2003-08-08 Jaffa-City Heights (San Diego)
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2003-08-08 Jaffa-City Heights (San Diego) |
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Donald H. Harrison Philanthropist Robert Price of San Diego says educational projects funded by Price Charities in the City Heights section of San Diego and in the Jaffa section of Tel Aviv strongly have influenced each other. In fact, the Price-Brodie Initiative in Jaffa had its origins in a challenge made by Price and his father, Sol, to Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovitch to develop a program for the Arab and Jewish neighborhoods of Jaffa similar to what San Diego State University is doing in City Heights. One of the programs that Tel Aviv University developed in response was a clinic conducted by law students to help Arab and Jewish residents of Jaffa deal with a wide variety of civil problems, including water bills and taxes. That program is now a model for one that Price Charities hopes to start in City Heights, a neighborhood that has attracted many financially struggling immigrants from a large variety of countries. TAU President Rabinovitch had come to San Diego with fundraiser Beno Gitter, who told him that the Prices previously had financed some scholarships for law students. On that trip, the Israelis and the Prices discussed the City Heights project, leading to the challenge. While Tel Aviv University did not respond with a program to, in essence, direct the teaching in the Jaffa elementary schools—as San Diego State Satisfied with the directions Tel Aviv University proposed to go, Price Charities agreed to contribute approximately $5 million over five years in a bell-shaped giving program in which the largest outlays would occur in the middle years, then taper off toward the end of the project as the city of Tel Aviv and other partners took over some of the projects. Price Charities, Tel Aviv University, the city of Tel Aviv and neighborhood organizations in Jaffa formed a board to direct the project, which sought among other goals to encourage Arabs and Jews to work together on common problems affecting their everyday living. With the outbreak of the intifada, Price said, it became apparent that other funding organizations were unlikely to become involved, so the initiative was stretched from five years to six years, with adjustments made in sequencing both the funding and the programs. Price expressed hope that now that the intifada appears to be easing, other organizations and foundations will take interest in the initiative, which simultaneously seeks to improve education and services for Arabs and Jews in Jaffa while increasing cooperative contacts among the two groups. One of the first and most tangible programs undertaken by the Price-Brodie Initiative was to provide hot meals for 800 Arab and Jewish elementary school children, Price said. Since then, the city of Tel Aviv from its resources has expanded the program considerably. "We wanted something immediate, something that people could feel was for sure," Price recalled. "A lot of programs are ones which over time are helpful, but have no immediate impact on a neighborhood. A lot of the families in Jaffa are poor, and there was an issue that if the kids didn't have a meal they might not stay in school." Another program Price feels is making a difference is a Women's Forum in which Arab and Jewish women come together to discuss neighborhood issues. They don't try to dialogue on the overall Arab-Jewish situation, just on how, working together, they can better the situation of impoverished families from both groups who live in the area. With Tel Aviv University students serving as mentors in elementary schools and running legal clinics in Jaffa, and with professors devising enrichment programs for students in Jaffa public schools, the involvement of Tel Aviv University in the education of Jaffa children is as ongoing as San DiegoState University's involvement with the children of City Heights. "Probably, overall we have done some good," Price said. |
