Gail Blum tutoring a student.

I live in a bubble called Kochav Yair. It’s a place where we feel blessed every day by the privileged lives we live. Surrounded by wild bush, we ex-Southern Africans thrive on familiar flora as we do our regular health-inspired walks. We sit on our balconies and take in the soft greenery in our self-created, peaceful gardens, with the faraway sounds of children chattering in the distant gardens of neighbors who are far enough to feel close to.

My work as a drama therapist takes me to a very different reality. The world of Bat Yam, where the old neighborhood buildings have paper thin walls; where exhausted parents, after what is often a double-shift day's work, try and find some peace in their overpopulated surroundings. The solution for parents is often to leave the kids out on the streets to play for another few hours or pick them up from grandma after they have been fed their dinner. These children have no hope or aspirations of getting beyond what they know.

The furthest fantasies they entertain for 'when they grow up' is for a boy to become a policeman [their families have in most cases had regular episodes with the law] and a girl to become a nursery school teacher as often the only sense of importance they have experienced has been through looking after their younger siblings.

My personal belief is that we are living in the 'post-Zionist era'. I believe that as a citizen of the State of Israel since December 1973, we have been adjusting to the ever-evolving definition of Zionism. The first few decades were our formative years where we involved ourselves in the clearing of swamps, paving of streets and forming of a political structure. The period which we are now in is, in many ways, even more challenging. Now that the main infrastructure has been established, we are realizing the need to focus our energies on creating a viable Israeli society that can succeed in maintaining our differing ethnic/cultural/religious backgrounds and at the same time tap in to the very uniqueness of our differences and yet common basic Jewish values.

I am privileged once again, in that I feel I play an active part in that process.

I am involved in a couple of projects at Harel School in Bat Yam. In one project we have 250 children who are being given the chance to break out of the generational cycle I mention above. We divide them into equal groups of 1/3 immigrants [who happen to be mainly from Russia],1/3 Ethiopian immigrants and 1/3 Israeli born Sabras.

The project is specifically for children starting at age 5-6 years and the project will run for a trial period of three years. In that time, these 250 sample children will be given every academic and emotional support possible in an attempt to overcome the many obstacles that may be holding them back. In our team we have a broad range of supportive professional staff: occupational therapists, special education teachers, social workers, art and drama therapists.

 The classes themselves are exceptionally small for Israeli classrooms – an average of 14 children per class. If this trial period proves to be successful, the donors involved in this program will continue sponsoring these children through till their army service.

I am also involved at the school in a program called “Personal Education” which was introduced in three schools in Bat Yam by the municipality under the guidance of Yaacov Hecht, the founder of the democratic schools in Israel. Disruptive children who are one step away from being expelled are sent to me for therapy. These children are often from broken homes with a long history of domestic violence where they have been victims themselves. The problems are so great and the parents have so little hope for change that they are not able to transmit any inspiration or hope into their children’s lives.

This may sound very bleak, but what I have discovered is that when you get tangled up with the social welfare in Bat Yam you see and hear things that keep you awake at night: sad, dark eyes, float through your sub-conscious mind in the early hours of the morning, but when you are awake and you see the tremendous care, love and nurturing these children get in the walls of just one little school, you know that we are still a unique nation where so many of us are still actively part of the giving to the ‘children of our nation’ and I am so grateful to be part of that ‘family’.

Part of this family is also all the wonderful donors from the Esralist and Raananlist who have responded unbelievably whenever I have requested any equipment. Without heir amazing generosity my work in Bat Yam would not be possible as the budget I get is negligible. The kids can get carried away when they are in an activity such as releasing anger and musical instruments get smashed or dolls broken and there is no way for replacements in my workplace. This year for the first time there are carpets to lie on during their meditations and to sit on as they create their fantasy worlds. The response was so great a few weeks ago, that I gave the coordinator the overflow and the kids are now sitting on carpets in the reading corner and puppet theater so I would like to express my gratitude for all the carpets, a CD tape set, puppets, miniature toys and musical instruments that have made such a difference to the quality of my work..

My biggest frustration in working in Bat Yam is the traveling at rush hour, but the distance between Kochav Yair and Bat Yam when there is no traffic is only 40 minutes. Our predecessors built many modern highways to connect us, but it is now in our hands to bridge those gaps within our society.