The Association

for Community
Empowerment

Promoting Social and Economic Justice

Annual Report
2011

Justice,justice shall you pursue

YEDID empowers Israelis to become selfsufficient and civically engaged members

of society.
Operating through its national network of 16 Citizen Rights Centers, YEDID has given
free assistance to more than 290,000 individuals and families since its inception in 1997.
Staffed primarily by expertly trained volunteers, YEDID centers reach a broad spectrum
of Israels multi-cultural society in geographically remote communities not served
by most non-profits and where social services have been cut to a minimum. YEDIDs
unique model helps people help themselves using three innovative approaches:
Social, economic and legal assistance;
Community empowerment initiatives; and
National advocacy for policy change.
In 2011 YEDID provided real solutions to over 20,000 Israelis, their families &
communities. Through advocacy work, YEDID achieved essential protections
for home owners facing foreclosure and encouraged the government to take
responsibility for the food security of its citizens.

Message from our leadership

In 1997 when we founded the organization, the issue of social rights was
buried in the back pages of the newspapers. After years of work, last summer
YEDID received the payback. The social protest movement engaged the entire
country to say It is time for a change!
In the tents of Tel Aviv, as well as in the periphery, YEDID volunteers and
staff shared their knowledge and skills. The involvement of masses of Israeli
society in these demonstrations gave YEDID strength to continue to persue
justice as well as policy change.
The public outcry came at the very same time that YEDID was forced to
close several Citizen Rights Centers in order to continue to be economically
responsible. We succeeded in preserving the solvency of the organization
and are developing new ideas for sustainability.
We recently signed a historic social-entrepreneurial partnership with the
Israel-based, international jewelry company, YVEL. See page 10.
In addition, YEDID began marketing its services, knowledge and expertise to
large employers of low income workers. This innovative venture is an incomegenerating opportunity that will enable YEDID to continue providing vital
services in our Citizen Rights Centers to the unemployed and the elderly.
Thank you for your support and partnership,
Sari Revkin
4

Yuval Golan

Kiryat Gat group:

leading the path to social and economic justice.

Empowerment is
Helping the working poor to live in
dignity and without fear of spiraling debt.
More and more of YEDIDs clients are working poorfamilies with one or

Types of Assistance Provided in 2011

6,207

even two working members, who nevertheless struggle to make ends meet.
In 2011, 32% of YEDIDs 19,403 client cases focused on debt management.
With YEDIDs assistance, clients were coached on how to balance their
budgets and augment their familys income as they learned to change their

3,470

lifestyle to adapt to new financial circumstances. Through YEDIDs network

2,692

of centers, clients were given assistance in navigating and negotiating with

1,029

766

Holocaust Survivors
Benefits

Consumer Rights

Empowerment Law

Family Law

Housing Rights

Social Security

to be responsible for their own financial future.

Debt Managment

Financial Literacy Courses across the country providing them with the tools

1,173
462

391
Other

Furthermore, hundreds of adults and young adults attended tens of

Healthcare

1,467

Education

1,746

the offices of banks and the Repossessions Authority.

Empowerment Is
Enabling women to meet their potential,
to know and access their rights, and to
support themselves and their families.
In 2011 YEDID bolstered womens employment by:

Assisting in over 11,000 female client cases (59% of our clients are
women), including 861 seeking help against workplace discrimination
and in accessing their employment rights.

Teaching job search skills and job training to population groups seeking
to break the chains of poverty, including: new immigrants, older
unemployed workers, and people who have spent years subsisting on
public assistance.

Launching a grassroots organizing campaign that will enable single

mothers to reach their full earning potential without forfeiting child
support monies.

Womens Campaign to Revise Child

Support Laws

Empowerment Is
Providing new immigrants with the tools
to succeed.

Mother Tongue of YEDID Clients in 2011

40% of YEDIDs clients were not born in Israel and years later, many still
Amharic 7%

have limited Hebrew skills and few job prospects. In 2011, YEDID provided
leadership training to over 250 Ethiopian adults and first grade preparation

Other 5%

Hebrew 41%

Arabic 19%

to tens of Ethiopian-Israeli children.

