Sharon Gelbach IMP

STEAM-powered schooling

ORT delegate Nata Saslofsky with students from the D. Dan and Betty Kahn STEAM Centre at the Rodman Middle School in Kiryat Yam, Israel. (photo from ORT)

As a town with one of the highest percentages of new immigrants in Israel, Kiryat Yam is welcoming many refugees from Ukraine. One of the most important elements of helping these families process their trauma and settle is ensuring that their children’s education resumes.

Kiryat Yam’s low socioeconomic index means that local students face more academic challenges in comparison to their counterparts in the centre of Israel. But it’s here that kindergarten children are being taught how to build and even program simple robots, enabling them to gain rudimentary familiarity with technology in preparation for studying STEAM (science, tech, engineering, art, math) subjects in the future.

“Through our robotics programs in kindergartens, and continuing at the D. Dan and Betty Kahn STEAM Centre at the Rodman Middle School, we provide under-resourced children with an extra boost from the youngest age possible, so that they’ll gain the tools and the confidence to pursue higher education and fulfilling careers,” said Dan Green, chief executive officer of World ORT. Green was speaking on May 16 to World ORT delegates who, for the first time in more than two years, convened in Israel to experience firsthand the extensive work of World ORT and meet students who are directly impacted by it.

During a packed visit to Kiryat Yam, between meetings with the mayor and high-level municipal and educational representatives, delegates got an up-close view of the natural progression of World ORT’s STEAM education in action. After watching 5-year-olds playing with the robots they’d built and programmed, the group met middle-school students at the Kahn STEAM centre’s robotics lab who were delighted to show off the robots they’d built and coded from scratch.

“I was impressed by the Kadima Mada robotics demonstrations in Kiryat Yam,” said Jack Kincler of Montreal, who serves as the ORT Canada co-president. “It teaches kids from a young age about following a thought process, team effort, and step-by-step execution until the final, rewarding result is achieved.”

As an added value to the program, students who have gained a basic level of proficiency are encouraged to mentor their peers, thereby acquiring additional skills that will serve them well.

Nata Saslofsky of Atlanta, Ga., a member of ORT America’s National Leadership CohORT program, said, “Seeing firsthand the passion and excitement of ORT students for the robots they built from ideation to conception was exciting, impressive and heartwarming. It would be an amazing world if all kids had opportunities to pursue their interests by taking courses in STEAM subjects that advanced their skills and knowledge. I believe this will lead to fulfilling careers that bring them self-worth and an opportunity to give back to humanity with greater impact.”

Technion graduate Natalie Korlick, a resident of Kiryat Yam and originally from Russia, is one of the instructors at the STEAM centre. “I remember when an interest in science was considered nerdy. Today it’s become cool. Everyone wants to learn robotics.”

Korlick, who also works as a math and science tutor, said academic gaps are evident in almost all students from all grades. “It’s as if they lost an entire year,” she said, referring to the sporadic, long-distance schooling during COVID. “This year, they have to work extra hard to catch up.”

If that’s true for the students at Rodman, it’s all the more so for the Ukrainian students, who’ve seen their whole world turned upside down, and who must adapt to a new country, language and mentality. Thanks to her knowledge of Russian, Korlick is able to provide an extra level of support for the newly arrived Ukrainian students.

“Helping these kids who have been through so much and who arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs is exactly what we’re about,” said Conrad Giles, who has served as World ORT president for the last six years. “We couldn’t be happier that our programs are being used to help get them on track to a better future.”

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)

A tree-lined memorial

Left to right: Rabbi Dov Bakst, presidential advisor, Yitzhak (Buji) Herzog and Rabbi Shlomo Raanan at the March 4 launch of the Ayelet Hashachar initiative to create a promenade in Kiryat Shmona to commemorate Jewish COVID victims from around the world. (photo from IMP)

“What is the main defining characteristic of the COVID-19 era?” asks public activist Rabbi Shlomo Raanan. “The coronavirus brought about separation and disconnect. It separates between countries, divides communities and splits families. It’s about being lonely and alone. My goal is to foster connection. Every Jew has an intrinsic connection to Israel. Let’s help them develop that connection and make it grow.”

