Jerusalem – Three times as many Arabs as Haredim volunteer for national civil service, Sar-Shalom Jerbi, the Director of the National Civilian Service Authority (NCS), told President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday.
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Speaking at an event at the President’s Residence at which the most outstanding volunteers were honored, Jerbi said that of some 18,000 NCS volunteers, 8,500 came from national religious backgrounds, 4,500 were Arabs and 1,500 were Haredim. Most of the others wanted to contribute to the country, but were frustrated because the army had no need for them.
“They are contributing to security on a different level,” said Sar-Shalom.
Ahmed Zatrah from Ein Nekuba, an Arab village west of Jerusalem, is a volunteer policeman, with a command of Arabic, Hebrew and English. All non-Jewish volunteers are given courses in Hebrew so that they can find their places in mainstream society, said Jerbi.
“We’re very proud of you,” Rivlin told Zatrah, and called on Israel’s Arab citizens in general to come forward and to do their bit for the state, because “even though Jews and Arabs have their disputes, in the final analysis we are all members of one nation and have responsibility for each other.”
Zatrah told The Jerusalem Post that he had volunteered because he felt that he should do something for the country in which he lives, and that if he did so, it would benefit him in the future. He is willing to serve for as long as he is needed.
Liora Cohen, an immigrant from France who came to Israel on her own three years ago, now speaks fluent Hebrew and works with senior citizens. She advised all new immigrants to do some form of national service, which she said would help them to integrate quickly and would also be rewarding simply through the knowledge that they had been able to help others. Israel has given her a lot over the past three years, she said, and she could do nothing less than give back.
Israel Guetta, a haredi young man who came from Italy at the age of 12, helps to educate children of mothers in a facility for battered women. He also regards his volunteer activities as a form of reciprocity in return for all that he received. “I didn’t want to be different,” he said. “I wanted to pay back what I owe to the state and also to be in a position where I could be part of mainstream society. Aside from all that, there was never any reason not to volunteer.”
Rivlin remarked that the distress of individuals in different sectors of society is alleviated by volunteers, who sometimes include people who, because of their physical conditions, have their own special needs. In fact, one such young man, Slava Yorchenko, who has ALS and is confined to a wheel chair, developed a talent for public speaking and frequently lectures to groups of people who also have physical disabilities, advising them to focus on what they can do and how they can contribute to making life better and more interesting for others.
The strength of every society is based on volunteerism, he said, adding that conventional wisdom says that we’re living in a “screen generation” and that today’s youth don’t have time to give of themselves because they’re too busy in front of one screen or another. But after reading the details pertaining to each of the outstanding volunteers, he said, “I reached the conclusion that Israeli can be confident about a bright future.”
The president remarked that he had read recently that certain public institutions will only accept employees of a particular caliber and of certain complexions, and emphasized “to me this is disgusting. When we speak of volunteers there is no discrimination, and when a company takes on new staff on the basis of the color of their skin or their ethnic background, I find this highly objectionable.”
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, who also has ministerial responsibility for NCS, declared that it was the social project of the state and that he would not permit discrimination in any form to interfere with the status quo. “There is room for everyone and there will be room for everyone,” he said.
Noting that the event was taking place during the nine days prior to Tisha B’Av, and that the Temple had been destroyed due to unconditional hatred, Ariel described volunteering for NCS as an act of unconditional love and the huge variety of social needs that are being met.
National service is just a nicer way of saying IDF. Besides who has time for national service if your volunteering for one of our hundreds of chesed organizations.
Yes there is no reason that charedim can’t do a minimum national service and work. They have this silly misconceived notion that anything secular is chazor trief. This is against our mesora and unprecedented. if the american “askanim” really wished to alliveate poverty in EY they can do it in a second. If the askanim encourge work and national service via the power of their wallets rather than this silly kollel mishaigas then it can be stopped in a second. The blame lies with them
Lest you start with well torah is the ikkur and our protector. of course it is. Noone denies that the main thing of our life should be torah. We should learn every second we can. (And instead of being on VIN I should be learning too) But our mesora has been that as a society as a whole we can’t have on a macro level a system where everyone learns. And its not what hashem wants either.
Why should the charidim feel the value of volunteer service ,after all they are learning the torah to protect all of israel.
What a busha!
#3 and 4 are right. I agree with #2 about these “askanim” who think they are everyone’s bosses and tell us who to vote for (de blasio), where to give money (any yeshiva where they wish to have a parlor meeting in a slumlord’s house) and policies (shidduchim, boys learning). That being sent we cannot allow atheist Zionists who try their own soldiers for killing terrorists (Elor Azaria), allowed for the murder of Rabbi Kahane after expelling him from their “democratic” Knesset and yet tolerate Hanan Zoabi and Ahmed Tibi to take our youth and mold them, this is what the czar wanted to do with the Cantonists.
That’s because volunteering in organizations like B’tzelem is considered national service whilst volunteering at the Mir isn’t.
Another thing to add to my list of kinos on Tisha Bav. I wouldn’t want my daughter serving under a Mohamed who then can try to convert her to Islam and have her trapped in his village as the Zionists allow hundreds of Jewish women to do every year. Never before did so many Jewish women convert to Islam, until Zionism took away their Jewish pride. Google Bentzi Gopstein and how he is harassed by the Zionists police for trying to stop intermarriage and assimilation in Israel.