We also launched a new social business venture with the exquisite jewelry
makers, Yvel. The Yvel Design Center near Jerusalem, houses a unique school
for the study of jewelry and craft for Ethiopian new immigrants to Israel.
The school was established by Yvel founders, Orna & Isaac Levy and is
operated by YEDID in recognition of the importance for new immigrants to
integrate into the Israeli job market and maintain a steady livelihood.
Russian 28%

10

11

Securing the Future: National

Childrens Saving Accounts Program

Empowerment is
Accessing decent housing at an
affordable price.
In July 2011 a group of students decided to take a stand against the
astronomical cost of rent. A group of tents on a Tel Aviv boulevard turned
into a summer of social justice protests across the country. Israelis are fed
up with the seemingly exponential rise in the cost of living, in particular, of
housinga problem that YEDID has been involved with for over a decade.
In the last year, YEDIDs Legal Department litigated in over 50 cases where
potential exists to make precedent-setting rulings that can have long term
national impact. Nearly half of these cases were housing cases covering
issues ranging from the right to public housing for orphaned minors, to
fighting unfair punishments for debtors.
Simultaneously, YEDIDs Policy Change Department has been successfully
campaigning for greater provisions for public housing, increased rent
subsidies, and easing the suffering of foreclosure victims.

12

Empowerment is
Food security and an end to hunger.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you
feed him for a lifetime.
When YEDID clients are struggling to put food on the table, we refer them to
organizations that can give them immediate relief. In parallel, our staff and
volunteers work out a plan to ensure them food security for the future.
YEDIDs Food Security Initiative is also working on a national level to abolish
food insecurity across the nation. In April 2011, YEDID achieved an important
victory when the Knesset approved a bill advanced by YEDID to establish a
National Council for Nutritional Security. Most importantly, the council will
create a budget framework to provide nutritional security.
In addition, thanks to YEDIDs Food Security Initiative, 2,500 children of lowincome families received at least one hot meal a day during the summer
vacation as part of a successful pilot program which will be implemented
nationally.

14

850,000 Israeli Children Live in Poverty

15

YEDID Board of Directors

Tamar Raz, Founder, Mifneh Baderech, Retirement Counseling

Rabbi Stanley A. Ringler, DD Director Emeritus, Department of Legacies and Foundations of
Keren Hayesod United Israel Appeal, Jerusalem

Yuval Golan, Chairman Owner, A-Online Capital, Ltd. and Zmora, Tel Aviv
Nir Caftori, Director of Technology, Information Systems and IT, IDC Hertzliya

Ruti Sinai, Commentator on social affairs and chair of 50 Plus-Minus, an association advancing
the employment of older workers

Professor John Gal, The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social
Welfare of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Sally Gottesman, Chair of American Supporters of YEDID

Dr. Belle Gavriel-Fried, The Bob Shapell School of Social Work of Tel Aviv
University, Tel Aviv
Gad Haran, Director of Dagesh Environmental Energy Company

YEDID Senior Staff

Idris Mewasi, Executive Director, A.H. Barak Advertising and Publicity, Baka
el Garbiya

Sari Revkin MSW,Executive Director

Billy Muskona Lerman, Television presenter and journalist, Tel Aviv

Yuval Elbashan Esq., Deputy Director for Citizen Rights Centers

Former MK Ophir Paz-Pines, Director of the Institute for Local Government,

Ran Melamed, Deputy Director for Communication and Social Policy

University of Tel Aviv; former Knesset Member and Government Minister of

Revital Shimron CPA, Chief Financial Officer

the Interior and of Science, Culture and Sport , Raanana.

Vardit Damri Madar Esq., Legal Department Director

Ruthy Katanov MSW, National Director of Projects

16

Ministry of Welfare Non-Profit Emergency Fund Round Up

Friends and Supporters

18

Israeli Supporters

Gideon Greenspan & Rachel Lee

Andrew Treitel

Graph Software Industries Inc.

A-Online Capital, Ltd

H.R Refaelli

Arledan Investments Inc.

HP Indigo

Ashdod Municipality

Intel

Asher & Hava Reshef

Isaac & Rebecca Sorani

Asher & Yaffa Shimoni-Nikra

Kiryat Gat Absorption Department

Ashkelon Municipality

Kiryat Gat Municipality

Daphna & Alon Galili, Esq.