Raanan’s organization, Ayelet Hashachar, has recently launched an initiative to foster connection with Diaspora Jewry: a promenade in Kiryat Shmona to commemorate Jewish COVID victims from around the world. More than 100 olive trees will line the kilometre-long walkway. Each tree will represent a different Jewish community from across the globe, serving as a vehicle to commemorate members who passed away from the coronavirus. Visitors to the site can learn about the communities and members who succumbed to COVID by standing next to the tree and getting the story on a dedicated app via a QR code. Each community will have its own mini-site, featuring eulogies, historical anecdotes and any extra information the community wishes to include, for a bona fide living memorial.

“Throughout the years, Diaspora Jewry has always been there for Israel,” said Raanan, explaining what inspired him to reach out to Diaspora communities and provide this free service. “We felt that the time had come for us, here in Israel, to show them our solidarity and support during this very challenging time.”

The significance of the location of the commemorative promenade is not limited to the views of Mount Hermon that Kiryat Shmona affords. Israel’s northernmost city is no stranger to bereavement – its very name commemorates eight people, including hero Joseph Trumpeldor, who were killed, in 1920, while defending the area. More recently, the proximity of Kiryat Shmona to the Lebanese border has made it a frequent target for terror and rocket attacks.

Kiryat Shmona is a symbol of Jewish determination and tenacity. Off the beaten track, it needs to invest twice the effort to make itself relevant to the centre of the country. Despite the hardships associated with leading a border city, Mayor Avihay Shtern has been making strides to promote development and attract residents. The growing food-tech industry and the establishment of large academic institutions are examples of those efforts.

“I am proud and gratified to have this opportunity to reach out to Diaspora communities and commemorate their COVID victims,” said Shtern. “There are many memorials, but I’ve yet to see one honouring those who succumbed to the pandemic, even though we’re almost a year in, and it’s taken such a heavy toll globally.”

photo - Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avihay Shtern, left, with Rabbi Shlomo Raanan — Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avihay Shtern, left, with Rabbi Shlomo Raanan. *(photo from IMP)*

Shtern noted that the walkway, to be named “the Path of Life,” will serve as “a living history lesson” for local residents, as well as the many visitors and tourists who flock to the Upper Galilee. “I think it’s important for us to remember, and for the children of the future to know, what happened during this period. The coronavirus will soon disappear, but we must never forget those who were lost to the disease.”

A grand opening ceremony for the promenade was held on March 4, with the participation of the mayor, Raanan, senior public figures, as well as Jewish Agency chair Isaac (Bougie) Herzog.

Each tree, a story

Raanan sees special significance in planting trees as commemoration. “There is a beautiful verse in the book of Job: ‘For a tree has hope; if it is cut it will again renew itself and its bough will not cease.’ Trees signify revival, particularly olive trees,” he said. “They are a perfect metaphor for the Jewish people. Even when it looks lifeless, the olive tree still retains vitality deep inside. Olive trees are also very adaptive; they survive tough periods and can live for thousands of years. It’s certainly appropriate that the olive tree is the symbol of the state of Israel.”

Raanan welcomes community leaders and members who wish to have their community represented by a tree on the promenade. His staff of web developers will prepare the relevant text and visual material at no charge.

“The coronavirus separated people from their loved ones, often forcing victims to die alone,” he said. “This memorial accomplishes the opposite, bringing communities together and uniting people.”

Raanan has other plans to connect Diaspora Jewry with Israel, as well.

Parallel to the commemoration project in Kiryat Shmona, he is offering interested communities the opportunity to plant not just one tree but an entire olive orchard. “There are vast tracts of land across Israel that are neglected…. Communities can plant their own orchards in areas of national importance – the Galilee, the Negev, the Jordan Valley,” he said.

Of established projects, Raanan’s Chavrutah program was started more than two decades ago, with the aim of encouraging dialogue between secular and religious Israelis. The program now features close to 20,000 people studying in partnerships, in Israel and abroad.

Ayelet Hashachar’s goal in all its projects is to heal the divisiveness of Israeli society by working to eliminate mistrust between sectors, thereby breaking stereotypes and encouraging mutual respect.

For more information about how to have a community featured in the Path of Life commemoration project, email [email protected] or call 97-252-617-6222.

