{"id":31176,"date":"2018-12-14T03:45:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T11:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31176"},"modified":"2018-12-12T12:36:28","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T20:36:28","slug":"supporting-israelis-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/12\/14\/supporting-israelis-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Israelis in need"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Dr. William and Ruth Ross <em>(photo from <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. William Hy Ross tears up talking about the\nmotivation behind his philanthropic activities in Israel. Sitting behind a desk\nin his room at the medical clinic he runs, over which hangs a watercolour\npainting of the Mount of Olives, Ross said it is because of the grandparents he\nnever met, both of whom died in the Holocaust. \u201cIf we had a state back then,\nthat wouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d he said. \u201cI would have grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ross met with the <em>Jewish Independent<\/em>\nlast week to talk about the projects the Ross Foundation has undertaken in\nIsrael, projects aimed at lifting up the underprivileged on the fringes of\nsociety there. He was accompanied by Sagie Shein, senior program manager of the\nJewish American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Shein has acted as\nphilanthropic advisor to Ross, and was recently made the fund manager of the\nRoss Family Foundation, in which role, he told the <em>JI<\/em>, he identifies\nprojects that will achieve the foundation\u2019s goals in Israel, whether through\nJDC or otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ross and Shein met after Rabbi Shmuel Birnham,\nformerly of Congregation Har El, introduced Ross to Prof. Jack Habib of the\nMyers-JDC-Brookdale Institute in Jerusalem. Shein has now been working with the\nRoss foundation for six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ross is a surgeon and a clinical professor of\nophthalmology at the University of British Columbia. In 2012, he established\nthe Morris and Sarah Ross International Fellowship in Vitreo-Retinal Surgery,\nwhich funds the training of ophthalmologists from Israel, including, so far, 12\nIsraeli Jews, three Israeli Muslims and three Israeli Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also in 2012, he and his wife, Ruth,\nestablished the Ross Family Scholarship Program for Advanced Studies in the\nHelping Professions, which funds education for nurses and social workers\nserving in the underserved peripheral communities of Israel. Their\ncontributions have gone to select students at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) and\nthey have been recognized as founders of the university, in honour of their\ncontributions. The Ross Foundation appears on the walls of BGU\u2019s Marcus Campus\nin Be\u2019er Sheva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2016, the Ross Foundation <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">extended its activity to another initiative \u2013\nthe Project for the Advancement of Employment for Ethiopian Immigrants, which\nsupports the education of engineers, web developers and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIsrael is a fantastic success story,\u201d said\nRoss. \u201cYou hear about the start-up companies, etc., but there is a whole fringe\nsociety who doesn\u2019t have any of those advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ross spoke to the <em>JI<\/em> about the\nparticular importance of supporting Ethiopian Jewish immigrants in Israel.\n\u201cWhen they\u2019re done serving in the army, they often end up in dead-end jobs,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cWe are providing living expenses for them in a way that is a\ngame-changer, allowing them to get jobs as practical engineers and in other\nneeded industries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ross and Shein explained that, even when given\nsupport to pay for education, many underprivileged Israelis cannot afford to\nstop working and go to school full-time. The Ross Foundation\u2019s initiatives give\nrecipients a stipend that allows them to stop working and complete a course of\neducation. The foundation is also supporting other communities facing\nchallenges in the workplace, like Arabs and Charedim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJDC empowers all Israelis as a social\ninnovation incubator, developing pioneering social services in conjunction with\nthe Israeli government, local municipalities, nonprofits and other partners to\nlift the lives of Israel\u2019s children at risk, elderly, unemployed, and people\nwith disabilities,\u201d Michael Geller, JDC\u2019s director of media relations, told the\n<em>Independent<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Operating since 1914, JDC has provided \u201cmore\nthan $2 billion in social services and aid to date,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The JDC funds and organizes experimental\nprograms in the hope that the government will see their success and launch\nsimilar efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re looking to pilot programs that can be\nadopted by the Israeli government,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn 2020,\u201d added Shein, \u201cthe foundation is\nexpected to further expand its activities to additional programs based on the\nfoundation vision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHy and Ruthie Ross really get Israel,\u201d said\nDavid Berson, executive director of Canadian Associates of BGU for British\nColumbia and Alberta. \u201cThey speak the language of social impact and they lead\nby example. I am so impressed and moved by their understanding of the human\nequation for social change. Great training, proper guidance and supportive\naccompaniment can lead to gainful employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs a social worker who trained and worked in\nIsrael with some of her significant social challenges for two decades years, I\nknow that Hy and Ruthie really understand the most critical needs of Israel. It\nis also an honour for me to be able to partner with JDC Israel, one of Israel\u2019s\nmost noteworthy agencies of real social mobility and empowerment for Israel\u2019s\nmost at-risk populations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ross summed up the strong belief that drives\nhis philanthropy in Israel simply: \u201cI believe every Jew has an obligation to\nsupport Israel in some way.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Matthew Gindin<\/strong> <em>is a freelance journalist, writer and\nlecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the <\/em>CJN<em>, writes regularly for\nthe <\/em>Forward<em>, <\/em>Tricycle<em> and the <\/em>Wisdom Daily<em>, and has been\npublished in <\/em>Sojourners<em>, <\/em>Religion Dispatches<em> and elsewhere. He\ncan be found on Medium and Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. William and Ruth Ross (photo from Canadian Associates of Ben-Gurion University) Dr. William Hy Ross tears up talking about the motivation behind his philanthropic activities in Israel. Sitting behind a desk in his room at the medical clinic he runs, over which hangs a watercolour painting of the Mount of Olives, Ross said it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329,4],"tags":[1133,1908,1910,705,4330,2398,2763,8589,8588],"class_list":["post-31176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","category-local","tag-american-jewish-joint-distribution-committee","tag-ben-gurion-university","tag-bgu","tag-david-berson","tag-israel","tag-jdc","tag-philanthropy","tag-sagie-shein","tag-william-ross"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}