Kulanana

Daphna & Gad Haran

Leumi Bank

David Citron

Lousan Ben-Gigi

ECI Telecom

Marvell Technology

Efrati-Galili Law

Michelle-Ann & Jonathan Ari Hammer-Kassow

Eilon Ben-Herzel

Migdor

Ethiopian National Project

Ministry of Health

Ezra Gabay

Ministry of Immigrant Absorption

Gandyr Foundation

Ministry of Industry and Trade

Mudgal Steel

State Legacies Fund

National Insurance Institute

Tal Amichai

Nechama & Jacob Karpul Borak

Tamar & Yehoshua Raz

Pelephone

Tamara G. Rochlin-Gottestein

Petach Tikva Municipality

Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel

Tzali Reshef

Rivka & Rafi Ridnik

Tzvika Foox

Roktel Inc.

19

Overseas Supporters

InternationalFellowship ofChristians and Jews

Pears Foundation UK

Jack Chester Foundation

Peter Levy

Abraham and Sonia Rochlin Foundation

Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation

Robert Bildner & Elisa Spungen Bildner

Anonymous Family Foundation

Jewish Community Fund

Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation

Brenda Rabinowitz

Jewish Womens Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago

Rosenzweig-Coopersmith Foundation

Carl Marks Foundation

Joan and Robert Arnow Fund

Sally Gottesman

Claims Conference

Jonathan Rosner & Dena Rabinowitz

Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust

Crown Family Foundation

Sheila Lambert

David Berg Foundation

Joseph and Sally Handleman Charitable

Foundation

Dobkin Family Foundation

June Baumgardner Gelbart Foundation

Steinhardt Family Foundation

Dorot Foundation

Kathryn Ames Foundation

Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation

England Family Foundation

Madeleine & Mandell Berman Foundation

Stride Rite Foundation

Everett Philanthropic Fund

Maurice and Viviane Wohl Foundation

The Reggi Marder Foundation

Field Family Foundation

Michael J Hirschorn

Tony Bloom Charitable Trust

Ford Foundation Israel Fund

Morningstar Foundation

UJIA

Grove Foundation

Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation

United Jewish Federation of MetroWest New Jersey

Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

Pat and Nat Lavin

Zanvyl & Isabelle Krieger Fund

Harry Kramer Memorial Fund

Paula and Jerry Gottesman Foundation

20

Staci Light

Organizational Budget
2011 Income
North American & Europe
Foundations

1,291,172

Federations

280,670

Individuals

65,048

2011 Sources of Income

Israel
Foundations & Individuals

144,302

Corporations

177,100

Government

305,384

Sale of Services

30,852

Reserve Fund

260,000

TOTAL INCOME

2,554,528

Israeli Government 12%

Reserve Fund 10%

Jewish
Federations 11%

2011 Expences
Citizen Rights Centers

1,366,650

National Programs, Training, Policy

22

Change & Advocacy

551,400

National Coordination

433,150

Fundraising

117,150

Depreciation

28,500

TOTAL EXPENSES

2,496,850

Sale of
Services 1%

Israeli Individuals, Foundations &

Corporations 13%

Overseas Individuals and Foundations 53%

Hazor
Haglilit

Safed
Carmiel

Sahnin

Nazareth Illit
Kineret

Nazareth

Tel Mond

Petah-Tikva
Tel-Aviv

Jerusalem
Dead Sea

Ashdod
Kiryat Malachi
Shafir
Nehora

Kiryat Gat

Telephone:
+972-2-679-0710
1-700-500-313
Fax: +972-2-679-0340
Email: yedid@yedid.org.il

Stephanie & Ruti Design

The Association
for Community
Empowerment

28 Pierre Koenig Street, P.O. Box 53151,

Jerusalem 91531 Israel

Rahat
Beer Sheva

Israeli Amuta
#58-031-217-1
American Supporters of YEDID
Director: Wendy Borodkin
Telephone: 551-486-6915
Email: YedidUSA@gmail.com
392C Cedar Lane, #335
Teaneck, NJ 07666
US Tax Exempt
# 20-042-6364
YEDIDS
Citizen Rights Centers

Center
Satellite
Mobile Center Hubs

www.yedid.org.il/english