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)

Israeli ventilation invention

Prof. Ori Efrati, left, and Dr. Michael Cohen. (photos from IMP)

With the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine, there has also been a spike in morbidity, clearly indicating that we’re not out of the woods yet. In fact, hospitals in Israel have warned that they are steadily approaching maximum capacity, as the numbers of severely ill COVID patients breaks all records.

When COVID-19 first erupted in March 2020, health authorities warned that a surfeit in severely ill coronavirus patients would overwhelm the system due, in large part, to a lack of ventilation machines – the standard of care for coronavirus patients whose condition deteriorates to pneumonia. In the ensuing months, Prof. Eyal Leshem, director of the Centre for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Centre, explained that, in addition to the shortage of ventilators, one of the most pressing issues is the lack of highly trained intensive-care-unit staff to monitor patients attached to those devices.

An innovation by Yehonatan Medical addresses both of these issues.

Yehonatan Medical, in collaboration with Prof. Ori Efrati, director of the pediatric pulmonary unit at Sheba Medical Centre, devised a first-of-its-kind ventilation system that can treat multiple patients.

“Conventional ventilators, aside from being very costly, are limited in that they can only be used with one patient at a time,” explained Efrati. “Their capacity factor and programming functions were designed for single-patient use, and there is also the danger of cross-contamination.”

The new ventilation system resolves issues that corona ICU wards have been grappling with as the number of severely ill patients rises.

“We were able to use the relatively simple and inexpensive BipaP non-invasive ventilation machine as the basis for the advanced ventilation technology,” said Efrati. “Thanks to the high-power output and built-in disinfecting mechanism, the new system can safely treat three to five patients simultaneously.”

Moreover, a system that can treat multiple patients at one time necessitates fewer ICU-trained staff. Thanks to the remote interface, the medical team can monitor patients from a safe distance.

“This tremendous breakthrough is nothing less than a game-changer when it comes to caring for large numbers of corona patients,” Efrati added.

Dr. Michael Cohen, an engineer and scientist and the founder of Yehonatan Medical, said, “All in all, we’re talking about a system that delivers personalized care in a multi-user format.”

Additional features based on artificial-intelligence technology include the ability to have a hierarchy and classification of alerts; the ability for automatic parameter correction according to set criteria; respiratory rehabilitation for the patient by adjusting to changes in the patient responsiveness; and more. The streamlined, relatively low-cost system can be implemented in makeshift clinical settings, such as field hospitals, as well as in step-down units within the hospital, in the internal and other wards.

Yehonatan Medical is the medical department of Mofet Etzion, a company that for more than two decades has developed various security and military innovations for the Israel Defence Forces and foreign armies. Cohen has developed dozens of life-saving innovations, including in the area of cardiology, in collaboration with cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons from Israel, the United States and Canada.

“Some of the insights for the development of this revolutionary ventilation system were provided by cardiologists who helped us to devise the various accoutrements and sensors,” Cohen said, making specific mention of Dr. David Adams, professor and system chair of the cardiovascular surgery department at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York; Dr. David Tirone, chief of cardiac surgery at Toronto General Hospital; and Dr. Gideon Cohen, cardiothoracic surgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. The development of the system itself took place in Israel, marking the first time that an invasive ventilation machine has been built in Israel.

The advanced ventilation technology is currently in advanced phase trials at the MSR Medical Simulation Centre at Sheba, where it is being tested on artificial lungs, and is expected to be ready for mass marketing in the coming months.

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)

Breathing life into patients

Dr. Liran Levy, left, and Dr. Milton Saute. (photo from IMP)

Sheba Medical Centre in Israel and Canada’s Toronto General Hospital are collaborating to advance the field of lung transplantation in Israel and to enhance medical education in both countries.

In the last year, Sheba’s Institute of Pulmonary Medicine has established a new lung transplant program, headed jointly by Dr. Liran Levy – who, in 2019, completed four years of clinical, research and surgical training at Toronto General – together with surgeon Dr. Milton Saute, an expert in lung transplantation. According to Sheba’s head of pulmonary medicine, Dr. Amir Onn, collaboration with Toronto General will “put Sheba on the map of lung transplantation,” due, in large part, to revolutionary technology that can increase the number of donor lungs by almost 50%.

