Published Articles

Original Article Published In The Jerusalem Post

According to Eyal Carlin, consul commissioner for North America, 40% of Israel tourism comes from the US.

NEW YORK – Tourism Minister Haim Katz recently visited New York City, thanking the people there – Israel’s biggest supporter of travel – and promoting further tourism and investment in the industry.

In his first visit to an Israel Government Tourism Office outside of the country, Katz shared promising news about travel to Israel as he addressed a group of travel industry professionals, real estate investors, diplomats, Jewish organization leaders and friends of Israel at a reception at JNF headquarters in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

“In 2019, more than a million tourists visited Israel from the United States,” he said. “And in the first quarter of 2023, there was an increase of 10% over 2019. It was the best year ever for incoming tourism to Israel. I am sure this trend will continue.”

According to Eyal Carlin, consul commissioner for North America, 40% of Israel tourism comes from the US.

Once tourists come to Israel for an initial visit, Katz wants them to return.

Israeli Foreign Minister Haim Katz and Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili sign agreement to promote tourism between their respective countries. (credit: MIRI SHIMONOVITZ/FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY)

“Our goal is not just to bring people to Israel, but to make them want to come back.”

Katz emphasized Israel’s desirability as a tourist destination. “Our regional reality is changing. We are working hard to maintain peace with our neighbors.” Katz reassured the audience that “Israel is stronger than ever” and praised its ongoing friendship with the United States. “The US is a good friend and partner.”

The 75-year-old minister noted that tourists can visit Israel’s important attractions – and get a sense of the diversity housed within a state the size of New Jersey – in a 10-day visit. He rattled off must-see attractions and cities including Masada and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Golan Heights and the Galilee/Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).

“You can see many things and experience culinary – kosher – [delights] all within an hour or two drive. There are more than 80 national parks and more than 400 nature preserves. You can see the whole country by driving for eight hours.”

He is also a big fan of Israeli breakfasts, which he was quick to point out are included in most hotels in the country. He smiled and said that this is in contrast to what he has experienced on his stay in New York, where breakfast comes at an additional cost.

Katz is particularly attuned to hotels in Israel. In addition, he hopes to soon make things easier for hotel developers.

“With increasing numbers of visitors, Israel is working to build more hotels at a faster rate to meet the needs of different travelers including family, religious, luxury travelers, and others – while also being mindful of sustainability and environmental practices.”

Katz is pleased with the range of options and points out the increasing popularity of glamping.

He also proudly referenced such high-end options as Six Senses Shaharut, a 60-suite resort in the Negev Desert 65 km. from Ramon International Airport and 80 km. from the beaches of Eilat. Suites run more than $1,000/night.

The minister acknowledged concerns about hotel costs but noted the associated costs of kosher travel and hotel security.

Hotels from concept to construction

Katz explained that a major reason for the lack of new hotels in Israel is the very long time it takes from concept to construction.

“Today, it takes seven to 12 years to build a new hotel. I am addressing the bureaucracy and regulations to cut the time it takes to build a new hotel,” he said, noting that the entire process takes only four years in Greece.

He is also working hard to make sure that entering Israel at Ben-Gurion Airport is a pleasant experience for everyone. He noted an increase in tourism from Japan now that Israel began offering direct flights to Tokyo in March.

“Today, it takes seven to 12 years to build a new hotel. I am addressing the bureaucracy and regulations to cut the time it takes to build a new hotel.”

Haim Katz

“We are addressing cultural differences,” said Katz, adding that balancing security needs with politeness is always important. “We offer seminars for our agents.”

Katz said Japanese people generally don’t respond well to the method of direct questioning by Israeli security, and to agents looking in their luggage. He offered that such culturally sensitive practices are part of a larger effort to attract tourists from countries such as China.

“You are the first face of Israel that they see,” he said he explained to the security personnel.

He also touted new sites and attractions that continue to be available to tourists.

As an example, the government recently approved a budget of NIS 32 million ($8.8m.) for the restoration and development of the Sebastia, the archaeological site near Nablus. Sebastia was reportedly founded by Israelite King Omri in the 9th century BCE and it served as the capital of the northern Israelite kingdom.

Katz said Israel is filled with historical sites including many in the West Bank.

“We will be putting Judea and Samaria back on the tourism map.”

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original Article Published On The JNS

Harriet Schleifer, newly 70, is the rare leader who has distinguished herself in multiple spheres.

Harriet Schleifer just wants Jews of all backgrounds to get along.

