Category Archive » Activism

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that no human trafficking victims have entered Israel in 2012, and that during the past month 40 such attempts were prevented.

Netanyahu gave a speech at a ceremony honoring individuals who fight against human trafficking, held at the President’s Residence, and said: “This year, for the first time since US State Department issued its report, Israel is leading the fight against human trafficking.” (Kobi Nahshoni)

Netanyahu added that Israel had come a long way in the human trafficking area. “For the first time, Israel appears in U.S. State Department reports among the top countries fighting against human trafficking. For the first time ever, according to State Department figures, not one victim of human trafficking entered the country in 2012. Anyone who saves a life, it is as if he saved the whole world,” Netanyahu added. “And we have saved many worlds.”

Source: Ynetnews.com

Neopharm Israel’s Durex “Save the Bulbul” Viral campaign, promoting safe sex for 2011 World AIDS day, gains recognition winning the creative campaign of the year award in the “Extreme Concept” advertising competition. The competition held by the Israeli advertising site “Ice” included 35 campaigns and the winner was chosen by a panel of 15 advertising and marketing experts.

The campaign, in collaboration with the Israeli AIDS Task Force, played on the Israeli double meaning of the word “Bulbul”, which is the name of a group of species of birds and also a playful childish name for the male genitals. Using this double meaning, a viral video was made resembling a national geographic film about a bird in danger, with text that can also refer to the male genitals. A special internet site was built for the campaign, and a cellular coupon for Durex Condoms was also offered.

The campaign, developed by the digital advertising agency “twisted”, drew great interest from the media and general public and quickly took off to become one of the most viral advertising campaigns ever made in Israel, with over half a million views on YouTube, 300% rise in visitors to the Israeli AIDS Task Force website and addition of more than 10,000 “Likes” to Durex’s Israeli Facebook page.

Source: Neopharmgroup.com

Operation “Your hair, their smile” will collect hair donations for wigs to benefit children and youth suffering from cancer.

The NGO Zichron Menachem is to hold its second annual hair donation campaign this week for the benefit of children and youth suffering from cancer.

The operation, entitled “Your hair, their smile,” will run from Sunday to Tuesday in more than 100 hairdressing salons across Israel, where donors will receive free haircuts in exchange for 30 centimeters of their hair.

The donated hair will be collected from the salons by Zichron Menachem volunteers and will be made into wigs, which will be distributed to the young patients whose parents would otherwise not be able to afford their high cost, about NIS 7,000.

“Young patients who suffer from cancer lose their hair due to the chemotherapy treatment and often avoid being seen in public. The wigs are a solution that enables them to feel comfortable and secure,” the NGO, which has been assisting children with cancer and their families for more than 20 years, wrote in a statement.

Eight-year-old Shilat Halfa, of Acre, has been battling cancer for 10 months now.

She and her sister, Liel Halfa, 15, are the faces on this year’s television campaign, along with actor Dvir Benedek.

“It was really fun to film the campaign,” Shilat told The Jerusalem Post on the phone, as she was walking out of Schneider Medical Center in Petah Tikva, where she had undergone medical tests on Sunday.

Before the disease, Shilat had long, thick and wavy hair that almost came down to her knees. Today, she explains she only wears a wig on special occasions such as holiday dinners: “It’s best to be natural,” she said.

“I’m happy I took part in the TV campaign because I really want people to donate hair and make kids happy,” she continued, “Sick kids are also allowed to enjoy life like anyone else.”

Liel Halfa donated 30 centimeters of her long dark hair on camera for Zichron Menachem’s campaign. The video was made into a national television advert which is being broadcast this week.

“Since she started to be sick, I wanted to do something, and I thought about donating hair, but I kind of didn’t take the time to think about it, because I was busy with school and my sister and all,” Liel told the Post, “then when she started losing hers, I felt ready to do it.

“It’s hard because Shilat had a hard time with it. She talked a lot about hair and used be sad about me having hair and her not having any, she also used to ask questions and I didn’t always have an answer for her,” Liel added.

With the hair Liel donated, the NGO is currently creating a wig for her younger sister.

“It makes me happy it will be for my sister, but to be honest, it would have felt the same if it was for any other kid,” she explained. “If I can do something to make them happy, I will do it.”

“It’s nothing for me, my hair will grow back quick enough; for them it will take a long time,” she continued.

Liel and Shilat’s mother, Rachel Halfa, said she is very proud of her daughters for being part of the initiative: “At first people asked me ‘why do you let your kids be on television?’ and said it’s not a good thing for them, but my kids wanted to do it, it came from them, and if it’s for such a good cause, why not?” she said, “When the organization approached us, I told them that they’d have to ask the girls, If they said yes, I’m in.”