Toronto General is renowned for having performed the world’s first successful lung transplant, in 1983. They have since expanded their lung transplantation program, both clinically and in terms of research. One of the most groundbreaking discoveries was made in 2013 by Dr. Marcelo Cypel, a staff thoracic surgeon at Toronto General and director of their ECLS (extracorporeal life-support) program. This technique, said Cypel, “effected a change in paradigm for how we do lung transplants.”

photo - Dr. Amir Onn, left, and Dr. Marcelo Cypel — Dr. Amir Onn, left, and Dr. Marcelo Cypel. *(photo from IMP)*

The innovation, called ex vivo lung prefusion (EVLP), doubles the amount of time that the donor lungs can remain outside of the body. “Previously, donor lungs could be kept for only six to eight hours,” Cypel explained. “Patients had to uproot their lives to live near a transplant centre, and staff had to race against the clock to transfer the organ from the donor to the recipient, often forced to perform the complex surgery in the middle of the night.”

The valuable hours gained don’t just optimize the logistics of the operation, they actually allow for recovery of the organ itself.

“As a rule, over 80% of donor lungs are unsuitable for lung transplantation, due to poor functioning, infection, blood clots or injury,” said Cypel. By pumping a solution of oxygen, proteins and nutrients into the injured donor lungs, the EVLP system enables injured cells to heal themselves, or to be prepared for more sophisticated repair techniques. “The method doubled the number of lung transplants performed in Toronto in the last seven years,” he said.

With the help of Toronto General, Saute estimated that the EVLP program will become operational at Sheba by the middle of 2021. “We anticipate that [EVLP] will make a huge impact and significantly increase the pool of donors for lung transplantation in Israel, especially now, during COVID, with donors reduced by more than 50%,” he said.

According to Cypel, some of the reasons for the reduction in donor lungs during the pandemic include deaths that occur at home, due to reluctance of patients to seek hospital care, and the fewer car accidents (whose victims supply donor lungs) that occur while populations are in lockdown.

Collaboration will encompass clinical care, as well, including consultations regarding challenging patients, as well an exchange of trainees, in both directions. “We hope to send members of our team to Sheba to learn from their unique expertise,” Cypel said.

Onn added that COVID-19 has created new potential candidates for lung transplant. He is currently treating patients in Sheba’s designated post-COVID clinic who present with an unusual combination of symptoms – shortness of breath, chest pain and forgetfulness. Some, he said, have sustained irrevocable damage to the lungs.

A growing population of “COVID-19 survivors,” are being referred to the lung transplant centre. “We are in the process of identifying those who may be potential transplant cases,” said Levy.

Levy remarked that he is looking forward to working with his former colleagues and mentors from Toronto General. Looking back on his years spent in Canada with his wife and four children, he admitted that it was hard to leave. “The Jewish community made us feel very much at home, and we still miss Toronto,” he said. “But I think we have a very important mission here in Israel.”

When the teams from both hospitals met one year ago to discuss collaboration, Cypel and Saute were delighted to discover that they both hail from the same city in southern Brazil. “Although we didn’t meet in Brazil, Dr. Saute told me that he knew my grandparents quite well, and that was very emotional for me,” Cypel shared. Saute added that they both had the same mentor in thoracic surgery and, thus, “We have the same ideas.”

The scope of research and complexity of cases at Toronto General have made it a national and international source for discovery, education and patient care. Sheba Medical Centre, home to the ARC Innovation Centre, and where 25% of all clinical research in Israel takes place, has likewise distinguished itself in patient care, particularly in the era of COVID-19. Patients in both countries, and worldwide, can look forward to the fruits of this collaboration.

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)

Lubeck shul sees restoration

Israel’s Lavi furniture factory recreated Carlebach Synagogue’s original ark from three prewar black-and-white photos. (photo from IMP)

Viewing the restored Carlebach Synagogue in Lubeck, Germany, brings to mind the biblical prophecies of consolation, where the Jewish people are reassured that the day will come when not only will they be restored to their land, but their houses of worship will likewise be restored. Sadly, neither the shul’s rabbi nor any other of the original community members are alive today to revel in the synagogue’s reinstated glory; however, in an interesting twist, several of the rabbi’s grandchildren are the children of founding members of Kibbutz Lavi, whose furniture factory designed and built the synagogue’s ark and other holy articles.

