APRIL 2012

CAREER ALTERNATIVES IN OFAKIM

Gateway to Viable Careers for Haredi Women

Prepared for: UNITED JEWISH COMMUNITIES OF METROWEST NEW JERSEY

PROPOSAL |OFAKIM, ISRAEL

BOLSTERING ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

The United Jewish Communities of MetroWest, New Jerseys long standing partnership with the developing city of Ofakim serves to strengthen its social fabric while providing critical support to the weakest strata in the city. This funding request to galvanize Haredi women's employment in Ofakim offers a complimentary opportunity for UJC MetroWest to bolster the economic wellbeing and self-sufficiency of Ofakims Haredi families while fostering tolerance and coexistence between the local Haredi and secular communities. JDC respectfully requests a gift of $XXXXX from the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest to continue to expand Career Alternatives in Ofakim in 2012. Your support will spur quality employment as a solution to poverty, while strengthening bonds between secular and Haredi residents.

ISRAEL'S HAREDIM
A Growing Sector, a Community at Risk Today, the Ultra-Orthodox or Haredim in Israel number between 650,000 to 800,000. Valuing large families, their annual growth rate is now 4.5%. Based on this rate, the Haredi population of Israel will surpass one million by 2025, and Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics forecasts that by 2059, Haredim will comprise one-third of the population of the country. This growth raises questions about the economic viability of Haredim over the coming decades and the impact of their financial well-being on Israel's economy. These statistics are troubling given the fact that over 65% of Haredi adult males are unemployed and 60% of the community lives below the poverty line. If the current employment trends continue with their growing demographics, there will be a significantly negative impact on the Israeli economy. According to Professor Danny Ben David, one of Israel's leading economists and Executive Director of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, "We're on trajectories that are not sustainable." The lack of Haredi participation in the workforce and subsequent reliance on public welfare is a constant source of tension between the secular and Haredi communities. While young Haredi couples manage to get by living very modestly at first with a husband's fulltime Torah study stipend and a wife's part-time work, as their families grow, the financial strain jeopardizes their well-being. The social strains that accompany poverty are now being felt across all Haredi communities.
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The average Haredi family has seven children, and requires well above the national average income to stay above the poverty line. Nonetheless, with major cut backs in government cash benefits to assist the poor since 2000, it is unlikely that the average Haredi couple will earn the amount needed to support their family unless they are capable of working in more lucrative employment. Unfortunately, many Haredim lack educational credentials, skills in English and math, and work experience required to obtain a job. Their unique cultural and religious needs often make them hesitant to enter academic or vocational programs in the mainstream.

HAREDI WOMEN: THE CORNERSTONE OF THE FAMILY

In most Haredi families, boys are raised to aspire to a lifetime of Torah study, and this devotion is of paramount importance to the community. Having grown up in yeshiva, after marriage, most husbands continue learning in community supported kollels, institutions for married men. Kollels provide a meager stipend, typically $550 USD per month. This often leaves the lions share of the bread-winning to the wife. However, Haredi women's seminaries in Israel have long prepared their young women to work in the over-saturated, underpaid profession of school teaching, so that they may stay within Haredi norms and perpetuate the values of the community. Close to 5,000 Haredi women graduate as teachers each year, yet less than 10% find employment in their field. The many who fail to find work in education are often forced to take typically low-paying or part-time jobs such as secretaries and cashiers. In addition to earning less than needed to support their families, these menial jobs prevent women from reaching their full potential. As a result, Haredi women have a pressing need for more gainful employment options.

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JDCS SOLUTION: CAREER ALTERNATIVES

JDC's Career Alternatives is quietly revolutionizing Haredi women's employment by transforming the Haredi seminaries that once exclusively trained women as teachers into institutions capable of training their young women for more lucrative professions. Career Alternative trains selected staff to become employment guidance counselors. This staff will help reach the broadest number of students by providing them with introductory employment counseling. The program also helps the school equip and adopt the curriculums it needs to intensively train smaller classes of students. Program courses train women, ages 18-21, in such areas as software quality assurance, financial analysis, para-engineering, interior design, and multi-media communication. These fields are financially rewarding and in high demand, and allow Haredi women to maintain their religious way of life. Career Alternatives arranges group job placement for its graduates to ease their transition into a secular/mainstream work environment, typically their first in-depth exposure to Israelis outside the Haredi sector.