“Whenever I go to the hospital, I see all the kids in the oncology department who are crying over their hair. It’s something that means a lot to them,” Rachel added. “I really hope this campaign is successful” The campaign is set to end on Thursday. Because of of last year’s success, this year the idea has been expanded to include communities in France, England and the US.

Source: Jpost.com

MOVEMBER is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancer and associated charities. The Movember Foundation runs the Movember charity event, housed at Movember.com. The goal of Movember is to “change the face of men’s health.”

Daniel Goldstone has taken on the ‘Movember’ challenge, can the trend stick in Israel!?!

Who is Daniel Goldstone?

I am 26, British born in the city of Leeds, Yorkshire. I moved to Israel in 2009 and now live in Tel-Aviv. My current occupation is working for a hi-tech company called ClickTale.

How would you describe Movember ?

Movember & Sons are purveyors of fine Moustaches! They are also and official partner of Mens Health. They actively seek new initiatives to lower the risk of prostate or testicular.

Why are you participating?

Everyone in my office is participating. Plus it is for a very good cause.

Are Israelis in general familiar with Movember?

No, in general Israelis do not have a connection with Movember nor do they understand the concept.

What is their reaction to it?

The Reaction is very good. One group of Israelis complimented me on my horse shoe shaped Moustache at Cafe Nola yesterday. One of them subsequently requested (after I explained my reasoning for growing this bodacious ‘stache) that I email him the link for him to donate. I was shocked!

Do you think movember has a future in Israel?

I think Movember definitely has a future here.

You stache is the #1 fundraiser in Israel, how does it feel?

It is the number 1 fund raiser in Israel and the “rest of the world” Leader Board. I am very happy to do this charity work. I know all my work colleagues are doing it also. It has been a lot of fun.

Does size matter when it comes to mustaches?

No Not at all. Any Size, Shape , Colour or Growth is good. It is turning men into gentlemen!!

If you would like to donate to Daniel’s Mo click here

Message from Hillel of Greater Toronto:

Join us as we release 99 red balloons in solidarity with Israel

Wednesday, Novemeber 21st at 6pm we will gather in front of the Israeli Consulate at 180 bloor street and release 99 red balloons, each with the name of an Israeli city

We are looking for 99 volunteers to release balloons.

Please contact talia.rotman@hilleltoronto.org

*Balloons used are 100% Biodegradable 

by Adam Rosner

For one Jewish filmmaker, making a documentary about gay Palestinians helped him accept his own identity

Tonight, a documentary I wrote and produced in Israel, The Invisible Men, will screen at the Other Israel Film Festival in New York City. The film tells the untold stories of gay Palestinians hiding in Tel Aviv, seeking refuge from the families and Palestinian security forces that want them dead and the Israeli authorities that want them out of the Jewish state. Five years after I moved to Israel and three after embarking on this project, these screenings present me with less a homecoming than a privilege: I return to my hometown more proud than ever to be Jewish, American, Israeli, and gay.

I grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and I was, to put it simply, your all-American Jewish kid with all of the attendant neurosis and privileges. I was educated at the Ramaz School and Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, two flagship institutions of Modern Orthodox Judaism and American religious Zionism. I excelled in school. Socially, I was in the middle of the pack—somewhat awkward, always chubby, but who cared. I was accepted to Princeton University and graduated with a degree in Russian Literature with high honors. I wrote a thesis on Woody Allen. In the competitive worlds I was raised in, was accepted to, I was a “winner.” To my parents, especially my father—born to Polish Holocaust survivors, shtetl Jews, in a German Displaced Person’s Camp in 1946—I was living the life that he had always wanted for himself but could never have had.

But there was one competition for which I wasn’t even eligible—a “BNB” as Modern Orthodox Jews call it, a bayit ne’eman b’yisrael, a loyal home among the Jewish people, which normatively means a wife and children. As had started to become clear to me around the age of 12, I felt “different.” At summer camp, I wasn’t sneaking off with girls—not that I was sneaking off with boys. As I lost weight, I justified my confusion with same-sex attraction for insecurity and a difficult relationship with my father. In the 10th grade, I distinctly recall Ramaz Principal Rabbi Haskell Lookstein’s well-known Jewish sexual-education course. One of the few biblical quotes we had to memorize was Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie down with a man as with a woman: This is an abomination.”

Real clarity about my sexual orientation didn’t emerge until late into my college years—held off, I think, by the unusual relationship between Princeton’s straightness and its “small but strong” Jewish community. Princeton’s active Jews are often sheltered from the dominant WASPy culture that pervades campus socializing. At least this was how I experienced it when I tried to bridge my Jewishness with the secular freedom I enjoyed as just another student on campus. I felt this life—part-partier, part-student, partly Jewish, partly secular—left no room for coming out of the closet.

Continue reading via TabletMag

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