Rabbi David Alexander Winter, rabbi of the Carlebach Synagogue, fled Lubeck in 1938, together with most of his community. Several months later, on Kristallnacht, when many of Germany’s synagogues were torched and burned to the ground, the Lubeck shul was damaged and looted, but not destroyed – the building had been sold to the municipality and the contract, signed by the rabbi, was inside the synagogue, in plain view.

For Winter’s grandchildren, seeing the restoration of their grandfather’s synagogue is especially moving. “It’s a feeling of coming full circle,” said Yehudit Menachem, who visited Lubeck last year, seeking to learn more about her family history. Dr. Ariel Romem, a pediatrician and one of the grandsons, remarked that the restoration is symbolic of the re-blossoming of the Winter family and of the Jewish people as a whole. “They may have ruined the shul, but they never succeeded in breaking us,” he said.

In the seven decades since the Holocaust, the once-stately synagogue, established in 1880, has suffered looting, a firebombing, squatters and general neglect. German architect Thomas Schröder-Berkentien began working on its restoration in 2010, but the project was stuck due to a lack of funding. In 2016, the federal government dedicated a sizable sum, with other funding arriving from the Schleswig-Holstein state, the Lubeck-based Possehl Foundation and UNESCO, which had declared the Old City of Lubeck a World Heritage Site. The total cost of the project amounted to almost $10 million.

Schröder-Berkentien was intent on finding the best craftspeople for the synagogue furniture, and also felt that it was only right that the furniture should come from Israel. He found the Lavi furniture factory online and, after several inquiries and a visit to the carpentry workshop along with his team, was assured that they had the necessary experience and expertise to perform the research and produce items of quality and beauty. Indeed, in its 60 years of operation, Lavi has designed and produced interiors for synagogues in more than 6,000 Jewish communities around the world, including for new and restored synagogues in Germany.

Motti Namdar, the factory’s chief planner, described the challenge, and ultimate satisfaction, of creating replicas of the original items. “We only had three prewar black-and-white photos to go by,” he explained. “The photos showed only one angle and even that was not very clear. It was difficult to make out a lot of the detailing or which metals were used, especially for the ark, which you can see from the photos is very unusual.”

Ultimately, much of Namdar’s work had to be done by deduction and a knowledge of the history of the period. “I traveled to Lubeck to see the synagogue and examine the parts that had not been damaged. Part of the ladies’ gallery was intact. The architect had hired restoration experts who carefully removed the layers of paint from the walls, exposing the original murals. The synagogue as a whole had been built in the Moorish style, and I proceeded in that direction.”

In one of the photos, it’s possible to make out the pointed roof-like structure at the top of the ark, which Namdar designed to include 1,500 “scales,” all coated in pure gold. Under Namdar’s direction, the Lavi factory completed all the articles by the deadline. “The hardest part wasn’t the tight schedule, but, rather, building everything such that it could be taken apart, packed and shipped, and then reassembled so that everything fit perfectly.”

photo - Since its restoration, Carlebach Synagogue in Lubeck, Germany, has been serving as a spiritual hub for Lubeck’s 700-strong Jewish community — Since its restoration, Carlebach Synagogue in Lubeck, Germany, has been serving as a spiritual hub for Lubeck’s 700-strong Jewish community. *(photo from IMP)*

But while it was clear to the craftspeople at Lavi that they wanted to produce replicas that were as authentic as possible, the project’s architect, Schröder-Berkentien, was intent that the structure itself, which was restored to be a national monument, should serve as a testament and, in his words, “like a wound,” as a painful reminder of the events of 1938. This was the reasoning behind his decision not to redo the synagogue’s original ornate façade, which, together with the cupola and other elements, had been destroyed on Kristallnacht. “The plain red brick tells the story of what happened,” he said. “A rebuilt façade would ignore that part of history, failing to show the suffering of the era. This is what makes it such a unique monument among other German synagogues.”

