Newspaper Page Text
Friday, January 28, 1968
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Pag* Sara
Joseph And The Future Of Israel
By ABRAHAM PENN
(A Seven Arts Feature)
Lydda is the crossroads of Is
rael. Planes from all over the
world land at the ultra-modem
airport. Debarking passengers
take the high road to Tel Aviv
or to Jerusalem. Unlike Lot’s
wife, seldom do they look back
at the town of Lydda and its in
habitants. If they did, they
would find quite another Israel.
For example they might see
Joseph, who has lived in Lydda
ever since his family arrived
from North Africa a few yean
ago. Slight • and sparrow chested,
he looks like the product of the
North African ghettos which he
is. Although of school age, Jos
eph has not seen the inside of a
,classroom for the last two years.
I Social workers have pinned a
label on him—dropout. But he
knows he is not alone. Many of
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his friends in this new immigrant
settlement, in a place that was
old when Joshua won his victory
over the Canannites are in the
same boat. Together with them,
he spends his days watching the
planes whirl overhead and the
endless stream of visitors rushing
in all directions, and who do not
even know of his existence.
Joseph belongs to the “other
Israel,” the group which now
constitutes half the country’s pop
ulation, and which is not yet part
of the dynamism and newness
that excites the wonder of the
tourist.
Instead he is part of that “very
large majority . . . who have no
schools to go to, have no jobs
because they do not have the nec
essary skills . . . .they wander in
a lost world, with few opportun
ities open to them,” as one ob
server puts it.
Of the 27,000 children of Ori
ental or North African origin who
each year start the first grade
of primary school in Israel, only
16,000 graduate. Like Joseph, the
rest drop by the wayside. Offic
ial figures show that whereas
Joseph and his brethem of Ori
ental origin already constitute 60
percent of the children in kin
dergarten, they make up only 25
percent of secondary school en
rollment.
This disparity represents the
missing children who have fallen
through Israel’s educational gap.
There are in Israel 40-50,000
youngsters of high school age
who are not in high school or
any other kind of school, nor are
they at work. They are what the
Ministry of Education terms Is
rael’s “Social danger.” They are
also its hope for the future, if
they are salvaged from the hu
man scrap heap of dead-end
hopelessness, ignorance and lack
of motivation.
The key for Joseph and his
tens of thousands of brethren in
the boat, lies in the acquisition
of those skills that will bring him
within the range of opportunity
and jobs. According to a recent
survey, “Israel has no unemploy
ment for the skilled. Craftsmen
and mechanics of all sorts, peo
ple with administrative experi
ence, office skills, people accus
tomed to factory operations, there
are jobs for all of these.” But for
the under-educated and untrained,
the story is otherwise.
There is in fact paradoxical as
it may seem, a shortage of people
in Israel who have work qualifi
cations suited to modem indus
try. For Joseph and his friends,
whose future is being determined
by what they learn or fail to
learn today, it is equally signifi
cant that before the end of the
sixties, Israel will need 60 per
cent more industrial workers
than it has now. There will be a
place for the Josephs in this
growth pattern if they have the
training. Otherwise, they will be
left out of decent employment to
morrow as they are out of school
today.
The problem is where to turn.
Unfortunately, there are not
enough trade and vocational
schools or other training pro
grams. “Current vocational train
ing facilities fall far short of
meeting the demand,” declares a
UJA survey.
The dimensions of the problem
are huge, but a start has been
made. At Lydda, in addition to
the ORT vocational school at the
secondary level, an expanded pro
gram of apprenticeship has been
introduced for those who cannot
make the grade at the high school
level. A third step involves the
creation of a factory school for
Joseph and the Future ..more ..
in-plant training at Lydda Air
port’s Bedek Plant. All are op
erated by ORT.
Joseph and his brethren are
not restricted to the new towns.
They also fill the old, often form
er Arab quarters of the larger
cities. Within sight of Wadi Salib,
the slum which not very long ago
rang with the cries of Oriental
immigrants rioting against condi
tions. More than 2,000 teenagers
of an educational level too poor
to qualify for vocational high
schools are learning electricity,
mechanics, construction, food and
chemical skills at the newly open
ed Gayl Apprentice Center, cre
ated by Women’s American ORT.
The Haifa ORT Center is a
forerunner of more to come. At
the entrance to Jaffa from the
Jerusalem Road, another center
for apprentices, named for the
late chairman of Israel ORT,
opened September first. A third
is in the blueprint stage for Arad.
In the Bocca section of Jerusalem,
an area largely settled by recent
arrivals from Eastern and Mid
dle Eastern lands, the fourth of
these headquarters for imparting
modern skills to Israel’s young
people will carry the name of
John F. Kennedy, a living mem
orial to the man who exemplified
the spirit of and concern for
youth in the U. S. throughout the
world.
When these new installations
are fully functioning, along with
other ORT programs for appren-
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Cornerstones of the system are
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And looming over all these de
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Joseph and the other IsraeL
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