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To date, 90% of program graduates have successfully gained employment in mainstream Israeli companies such as Intel, Elbit, Matrix, QualiTest and others a higher success rate than any other TEVET Haredi employment program in Israel. Career Alternatives was launched three years ago by JDC-TEVET. To date, the program has attracted twelve of the top Haredi seminaries in Israelin Jerusalem, Haifa, Bnei Brak, Modin Illit, Ashdod, and most recently Ofakim and has trained over 914 young women to enter fields that are lucrative and in great demand. The goal is to reach the level of serving 2,000 participants annually within the next four years. Career Alternatives ensures that these women will contribute significantly to their household income, while remaining true to their Haredi values. In addition to providing career training and job placement for Haredi women to improve their economic standing, Career Alternatives is also opening up avenues of coexistence and tolerance between secular and Haredi communities. Introducing Haredim into the mainstream Israeli workforce in greater numbers provides opportunities for increased communication to erode the boundaries of intolerance. Furthermore, as more and more Haredim achieve gainful employment and are no longer dependent on government welfare, additional social tensions between the communities will be eliminated. TOOLS FOR SUCCESS A PARTICIPANT PROFILE Today, at the age of 21, Sari Steinberg is working as a computer technician, supporting her young family in dignity. But this was not a given. Sari grew up in the Haredi community of Ofakim with her nine siblings; her parents struggled to support their large family on their salaries as teachers. By the time she was in high school, Sari knew she did not want to be a teacher. But what options did she have? Most young girls her age got teaching certificates, despite the fact that the market was saturated. Many, after not finding a job, would take positions as low-paid secretariesearning minimum wage and never utilizing their intellectual or creative abilities. Sari saw her opportunity in eleventh grade, when Career Alternatives was offered in her seminary in Ofakim. Through Career Alternatives, she studied computer engineering for two years until graduation, and soon secured a position as a computer technician for an offshoot of Traiana - a high-tech company that specializes in post-trade solutions. Her branch of the company, located in Tel Aviv, is entirely made up of Haredi womenthe majority of whom are graduates of Career Alternatives programs throughout Israel. Career Alternatives was an amazing program, she said. They gave me the tools to succeed. Instead of being a secretary and earning minimum wage my whole life, I now have a good career!
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In 2011, JDC attained strategic influence by training 50 seminary staff members from within 20 seminaries around Israel to become career advancement counselors. Now these counselors have the ability to provide young religious women with career advice to help them build financially sound futures. In 2012, TEVET is planning to double this number. By starting with the best seminaries, JDC is planting the seeds of change as other Haredi seminaries will look to adopt more gainful and diverse career training, making high level employment for Haredi women normative.

OFAKIM: A DEVELOPING HAREDI CITY

The developing Northern-Negev city of Ofakim has a growing Haredi population of close to 10,000 individualssome 30% of the citys population. In recent years, due to the lack of affordable housing, more Haredim are moving out of the Haredi centers of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. Today, many young Haredi couples are beginning to consider Ofakim as an affordable Haredi community. Plans to build a new train station in the center of Ofakim will make access to central Tel Aviv and other parts of the country much easier, thereby increasing the citys desirability. Mirroring national statistics, the vast majority of Ofakims Haredim are unemployed.

TRAINING FOR WORK IN OFAKIM

JDC-TEVET is working to develop and expand existing employment services in the city of Ofakim to meet the needs of this growing community. Career Alternatives is currently finishing its second year in the Beit Yaakov Seminary of Ofakim, with forty young women now studying computers and software engineering. The Seminary attracts young women from other Haredi communities in the south such as Tifrach and Nitivot, thus serving as a crucial resource for the entire Negev region of Israel. The course is three years long and throughout this time, the women participate in practical workshops that focus on the mindset and soft skills that are needed in the Israeli workplace. Topics include resume writing, interview skills, conflict resolution in the work place and time management skills.
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This training is extremely important as many of the young women have never been adequately prepared for the norms of the workforce. Where necessary, women also receive individual assistance to boost their skills in math or English as well as one-on-one mentoring to assist with any personal challenges that may arise. To date, nine students have graduated the program and are currently employed in high tech companies throughout Israel. The majority of them have achieved high paying jobs in Amdocs the Israeli-owned international telecommunications customer relationship management company. Amdocs southern office is located close to Ofakim, and has provided the young women with a private workspace to preserve a Haredi environment. It is TEVETs hope that more and more jobs will be created in the region in the upcoming years given the Negevs growing hitech environment. As more Haredim enter positions in the area, harmony between the Haredi and secular communities will increase exponentially. TEVET's Haredi employment programs will transform the Haredi community of Ofakim, helping it to move from poverty to self-sufficiency and leading to positive integration between Haredim and mainstream Israeli society.

THIRD PARTY EVALUATION

Project evaluation will be undertaken by TEVETs own in-house evaluator as well as under the auspices of the Director of Research and Economics for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Employment. Research will be used to improve program quality for both current and future groups. All results will be published on their website: http://www.moital.gov.il/. Program success will be measured by these benchmarks: At least 85% of participants are expected to receive a diploma in software engineering upon completion of the program; At least 70% of participants are expected to secure employment in their field

JDCS PARTNERS
Project partners for Career Alternatives include the Department of Educations Teacher Training Division, the Ministry of Finance, and the Technological Training Center of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.
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FUNDING NEEDED
JDC respectfully requests a gift of $XXXXX from the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest to continue to expand Career Alternatives in Ofakim in 2012. UJC funding will help support critical program components including staff training, private tutoring and employment seminars, as well as program evaluation and other items. Through staff training, Career Alternatives equips seminary staff members with the tools to provide appropriate guidance to students regarding possible career paths and courses necessary to achieve their goals. Tutoring in English and math is provided when necessary to enable weaker students to improve their skills and successfully complete their selected courses of study and compete successfully in the job market. Employment seminars focus on soft skills that will enable participants to succeed in the workplace, such as time management, understanding workplace norms, and conflict resolution. UJCs support will make a dramatic difference to Ofakims young Haredi women and their future families, changing the future of Ofakims Haredi community and the city as a whole.

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ABOUT JDC
Since 1914, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has given global expression to the principle that all Jews are responsible for one another. Working today in over 70 countries, JDC acts on behalf of North Americas Jewish communities and others worldwide to rescue Jews in danger, provide relief to those in distress, revitalize overseas Jewish communities, and help Israel overcome the social challenges of its most vulnerable citizens. JDC also provides non-sectarian emergency relief and long-term development assistance worldwide. More information can be found at www.jdc.org.

FROM THE JDC ARCHIVE

JDC supported an orphan trade school in Tsfat, 1921, where girls learned to sew and weave, giving them a marketable skill. http://archives.jdc.org/

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Inc. 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017-4014 Tel: (212) 687-6200 Fax: (212) 370-5467 www.jdc.org

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