When news of the coronavirus pandemic first broke in January, the factory began working overtime so that everything would be ready for the gala re-inauguration, which was to have been attended by high-ranking German officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, members of the restoration committee and local community figures, as well as Winter’s grandchildren from Kibbutz Lavi. However, when it was finally time for the assembly and installation of the furniture, the world was already in COVID-19 lockdown. As soon as it was possible, Lavi sent their own experts from England to complete the work. Now, the synagogue stands in all its resplendent glory, but the ceremony has been postponed indefinitely.

The important thing is that the synagogue is open and operating, serving as a spiritual hub for Lubeck’s 700-strong Jewish community. “This synagogue is not only a place of prayer, but a symbol of the revival of Jewish life in Lubeck, throughout Germany and around the world,” said the current spiritual leader of Lubeck, Rabbi Nathan Grinberg.

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)

Dogs aiding recovery

Sheba is a trained physiotherapy dog. One of the patients he’s helping at Sheba Medical Centre is Nathaniel Felber, who suffered a head injury in a terror attack in December 2018. (photo from IMP)

Nathaniel Felber is an Israel Defence Forces soldier who suffered a critical head injury in a terror attack in December 2018. He has been slowly recovering, against all odds. After being in a coma for several months, he was moved to Sheba Medical Centre, where he’s been receiving intensive rehabilitation. After a brief setback following brain surgery last May, Felber has made remarkable progress, and a lot of the credit goes to Sheba – not only the hospital but its namesake, a trained physiotherapy dog.

“The dog relates to Nathaniel in a nonjudgmental way, happily accepting the food that Nathaniel offers or any other attention,” said Judi Felber, who has been at her son’s side almost constantly since the attack that upended their lives.

Prof. Israel Dudkiewicz, who heads Sheba’s orthopedic rehabilitation program, has noted a marked improvement in compliance, strength and endurance in patients like Felber, when performing physical therapy exercises with the dog.

“The dog takes attention away from the pain and difficulty of the exercise, enabling the patient to try to do more and to do it better,” explained Dudkiewicz. “I’ve watched patients who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to stand for just two or three minutes, but, when they pet the dog, they can be standing for 30 minutes and more without even realizing it.”

Felber builds strength and balance in his legs by standing and petting Sheba. He also throws a ball for the dog to retrieve, a game that repeatedly flexes his elbow, but without the tedium of the standard physio exercises for the same purpose. When brushing Sheba, Felber must exert enough pressure to run the brush through the dog’s fur, but not too much that would cause him pain.

The Felbers made aliyah from Silver Spring, Md., about 14 years ago, settling in Ra’anana with their three children and a dog. “Nathaniel loved our dog, and I think that interacting with Sheba the dog is very healing for him,” said his mother.

Dudkiewicz is delighted with Felber’s positive response to Sheba, as well as the responses of patients working with therapy dogs in general.

“We have seen dramatic improvement in patients performing physical therapy with dogs from both a physical and emotional perspective,” he said. “We aim to incorporate this as another treatment tool, such as hydrotherapy and other nonconventional therapies, for patients who can benefit from it.”

At just seven months old, Sheba is still a puppy, but his performance thus far points to a successful future. Dogs used in physical therapy must undergo a yearlong, rigorous training period. The staff must likewise be trained how to integrate the dog into their rehab programs. In the course of training, the dogs are tested periodically to see that they’re up to scratch. Dudkiewicz explained that different dogs are trained for different types of patients and their abilities. The cost of each dog, including training, is more than $30,000, meaning that its implementation in the department must be limited; however, Dudkiewicz said the results certainly justify the financial outlay.

“Neurorehabilitation is slower than anything else I’ve ever experienced,” said Judi Felber. “Nathaniel is not walking, or talking, or eating even independently – yet. But I try to focus on the positive: he’s responding to people, to us, his family. He’ll turn his head and give us his hand. He can nod yes and no and show us the number of fingers that we ask. We’ve still got a long way to go, but I’m hopeful.”

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)

Inspiring students’ research

Students and staff of the recent Arrow Project on a tour of Sheba. In the centre is Prof. Eldad Katorza. Student Yair Jalmar is at the far right. (photo from IMP)

Sheba Medical Centre, Israel’s national hospital, enjoys a reputation for medical innovation, but many are unaware that it is also at the forefront of societal integration among various minority groups in Israel. In the past several years, Sheba has integrated hundreds of new Ethiopian olim (immigrants) into the hospital workforce, going as far as providing them with free classes to help them navigate Israeli bureaucracy and improve their language skills.