“I am a huge believer in Jewish peoplehood and Jewish continuity, and to the greatest extent possible, I want different Jewish groups not only to speak with each other but to get to know each other so that friendship develops,” the chair-elect of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations told JNS recently.

Schleifer, whose philanthropy lent her name to the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center in New Haven, Conn., talked to JNS on a trip to Israel the center just took that focused on access for those with disabilities. She brought her son, David, with her on his first visit to the Jewish state.

The retired attorney, who resides in Chappaqua, N.Y., has decades of nonprofit experience. She is a former president of the American Jewish Committee; a Cornell University trustee; and a board member of organizations that include the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Jewish Museum in New York and the Jewish Broadcasting Service. She has been a member of the executive council of the Conference of Presidents since 2019, and has held positions at UJA-Federation of New York and the Westchester Jewish Council. And she served as president of a synagogue in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

She will become chair of the Conference of Presidents on June 1.

In an interview with JNS, Schleifer stressed the importance of Jews working and “hanging” out together. “I feel like Jews can’t afford divisiveness. They really can’t,” she said. “I really want to keep us connected.”

Schleifer celebrated her 70th birthday recently with the Chapel Haven group at Newark Liberty International Airport before flying to Israel for the trip. She took time away from the group to represent the Conference of Presidents at the Knesset when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) addressed the Israeli parliament.

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents, told JNS that Schleifer’s “impressive achievements” at AJC “speak volumes about her leadership and dedication to the Jewish community.”

He added that “her personal connection to Jewish continuity and her profound understanding of our history make her a truly exceptional advocate.”

Harriet Schleifer as president of the American Jewish Committee. Credit: AJC.

‘Everyone can contribute something’

Schleifer is the rare leader who has distinguished herself in two spheres—advocating for those with disabilities and for Jews—and those who revere her in each often are unaware of the work she does in the other. 

Everything that she does draws upon her identity as a Jewish person, she told JNS.

“It’s what was breathed in my home. It was the oxygen growing up. My parents were Holocaust survivors, and they did talk” about their experiences, she said. 

As such, she noted: “I was a child with an old head.”

Schleifer sees her advocacy for Jews and those with disabilities as a way to amplify voices. “You have to be productive, in terms of making life better for people,” she said. “If you can’t contribute, then you should step aside. Everyone can contribute something in their own way.”

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Original Article Published On The JNS

“Disabilities should not hinder individuals and their families from … participating in cultural exchanges like any neurotypical individual would,” said Michael Storz of the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center in New Haven, Conn.

A group of 30 residents of Connecticut, including adults with disabilities, their parents and staff members who work with them, spent nine days in Israel learning about accessibility in the Jewish state.

The trip ran from April 26 to May 4, observed by JNS in its entirety. It was a joint program of the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center in New Haven, Conn., and the nonprofit Access Israel and Accessibility Accelerator—the U.S. partner of Access Israel, based in Kfar Saba, Israel.

“Disabilities should not hinder individuals and their families from traveling, navigating all terrains and participating in cultural exchanges like any neurotypical individual would,” Michael Storz, president of Chapel Haven, a more than 50-year-old nonprofit, told JNS.

The trip not only taught Chapel Haven’s staff and adult community members about how Israeli counterparts remove barriers to independence, but the group also “learned about multiple cultures” and “the beauty of Israel and its people,” according to Storz. And it focused on creating “ambassadors for accessible travel.”

Early on in the program, Jamie Lassner, executive director of Accessibility Accelerator, told the group: “Your experience and knowledge have made you an important advocate for inclusive and accessible travel.”

Harriet Schleifer, a Chapel Haven donor and board member (she does not live in Connecticut), first suggested the idea of a trip to Israel. She participated with her 36-year-old son, David Schleifer, who was visiting the Jewish state for the first time.

The itinerary included visits to the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, a boat ride on the Kinneret and a tour of Agamon Hula-JNF Nature and Ornithology Park in the Hula Valley in northern Israel. At the nature center, after touring the nature reserve’s many miles of paved pathways in golf carts, participants had an opportunity to ride on the back of a tandem bike driven by a professional bike rider, where they were encouraged to cover their eyes and experience the park like a blind person would. Others rode recumbent bikes.

One participant, Shania Jones, told JNS that closing her eyes was “pretty scary at first, but a good experience.”

Mother and son Peggy Baker and Matthew Baker. Credit: Courtesy of Accessibility Accelerator.

