Not What I Was Expecting

Thursday August 1st

When I woke up promptly at 6:15 to get ready for our day in Tel Aviv I truthfully I no idea what I was in for. By my own fault I neglected to read the articles explaining the NGOs we would be meeting with so the extent of my knowledge was limited to the fact that we were meeting with NGOs dealing with refugees and asylum seekers. I think it is safe to say though that no one in our group was adequately prepared for the discomfort and excessive emotions we would feel later in the day.

We started the morning off on a really positive note as we met with a woman who started an NGO called Microfy. The NGO gives small loans to create sustainable businesses within the refugee/asylum seeking community. The woman who started the NGO, Andrea Kruchik, is truly an inspiring person and most of our group left feeling like anything was possible. Andrea grew up in Uruguay in a very well-off community. In her area everyone had cleaning ladies and one day she went to visit her cleaning lady at her home. Upon reaching the cleaning ladies home she was in such shock with the environment and devastation of the community that she knew she want to make a difference. She made aliyah to Israel where she decided to study economics because she thought the best way to change these devastated communities was through economic means.  When she got to Tel Aviv though she saw refugees sleeping in Lewinsky Park and again felt like she needed to do something. So she decided to study microfinance and began giving small loans.

There are something like 60,000 refugees in Israel. Most live under the poverty line and only have conditional release visas meaning they have no rights and cannot work. Police can arrest them at any time and often they will be offered money to leave the country but the refugees always refuse the money because they can't go home. Thus they are stuck and have to find some way to support themselves. Luckily there are a lot of NGOs in Tel Aviv that work with the refugees. Andrea began her programs by gathering a group of women from Darfur and giving them 200 shekel loans to buy supplies to make crafts to sell. But after several months of this she realized that most Israelis wouldn't buy the jewelry just to help the cause. Plus, the woman weren't making enough money to really sustain their lives. The next step was the development of a basic business course to teach the women how to create and run a business and how to adapt their ideas to Israeli culture. This course has become very successful today and is now open to both males and females. Citi Bank has even given Microfly a grant to give loans and to help support the class. Once the class has been completed the refugees meet with consultants to clarify their ideas and create real business plans. When the plan is approved they are given small loans (5000-10,000) shekels to start their businesses. However, the refugees are not allowed to register their own businesses normally because technically they have no sustainable rights. Many of them rent their store fronts from Israelis though who are willing to register the business for them. But it is a tricky situation because the refugees are easy targets for exploitation.

Andrea was really honest with us about her work, which I really appreciated. So far she has been really lucky and successful. The loan receivers have 6-8 months to repay their loans and thus far everyone has done so. She told us about a man who got a small loan to open up a small market and then joined with another refugee to use the upstairs space above his store to open a clothing store. He just paid off his 2nd loan and has increased his profits by 25%. Only 1 in 10 businesses in Israel are successful so she knows that not everyone will be able to be successful but in following suit with Rambam's ladder she would rather help someone help themselves than simply give them things. One thing I thought was really interesting that she told us is that 85% of microfinance loans are given to women. I was really proud of this fact and quite impressed. I think it definitely shows that women are more than capable to providing for themselves and should be seen as forces to be reckoned with. Andrea certainly exemplified this concept for us.

After our meeting at Microfly ended Levi took us on an adventure to the Florentine neighborhood (where I stayed my first night in Israel). I swear we walked through construction sites to get there and we were all a little confused as to if he knew where we were actually going. But, he got us there and then successfully got about 5 of us to a vegan restaurant in the area. The restaurant had soo many yummy looking things on the menu and so many desserts, all of which I could eat, on the shelves. It was really nice to see such a restaurant because veganism isn't such a large concept in Israel. Plus it was yummy.

The next part of our day was supposed to be a walking tour of South Tel Aviv. This was the turning point of the day. We met up with our tour guide who seem really flustered and rushed. The first stop of our tour was to visit a radical Mizrachi (Jews of West Asis/Middle Eastern decent) feminist. I had no idea what to expect and unfortunately we had to leave right as it seemed she was getting to the main idea. But I did get to learn a little.  The first thing she told us was that south Tel Aviv is like a different country because it is full of poor mizrachi jews whereas northern/central Jerusalem is made up of mostly successful ashkenazi jews. At first I was a little confused with this statement but walking around the area I can see how it is true. When you think of Tel Aviv you think of tall buildings and beaches. No one really thinks, or even wanders, into the parts of the city where things are dirtier and less kept up. (Or at least know one I know does this). The same can be said about America though. However when she began to talk about her view points I was a bit taken aback. She said that the Ashkenazi Jews are oppressing the Mizrachi Jews. I wish I had gotten to listen to her more to better understand her views on the subject but just from my base understanding I think she might be over reacting. In every society people are oppressed. I mean just in Israel by itself I feel secular Jews are oppressed by the orthodoxy. But, that is just my opinion. 

When we left the radical feminist we went on to walk around South Tel Aviv a little. We stopped in front of a multicultural school. While there our tour guide told us kids of all ethnicities and religions attend the school. While there we heard a story of one of the boys who attends the school. He is Asian and was born in Israel but since he isn't Jewish so he doesn't have citizenship. Rather he is a defacto Israeli. By this I mean that because he was raised here, went to school hear, joined the army, felt pride for Israel while on their Poland trip, he is an Israeli. The government will not say that he is but he feels he is. We also toured the central station a little bit. When the station was built it was the largest bus station in the world. It is 7 floors and originally was built with the intention for it to not only act as a bus station but also as a mall. This initial dream didn't come true. Today the station is pretty sketchy. The top two floors house the bus station and the bottom floors are partially shops and partially empty. However our tour guide explained that only about 30% (or something like that) is actually in use and as we were walking through he explained that a floor is dedicated to each ethnicity that needed a place when the mall was being built. For example the bottom floor is the Persian market. It just all seemed pretty complicated and hard to get through when we where there. 

The last part of this south Tel Aviv tour was a meeting with a refugee. We met him in the park that he lived in when he first got to Israel. Even though his story was very interesting I could barely pay attention because I was so uncomfortable. Here we were 16 American teenagers with all of our luggage for the weekend and our nice clothes and our iphones sitting in the park where we are intruding on these peoples home. I realize it is not a real home that you would generally think of but to the refugees it is where they sleep at night and congregate with their peers. We were literally surrounded by men sleeping on cardboard boxes and people kept peering into our group as if they were telling us to leave. By the end of it I really just wanted to go somewhere else. And so we did. We went and sat in a hall of the central station to wrap up our day. I realize that what I have written here isn't as emotional as I felt at the time but it is important to understand that 95% of our group felt like they had been punched in the stomach. Between the rushing from place to place in the afternoon and the last meeting we had with a refugee we were all deflated. It was hard to comprehend that in a few minutes we would be getting on buses, going out for nice dinners, and enjoying our weekends while these refugees try to keep themselves alive. 

By the time our group meeting ended, an hour after it was supposed to because we all had things to get off our chest, I was happy to be alone to process everything. I grabbed something to eat in the extremely sketchy, only has 3 restaurants that all look kind of gross, food court in the station and found my way to the bus. An hour or so later I found Shai waiting at the bus stop for me. I was so happy that I would be sleeping in a real house with people I know and where I felt comfortable. Between the regular exhaustion and emotional exhaustion I was ready to just fall asleep so I did.