County Group Aids Urban Disadvantaged : Jewish Federation Sees Success in Israeli City

According to legend, a sand dune called Jonah’s Hill overlooking the Mediterranean here is where the biblical prophet emerged from the belly of the whale with a second chance to deliver God’s warning to the sinners of Nineveh.

Jonah is a fitting symbol for Ashdod, which was established 29 years ago near the site of an ancient Philistine port of the same name to give immigrants, mostly from North Africa and the Arab countries, a second chance in a new Jewish state.

Looking back, most Israelis would say that the effort was only partially successful. But a group of American Jews from Orange County, Phoenix and Las Vegas saw here Tuesday how their dollars and their time are helping to improve the chances that the sons and daughters of those early immigrants will enjoy opportunities that their parents may have missed.

The visitors are active in Jewish federations which have been “twinned” with disadvantaged neighborhoods in Ashdod under a nationwide urban revitalization program called Project Renewal.

A dedication ceremony here Tuesday marked the end of the project’s first five years but not, according to participants, the end of the program or of the special relationship between the three American Jewish communities and Ashdod.

“It really binds us together as a family,” said Gerald C. Lasensky, executive director of the Orange County Jewish Federation. He said the federation, which has collected nearly $1 million for Ashdod, hopes to raise another $250,000 in the next two years. And after that it wants to continue people-to-people exchange programs indefinitely.

Orange County Jews were among the first to respond in the late 1970s when Menachem Begin, then the prime minister, called for a $1.2-billion joint effort by the Israeli government and Diaspora Jews to help 56 decaying urban Israeli neighborhoods.

Five years after the program began, about a third of those neighborhoods are considered urban renewal success stories, another third have made considerable progress and the final third are still floundering.

Israeli officials said Ashdod, which was twinned with the Orange County Jewish Federation and later with Phoenix and Las Vegas, is one of the success stories.

Don Gould, Israeli liaison for the Orange County Federation, recalled that under the pressure of immigration, and with a shortage of government funds, an underclass developed here of mostly Sephardic Jews from North Africa and other Arab countries.

“People came with 10, 11 kids and were put in substandard housing with the idea that ‘we’ll get to them eventually,’ ” Gould said. “Well, a generation went by, and we never got to them.”

Herzel Cachlon, 34, who has lived here since he was 6, said: “For more than 25 years, not one stone changed. Nothing was moved. Nothing was cleaned. Nothing. All anyone wanted was to leave, and I wanted to leave, too.”

Then Begin proposed his partnership plan to help the residents help themselves.

The Ashdod project, which encompasses the two oldest and most run-down districts of the city, “is considered a success more than anything because of the extent of resident participation” in the renewal effort, said Barbara Promislow, a Jewish Agency official dealing with Project Renewal.

It did not start that way. Larry Cohen, executive director of the Phoenix federation, said that “four years ago, when I first came, we asked to meet with citizens, and I’m convinced they had to drag people to the meeting.”

Residents Get Involved

But, by 1984, residents were interested enough to get involved in hotly contested elections to their neighborhood committee. And last year, the committee representing Ashdod’s Aleph district was declared the most effective in the nation.

“Project Renewal convinced us that we are part of the decisions, not just citizens receiving services,” said Cachlon, who is chairman of the Aleph residents’ committee.

There is still considerable urban decay visible in the Aleph and Bet neighborhoods, but mixed in with some drab, prefabricated concrete apartment buildings are others with freshly painted and stuccoed exteriors.

There are new recreation facilities in both neighborhoods, where the American visitors on Tuesday saw Israeli children dressed up as everything from brides to robots for the Purim holiday, which commemorates the rescue of Jews in ancient Persia.

Ashdod Mayor Aryeh Azulai and a representative of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv joined Laguna Hills resident Edith Rachtman and the other visitors in dedicating the Anita Mayer Recreation Center to the memory of Rachtman’s late sister. A bequest of $350,000 from Mayer’s estate, confirmed two weeks ago, “in essence makes it possible for us to meet our full share and commitment” to Project Renewal, Lasensky said.

“What better way to perpetuate her name than to do it where young people are involved?” Rachtman said.

Funds from the American Jewish federations also have been used to prepare and staff clubs for the elderly, preschool classes, vocational courses and dental programs.

Referring to the Orange County Jewish community, which numbers about 100,000, Lasensky said he hopes the Americans can learn something from Project Renewal.

“I sometimes feel we need a Jewish renewal program of our own to strengthen our institutions,” the federation executive said. “If we can do it in Ashdod, there’s no reason we can’t provide some of the same services in Orange County. For example, we don’t have a Jewish home for the aged in Orange County.”