Accessibility at Masada, Dead Sea, Tower of David

In Tel Aviv, participants heard over dinner at the Herod Hotel from Shirly Pinto, the only deaf person to serve in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in the capital of Jerusalem. The former Knesset member told the group about addressing that legislative body with an interpreter. She recounted that it was unusual for the Knesset to remain so silent and attentive, she said.

The group also visited Palmachim Airbase, near Rishon Letzion and Yavne on the Mediterranean coast, where participants saw mechanics working on Black Hawk helicopters. Driving his wheelchair, Yuval Wagner, president and founder of Access Israel, led the group to a monument to a Cobra helicopter that crashed on a 1987 training mission when a rotor broke off. Wagner was paralyzed in that crash, which killed his commander.

At the base and over dinner at his home in Hod Hasharon outside Tel Aviv, Wagner told the group that he was inspired to create Access Israel after being unable to access a bathroom at a guest house while vacationing in the north of Israel.

Participant Rachel McEachern at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Credit: Courtesy of Accessibility Accelerator.

The itinerary also included a visit to Masada, which the group found to be accessible for those with wheelchairs or scooters, and a stop at the Dead Sea. The latter, where the group took wooden steps to reach a beach, was not accessible, although participants were told that other parts of the area were.

At the Tower of David Museum of Jerusalem, Reut Kozak, head of access and inclusion, explained that the museum has recently upgraded an elevator and its galleries to make them more accessible.

Other stops included the Jerusalem headquarters of the emergency services first-responder agency United Hatzalah; the Biblical Zoo, also in Jerusalem; and Ma’arag Mevo’ot HaChermon, a job-training program for people with disabilities, which includes a coffee shop and art workshop.

A group photo at the Palmachim Airbase in Israel; Yuval Wagner, president and founder of Access Israel, is in the front row, third from left, in the wheelchair. Credit: Courtesy of Accessibility Accelerator.

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Original Article Published On The JPOST

CEO Guy Salomon began thinking about his hobby of beer-making and wondered if this fairly simple and straightforward process might have potential as a job for program participants.

On a rainy Jerusalem morning, several small rooms in a nondescript building complex in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem are bustling with activity. A group of young men and women, all with cerebral palsy and other motor disabilities – many seated in wheelchairs – are loud and animated as they discuss the Israeli artist of the day, Shlomi Shabat, in their mifgash tarbut (cultural meeting) class. One young man playfully notes that the Turkish treats they will soon prepare in honor of Shabat’s Turkish heritage are different from the treats his own Turkish mother prepares.

Welcome to Tsad Kadima’s (A Step Forward) Adult Day Center in Jerusalem and its national headquarters. The award-winning nonprofit, founded in 1987 by parents of children with cerebral palsy, operates in five other cities – Beersheba, Eilat, Rishon Lezion, Ness Ziona and Or Akiva.

Tsad Kadima utilizes the Conductive Education, or Peto, approach, which was developed at the Peto Institute in Hungary in the 1940s. The approach involves participants specifically learning to perform actions that those without disabilities learn naturally through life experiences. Children with disabilities are encouraged to be problem solvers and develop a self-reliant personality that fosters participation, initiative, determination, motivation, independence and self-sufficiency.

While the mifgash tarbut group is learning about Shabat, a team of talented musicians is working in an adjoining room with Boaz Reinschreiber, a music teacher and designer of the Arcana. This unique instrument uses a joystick and produces sounds like a guitar so that people with motor disabilities can compose and play music. 

“I didn’t know what cerebral palsy was,” says Reinschreiber as he reflects on his first experience helping a girl with motor disabilities who was interested in finding a way to actively experience music. “I saw Gil’s ambition and desire to play. There were no solutions, but I wanted to find something. I saw how accurate she was with a joystick on her wheelchair.” 

PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS and staff label beer bottles. (credit: HOWARD BLAS)PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS and staff label beer bottles. (credit: HOWARD BLAS)

Reinschreiber and his colleagues created what would become Arcana, which is catching on in Israel and throughout Europe as a useful music education tool for disabled and non-disabled musicians. 

Sarah Morgan, 29, a participant who has difficulties producing clear, easy to understand speech but has incredible passion and enthusiasm, is sitting in her wheelchair at the back of the culture class, describing her experience as a student at David Yellin College of Education. Morgan studies side by side with non-disabled students in the special education college program. 

