{"id":44325,"date":"2024-05-24T01:53:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T08:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=44325"},"modified":"2024-05-23T15:18:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T22:18:26","slug":"helping-the-displaced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2024\/05\/24\/helping-the-displaced\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping the displaced – Dror Israel\u2019s Noam Schlanger gives two BC talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last November, Dror Israel helped evacuees from northern Israel celebrate the holiday of Sigd. <\/i>(photo from Dror Israel)<\/i><\/p>\n

Noam Schlanger of Dror Israel is returning to British Columbia to discuss the group\u2019s emergency response after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel. He will speak at Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria on May 28, at 7 p.m., and at Congregation Beth Israel in Vancouver on June 2, at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been working with many of the affected communities for a long time before the attacks, so, when the war broke, we had the connections and the know-how to immediately set up educational frameworks for evacuated communities, with an emphasis on therapeutic and empowering platforms,\u201d Schlanger the Independent<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will also be talking about our work with the tens of thousands of evacuees from the north, who still haven\u2019t returned to their towns and homes. We have been providing day camps, leadership training courses and social-emotional support to many children and teens who have been living in cramped hotel rooms with their parents for seven months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schlanger is an engagement director with Dror Israel, an Israeli organization that teaches leadership and responsibility for both individuals and community. Comprised of 1,300 trained educators in 16 communities on the social and economic periphery of the country, the organization promotes social activism to drive positive change. Educators live in the neighbourhoods they serve to bridge gaps and solve local problems. Through its youth movement, schools and programming in Israel, it helps an estimated 150,000 people a year.<\/p>\n

Dror Israel educators have supported children traumatized by previous wars, the COVID lockdowns and the war in Ukraine. During the current war, the organization, in cooperation with local municipalities and the Israel Defences Forces Home Front Command, has established programs to help evacuees and residents who have been hardest hit.<\/p>\n

Schlanger shared several stories of how Dror Israel has played a crucial role in allowing life and events in the country to continue as normally as possible under the circumstances. In November last year, they helped evacuees celebrate Sigd, a holiday celebrated by Ethiopian Jews that falls 50 days after Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n

This past March, students from Dror Israel\u2019s Tel Aviv high school used their skills in urban agriculture to create community gardens. The portable gardens were made at several evacuee centres for displaced communities and not only provide fresh produce but therapeutic spaces that give solace and connection.<\/p>\n

In April, 400 children from the evacuated city of Kiryat Shmona were supplied structure and some fun through a Passover day camp. The children, from grades 1 to 6, who are presently housed in Tel Aviv hotels, went bowling, visited an amusement park and had a picnic near the Alexander River.<\/p>\n