Recently, Prof. Eldad Katorza, senior physician at Sheba and director of the Arrow Project, decided to give youth from the Ethiopian community a head start by incorporating them into his pilot program.

The Arrow Project (Chetz in Hebrew, the initials of chokrim tze’irim, meaning “young researchers”) is an apprenticeship program for medical students, designed to pave their way into the world of research. Established in 2006, the initiative matches selected students with experienced researchers who serve as their mentors. During once- or twice-weekly meetings, the student-mentor teams work through every stage of medical research, from formulating the initial question, to collecting and analyzing data, to presenting the results at medical conferences.

This year, for the first time, each research duo also included a third tier: high school students from the Ethiopian community.

Katorza believes in the importance of encouraging students to pursue research, noting that, in med school, they do not receive sufficient exposure to research thinking or methodology.

“I believe that research makes a doctor more knowledgeable, more curious, more creative,” he said. “A doctor who engages in research is a much better doctor.”

Employing this premise, Katorza is planning to open several slots for nursing school students in the coming year’s program. “Nursing is also a field that stands to benefit greatly from adding researching to its ranks; it will raise the bar of nursing in Israel,” he said.

In the early stages of planning the pilot program for the Ethiopian high school students, it became evident to Katorza just how crucial, timely – and challenging – his initiative was. “I asked my son, then in 11th grade, to look around his own school in Givatayim for students from the Ethiopian community who might be suitable for the program,” said Katorza. “As it turned out, there wasn’t a single Ethiopian student in his school, nor in any of the good schools in the area.”

The reason can be traced to the socioeconomic realities in Israel today. Ethiopian Israelis have long experienced prejudice and being treated as second-class citizens. By and large, members of the Ethiopian community tend to dwell together in poorer neighbourhoods, where community services, schools included, are more limited. These conditions put Ethiopian teens at a disadvantage from the outset and, due to economic necessity, the youth are pushed to join the workforce at an early age, further perpetuating a cycle of poverty.

“Almost four decades have passed since the first wave of Ethiopian Aliyah,” said Katorza, “yet, judging from their rate of participation in academia, their level of affluence and other markers of social mobility, it appears that the government has failed to take the necessary steps to help them bridge the gaps and facilitate their successful absorption into mainstream Israeli society.”

Anxious to change this negative trend, Katorza decided to include outstanding students from the Ethiopian community in the Arrow Project. However, it wasn’t simple to locate high school students from the Ethiopian sector who met the criteria for participation in the program: high marks in the sciences, high motivation and interest, and living near enough to the Sheba campus to be able to easily attend the weekly meetings. Ultimately, Katorza was aided by an organization called Fidel (“Alphabet” in Amharic), which promotes the education and social integration of Ethiopian-Israeli youth. The Fidel staff welcomed this opportunity to incorporate Ethiopian students in Sheba’s research-mentoring platform, and provided 10 candidates, from which the top five were chosen.

According to Katorza, the pilot program was a resounding success and will be repeated in the coming year. “We found that, once they are freed from the limitations of their environment, the students manifested amazing capabilities,” he said. “We endeavoured to help build their self-confidence, empower them and teach them that they can do anything they put their mind to.”

Throughout the year, in addition to their full participation in research, the Ethiopian high schoolers were also exposed to the clinical activity at the hospital. “At the beginning of the year, the students didn’t have any specific plans for the future,” Katorza said. “Now, they are now seriously considering a medical career.”

One of those is Yair Jalmar, 17, from Beer Yaakov, who participated in a research project with pediatric cardiologist Dr. Shai Tejman. “This project helped me develop my interest in medicine and learn more about the advanced technologies and devices, as well as the various departments in the medical field,” he said.

In the 14 years since the project’s inception, the pool of participants, which in the beginning included only students from Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine, has expanded to foreign exchange students from New York and London, as well as medical students from Ariel University, Bar-Ilan and others. Thus far, former participants in the Arrow Project have gone on to publish their findings in respected medical journals, and several have joined the team at Sheba.

– Courtesy International Marketing and Promotion (IMP)