Alternative Suggestion for Battling
Poverty
with a Proven Track Record of Success
This article is in response to an article that appeared in
the 23/11/07 issues of "Kol HaIr"
and "Chadash B'Galil",
the two largest local newspapers in Tzfat.
The article reports the conclusions of a convention of
social workers that was held at the Tzfat College, which is a branch of Bar Ilan University.
The gist of their conclusions is summed up in the following
quote, which I will herein translate:
"One of the principle conclusions that arose from the
convention (is that) in spite of the devoted care of the social workers, who
are positioned on the vanguard of the social battle, and the professional
values that accompany their work, the (social) workers are occupied with
preserving the existing policy and are not sufficiently involved in the
practical processes of social and communal reform. It behooves the social
workers, who work in the establishment's service, to change the situation and
transfer (their efforts) to the level of change."
The following is my response to their statement:
Not possessed of the analytical abilities of those who
studied mathematics; the real sciences or philosophy at university; the Social
Workers, products as they are of the very least intellectually demanding and
rigorous courses that colleges and universities have to offer, cannot be
expected to perceive the inherent contradictions in the passage above.
One cannot receive one's salary from "the
establishment", be in and at its service, as the vast majority of Social
Workers are, and fight against it. One cannot be more moral than one's boss.
One does not do battle with one's boss.
They are correct in describing themselves as being in
"the vanguard", but not in the way that the establishment they work
for has made them think. Rather than being given equitable salaries and being
provided with work conditions in which they will be able to affect some good,
they are given illusions about themselves. They are told that they are doing
"holy work" and that they are among the most socially aware. They
are, as anyone who has ever had the misfortune of needing their services knows
painfully well, neither.
Think for a moment. Think about all of the scandals and
corruption of the government that we hear about almost continuously. Think
about the exposes in the press. Think about the scathing reports of the State
Comptrollers. Think about the police investigations. Think about the many times
that they have increased their salaries by many percentages, even as they
raised the prices of staple food items.
Are we to believe that the social workers, in the employ of
a government such as this are really working for the benefit of society at
their behest? Is the government ruining society only to send out its employees
to fix what they systematically destroy to their own ends? Is the government
employing social workers to re-empower the populace while they invest so very
much in de-empowering us? Not likely.
How then are the social workers in "the
vanguard"? They are the government's first line of defense, and its
cheapest one, against the desperate becoming radicalized revolutionaries. It is
the social workers' job to keep the potentially explosive sectors of society on
a low flame of rage. If the rage of those systematically impoverished and
disempowered by the government does flare up, it is the job of the social
workers to keep them frightened, confused, threatened and most of all helpless.
I understand that these are very difficult realizations to
absorb. But if you will consider these matters, and I, unlike those in whose
employ the social workers are, respect your intelligence enough to know you can
understand these matters if you set your minds to them, you will apprehend
matters that heretofore have confounded you.
There is great re-empowerment in understanding the truths
about a far-reaching, deeply entrenched social phenomenon. But this is not
enough to right the wrong. We must be able to proffer a better alternative. To
this purpose I will turn presently.
A quiet revolution is
well underway in the Kibbutz Movement.
Literally hundreds of
small Urban Kibbutzim, or K'vutzot as some call
themselves due their small size, are springing up all over the country - most
of them in development towns and in distressed neighborhoods.
They
are models of mutual sufficiency based on cooperation.
You'll read a bit
about the Urban Kibbutzim and K'vutzot on the
following links. The second was written by a member of one of those K'vutzot.
They are small groups
of people who not only pool their resources, live their lives according to
direct democratic principles that they carry out in their regular meetings;
they devote their lives to helping others in distress.
A number of them have
developed innovative programs of education for people of all ages.
Kibbutz Mehanchim (Educators) help youth at risk in the Hadar neighborhood of Chaifa.
See: http://tinyurl.com/2tgr9h Note that the article states that
"the city (of Chaifa) called on 70 young people
from all over the country, members of the Noar Haoved Vehalomed (Working and
Learning Youth) youth movement, to establish an urban kibbutz to work with the
neighborhood's at-risk youth. That means that they provided housing and initial
services for the program to get underway.
Kibbutz Tamuz in Beit Shemesh
(a rapidly developing town near Jerusalem) is the oldest of the Urban
Kibbutzim. We visited Kibbutz Tammuz when it was about five years old. We were
very impressed with the warmth and dedication of those young people. They had
received a building from Amidar that was pretty run
down and renovated it themselves. It is a pleasure to present an idea to you of
how far they've gotten since and how much they contribut
to Beit Shemesh: http://tinyurl.com/ypxxg2
And now we get down
to takhlis. K'vutzat Re'ut is located in the housing project Gilo
Aleph in Jerusalem. It is one of two urban Kibbutzim in Jerusalem. One of the
Urban Kibbutzim in Jerusalem is entirely religious. It is called Reishit (The First).
The population of Kvutzat Re'ut is mixed - more and
less religiously observant. They run a number of projects of neighborhood aid.
Additionally, they have a beit midrash and a pre-army leadership training program (a
mekhina). My son visited K'vutzat
Re'ut when he was doing his pre-army leadership training
course at Meitzar. Meitzar
took their students to K'vutzat Re'ut
because their program is so very good. : Please see their web site: http://www.reut.org.il/
There are people that
are considered "Friends of Urban Kibbutzim". While they are not
members themselves, they support the programs and learn and work with the K'vutzot for the betterment of the environs.
K'vutzat Re'ut is all
about Jewish learning and mutual tolerance. It is a model of cooperation. They
go beyond mere toleration of varying viewpoints. They incorporate them into one
beautiful, and very productive mosaic.
The problem establishing
more Urban Kibbutzim seems to be funding.
We see, then, that there are many advantages to having Urban
K'vuotzot and Kibbutzim in one's town.
They are not in the employ of the government, and so may
act as independent moral agents.
They are themselves examples of independence and the
attaining of a very respectable standard of living based on mutual aid.
Their approach to the communities that they take up
residence is not patronizing and not one of superiority. They don't see the
people that they worth in tandem with as those needing treatment. They work
shoulder to shoulder and eye to eye with people and empower them to help
themselves. This is an essential point. Dependence on a "vanguard" to
do one's fighting, even if that were possible, and we have seen that it is not,
can only lead to increasing dependence and weakness. Those whose dependence is
cultivated and perpetuated by those who rule over them with a heavy hand and
who are made to think of themselves as "weak" or
"miserable", cannot ever help themselves. Only those who are shown
and convinced of the power that resides within them when they work together on
the basis of mutual aid are in the position to really improve their lives and
the lives of others.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel