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.

http://tinyurl.com/24rtkv

http://tinyurl.com/2zj6yu

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 setting up more Urban K'vutzot 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
DoreenDotan@gmail.com