

By Sara Armet (JNFuture NYC)

It's T-shirt time! The highly anticipated JNF National Conference is right around the corner, October 26-29, in Phoenix, and we are so excited to be back with our second annual "Johnny + Sara: Fashionistas for Israel" campaign.

This fall, Jonathan Solomon (JNFuture Tampa) and I relaunched our fundraising initiative with brand new offerings and fresh "products with a purpose." Through the sale of our original T-shirt and limited-edition designs, JNFuture is shaping the landscape of of Israel. One hundred percent of our profits go to JNF. Our call to action: the recent Emergency Town Hall Series for the Gaza Border Crisis.

How to entice employees to Israel's Negev? A brainstorm in the desert

By Tamar Gil, director of resource and development at Tor HaMidbar

Think of high-quality HR, and maybe a large high-tech company or fancy corporate business come to mind. It’s unlikely you'll think of a midsize chemical company in Southern Israel. But Hugo Speyer, HR director at Chemada on the Gaza border, along with dozens of other human-resource professionals, is working to change that. 

That desire for change took the spotlight recently, as history was made in the Negev. More than 150 senior HR personnel and representatives from more than two dozen employment agencies came together for the Negev’s first ever conference for human-resource professionals May 22. Organized by The Lauder Employment Center-Tor HaMidbar and the Southern Manufacturers Union, the conference offered a unique opportunity to connect the main players in Negev employment, and fostered a discussion on how to best show job seekers the desirability of jobs in the Negev.   

Green dreams: Innovative urban farm in Negev wins environmental prize

An Earth's Promise member works with 
Ethiopian children at a Be'er Sheva urban farm. 

By June Glazer

In keeping with Jewish National Fund's Blueprint Negev initiative, which aims to revitalize Israel’s southern region, the country’s environmental ministry last week awarded its prestigious Environmental Prize of the Negev to Earth’s Promise. Earth’s Promise, a JNF partner, is an organization that promotes environmental sustainability and urban agriculture in Be'er Sheva and other Israeli cities. 

Be'er Sheva, once a sleepy, dusty desert town, today is a sprawling, bustling city that is often referred to as the "capital of the Negev." It is the seventh most populous city in Israel, and in recent years, has become home to a large influx of Ethiopian immigrants. It is for them that Earth’s Promise was started in 2007. 

"The idea behind it was to help make our city green, but to do it in a community fashion,” said Ethelea Katzenell, an Earth's Promise founding board member, who recounted how a committee was formed to work with the Kalisher Absorption Center, where many Ethiopians lived. "Since their background was mostly agrarian, we thought we could help them to literally sink new roots into their new country by starting a community garden with them," she said. 

Extreme makeover Be'er Sheva River Park: From garbage dump to eco-wonder

The city of Be'er Sheva, whose population in the greater municipal area is close to half a million, is fast overcoming an image problem. The city had been long regarded by Israelis as a sleepy, run-down development town, a dusty pit stop on the way to Eilat.

That is no longer the case. In the past few years, the city has experienced a makeover that almost defies belief. Museums, theaters, high-rise upscale apartment buildings, high-tech parks, giant malls, and new parks and restaurants have appeared around the city. The former dilapidated town is gradually undergoing an aesthetic gentrification and the city's outer suburbs are nestled on green hills dotted by cool water fountains.

Nothing demonstrates this transformation as dramatically as the Be'er Sheva River Park. As if by magic, the park was created in an area described once as the "armpit" of the city, in what was a dry riverbed near the southern entrance of the city piled with wrecked cars, garbage, and sewage. It took months of cleanup with trucks going in and out to dispose of the rotting trash that had accumulated over decades.

Beersheba, with Shlomo Artzi on hand, launches new city space

From The Times of Israel

By Debra Kamin

A 12,000-seat outdoor theater is the crown of the new River Park, an ambitious project the mayor hopes will boost the Negev city’s profile

 

(photo by Udi Ibn Haim)

 

Last Thursday evening, as Israeli superstar Shlomo Artzi serenaded 12,000 Beersheba residents in the city’s brand-new amphitheater, Mayor Ruvik Danilovich looked on with pride. The event, meant to inaugurate the newest and biggest outdoor performance space in Israel, sealed several years of effort on his part to raise this southern city’s profile from a sleepy desert enclave to a cosmopolitan metropolis worthy of its title as capital of the Negev. 

“The new amphitheater, which is the largest amphitheater and the only one of its kind in Israel, is a milestone for Israeli culture,” he said. “It is especially big news to the south. Every major city around the world would be proud to have such an amphitheater.”

Bundled up against the chilly desert night and enthusiastically waving their glowing smartphones in the air, the crowd on Thursday night seemed to agree. They cheered when Artzi, who played a medley of his greatest hits and routinely waded his way into the crowd to kiss his fans and allow them to sing into his microphone, reminded them that Beersheba has always been a favorite stop of his.  “And what an amphitheater!” he exclaimed.

The outdoor arena is the crown jewel in an ambitious broader development project for the Negev’s largest city. Dubbed River Park, it spans 1,700 acres along five miles of the city’s south and includes bike trails, promenades, and an outdoor sports center. Restaurants and galleries are in the works.

The park, which when completed will be double the size of Central Park in New York City, is a joint project of the Jewish National Fund, the Israeli government and a number of private corporations.

 The new amphitheater is the largest in Israel. (photo credit: photo by Udi Ibn Haim)

JNF has touted the park as the centerpiece of its Blueprint Negev campaign, which it hopes will make good on David Ben-Gurion’s dream of greening Israel’s massive desert space and lure businesses and cultural groups away from the country’s center and into its wider periphery. The park is modeled on the San Antonio River Walk and much of its construction involved cleaning and purifying the muddy trickle that was the city’s riverbed, landscaping its banks and installing infrastructure to pump purified water into it year round.

Danilovich, who was re-elected last week, started planning the River Park almost immediately upon entering office and has made it his pet project ever since.

“The city of Beersheba is undergoing exceptional development,” he said. “I have no doubt it will become one of the most desirable cities in Israel.”