2012- 2013

Socioeconomic
Justice Department
RHR’s Socioeconomic Justice Department, led by Rabbi Idit Lev, administers our Rights Center in Hadera,
which helps around 200 unemployed and under-employed Israelis from Hadera and Wadi Ara to demand their
socioeconomic rights. RHR also operates an empowerment group of Jewish and Arab women from Hadera
and Wadi Ara, who have begun to work on promoting better conditions for single parents, the majority of
whom are women. Rabbi Idit Lev also represents RHR in several coalitions concerning poverty, the state
budget, and the groups that were formed following the social justice protests during the summer of 2011. We
are beginning to focus on a common denominator linking many of the people we work with: the inability of
working people to support their families.
Inga, a woman whom we are helping to get disability
benefit, said after the last time her application was
rejected: “In another few months we will reapply. You
will help me, right? If you help me, I won’t give up.”
We promised that we will continue to help her.
When Aaron, a 24 year-old student, entered RHR’s
Rights Center for the first time he was scared, as he
didn’t know how he could cope with a debt of 2,000
shekels that he claimed he didn’t owe. After less than
a week, the debt was reduced to only 181 shekels,
and Aaron (who looked much better) said to us: “I also
don’t owe this. I don’t intend to pay them. I am going to
argue with them!” The change from a person who was
broken when he came to our office a few days earlier to
a person who could stand on his own was amazing.
The past year was a significant one for RHR’s
Socioeconomic Justice Department. The tent protest
movement which began in the summer of 2011
captured the headlines in Israel and thrust social justice
issues into the national spotlight. As a result of the
momentum of the protest movement, our economic
and social justice work was reenergized.
Rights Center
RHR’s Rights Center provides Jewish
and Arab residents of the Hadera
and Wadi Ara region with advice
and legal help regarding their
socioeconomic rights. In 2012, the
Center served about 200 people,
many of whom had first turned to
RHR because of the subsequently
defeated Wisconsin Plan. In
addition, RHR began going doorto-door
in selected neighborhoods
in Hadera, informing people about
the Rights Center. As a result
of this proactive approach, the
Rights Center received numerous
additional requests for help. We
deal with an average of 24 new
cases per month. During 2012,
Rabbi Sigal Asher joined us at the
Rights Center, as one of the four
young rabbis/rabbinical students
added to on our staff through
a special grant, replacing Nico
Socolovsky, who left to complete
his rabbinical training in the US.
The major focus of the center
is to assist the unemployed and
Composed of 20 Arab and Jewish women from
Hadera and Wadi Ara, the majority of whom are
single mothers, the group is currently addressing the
socioeconomic rights of single parents. This year,
they began working on extending annual subsidy
given at the beginning of each school year to single
parents to include high-school children. RHR hopes
to create additional empowerment groups focused
on other issues in other parts of the country where
we already have a presence.
Dorit explains the influence of RHR’s empowerment
group: "To be able to express yourself is important;
suddenly I see that I can speak without fear and
without hesitating out of worry that I am saying
something wrong.”
Kulthum, an Arab woman fighting for the right of
her daughter Ismi’ye to ride the district school bus
underemployed with issues
relating to rights available from
the National Insurance Institute.
This includes ensuring access
to unemployment benefits and
ensuring that employees have
access to benefits such as paid
leave, sick days, and assisting lowwage
earners to pull themselves
out of the cycle of poverty.
While helping the unemployed
and underemployed in Hadera
and Wadi Ara to secure their
social and economic rights, RHR
will also identify issues requiring
policy change on the national
level. Helping to improve people’s
lives locally is an essential part of
our strategy to change the face of
Israel nationally.
Currently, RHR is launching a
campaign based on a common
denominator uniting many of the
cases we are dealing with both in
Hadera and elsewhere. Statistics
indicate that at least one family
Jewish-Arab Women’s Empowerment Group
member is working in 52.9 percent
of families living below the poverty
line. Behind the statistics are real
human tragedies caused by the
combined effect of inadequate
wages, an unresponsive system,
and the growing holes in Israel’s
social security net during our
transition from a welfare state to a
neo-liberal economy.
RHR’s Rights Center found itself in
the spotlight following the tragic
suicide of the late Moshe Silman,
who sought help from our Rights
Center after meeting Rabbi Idit
Lev at the social justice protests
in Haifa (see below for Rabbi Idit
Lev’s moving eulogy for Moshe
Silman). Moshe’s story was a
particularly tragic example of a
much broader reality. With Rabbi
Lev being quoted and interviewed
in the Israeli media after Moshe’s
death, we found ourselves
inundated with calls from people
in similar situations to that of
Moshe Silman.
said, "Suddenly, I said that I wanted to be strong
like Ayesha [RHR social economic justice facilitator
and field worker] and to request the right for my
daughter [to bus transportation] in a loud, clear
and confident voice, and to make it clear that I am
requesting a right, not charity".
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