Hadassah Diner, director of the Jerusalem Adult Day Center, who is accustomed to Sarah’s speech and helped clarify certain words for this reporter, says, “It is fun to learn in a group. You feel part of the group…. Sarah loves learning! When she came to the center, she was scared about learning. Now she is happy and challenged intellectually and is enjoying classes and forming friendships.”

“The participants are learning to be more active in life – not only physically but mentally as well. The goal is to be integrated in society and take part in the community.”Guy Salomon

The activities and program are a success

CEO GUY SALOMON is pleased with the activities and programs taking place in the building, in the community and throughout the country. “The participants are learning to be more active in life – not only physically but mentally as well. The goal is to be integrated in society and take part in the community.” Tsad Kadima strives to develop independence and successful mainstreaming into society while offering necessary environmental supports. 

While Salomon is reluctant to take credit for what has now become an integral part of the program, one of his ideas has helped create jobs, raise self-esteem and create a buzz in the local community and throughout Israel. Salomon began thinking about his hobby of beer-making and wondered if this fairly simple and straightforward process might have potential as a job for program participants. 

“I do beer at home and thought it would be easy,” Salomon recounts. Thus Bira Kadima was born, joining the many microbreweries that have been springing up across the country since 2011. “At first, I thought it would be an easy job to learn, since it involves working in a certain order. We discovered that it was tasty, and the outcome was good!” 

Once participants were off and running with their beer-making, a local Jerusalem bar agreed to offer space for two hours on a Friday afternoon where participants could host parents and sample the beer their children had brewed. “It was amazing – it was the first time participants ever sat with their parents over a beer,” reports Salomon. 

While the response to Bira Kadima from participants, parents and the community has been positive, the staff has encountered a number of challenges with the beer-making operation. Ruti Cohen, an occupational therapist who has been part of the Tsad Kadima program since 2013, runs Bira Kadima. “It is still very challenging.” She notes that it has been difficult finding a role that is a good fit for each participant. In addition, once a person settles into a specific role, it is hard to offer that role to another participant. Cohen, who has used her expertise as an occupational therapist to create adaptive devices, wishes she had more adaptive machines and equipment for her participants. “We are always finding new ways,” she says. 

EVERY THURSDAY, known as “cooking days,” the fairly simple beer-making process, which goes back 12,000 years, begins. Essentially, water and grain are heated, the mixture is boiled with hops, then cooled, fermented and carbonated. On this day, the first day back after the long (hametz-free) Passover break, some participants start the process of making a Belgian beer by pouring malt and hops and other ingredients into a big pot in the center of the room. 

Others retrieve older cold beer from a small keg in the refrigerator and fill bottles. Additional team members paste labels on the bottles. They will produce 50 bottles a day and have thus far produced five varieties of beer.

Ayelet Hazout, 41, a resident of Katamon, has a specially designed bottle holder attached to her wheelchair. She uses her chair and adaptive device to transport bottles from the filling team to the labeling team. “I love to [make] beer because it is fun,” she says. 

Some participants also work on publicity and marketing by regularly posting about Bira Kadima on Instagram and Facebook. The staff is proud of how much of the beer-making process is done by the participants. “We work hard to make the process their beer and not us getting involved.” The staff assists throughout the entire process but does not offer more support than necessary. 

The staff has enjoyed watching the excitement and joy that comes from earning a salary. “The money goes to them!” says Cohen. Staff members were particularly proud as they watched group members discuss what to do with their first paycheck. “They wanted us to buy gift cards for them so they could buy coffee and cake for the team,” Cohen says.

Diner is pleased with how far the beer-making program has come and how well Bira Kadima fits in with the overall approach and philosophy of the program. She adds somewhat playfully and somewhat seriously, “We essentially made it up as we went along.” They asked participants if they would be interested in beer-making, and participants and the staff – new to beer-making – learned processes as they proceeded. 

Looking back, Diner is pleased with the industry they essentially arrived at by chance and looks forward to the continued expansion of Bira Kadima. “It allows participants to be active and as autonomous as possible while providing a service to people and being part of a social environment. And beer-making is so down to earth!”

According to Benjy Maor, director of resource development, Tsad Kadima operates in its current space and rents an apartment in Jerusalem to provide training for independent living in the community. The organization has received land from the Jerusalem Municipality in the Mekor Haim neighborhood to build its own home, in partnership with the Jerusalem Foundation, which will house all aspects of the program. Bira Kadima hopes to move to a larger facility and expand its successful beer-making operation.

To learn more about the therapeutic home-brewing workshop: tsadkadima.org.il/en/homepage/what-we-do/special-programs/homebrewing/

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