With Days Like This...

Michal Korach

The holiday season, with the family gatherings and meals it occasions, not infrequently intensifies feelings of loneliness and depression, stress and anger. ERAN Emotional Crisis Hotline was created to offer support to anyone experiencing such feelings of distress. ERAN operates a phone hotline (which can be reached from any phone with the universal number 1201) and an internet live emergency help center, both anonymous and strictly confidential. ERAN was first set up in 1971 by Maria-Berta Zasleni in memory of her late husband, the psychiatrist, Arie Zasleni. The first center was situated in Mrs. Zasleni’s home. By 1983, four more centers had been established in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beer Sheva and Netanya, which were operated by the cities municipalities. In 1983 the independent emotional first aid centers united to form a national organization.

At present, ERAN operates in ten locations throughout Israel: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Netanya, Kfar Saba, Carmiel, Hadera, Rishon Lezion and Nazareth. ERAN’s 24-hour hotline is the organization’s primary service. The hotline operates in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and Russian, and is available to any individual seeking emotional first aid, coming from any background. There are two additional, specialized centers, one for soldiers and another for the elderly. The hotlines are operated by volunteers who come from diverse professional backgrounds and who undergo extensive, professional training before taking on their posts in the call center.

ERAN received 135,000 calls in 2009 – 58% of them from women. A break down of the calls reveals that the leading motivations for calling the center were: loneliness (24%), mental illness (19%), relationship difficulties (9%), interpersonal difficulties (7%), parent-child relationship difficulties (6%) and depression (6%).
Among the soldiers who called the center, the leading causes for calling the hotline were sexual identity issues (12%), trauma or anxiety (7%), sexual problems (6%) and sexual assault (4%). Among the population of elderly callers, the leading causes for calling were loneliness (52%) and interpersonal relationship problems (12%). In the Arab sector, the leading issues were relationship difficulties (51%) and loneliness (42%).

Youth Movements

Dr. Maya Choshen

"If there are still places where collective goals are still emphasized rather than only egotistic-individualism, then those are among our youth movements” (Aharon Yadlin, 1993). Tirza Goldstein in her 2007 research into the leisure-time activities of young adults in Jerusalem has pointed to a clear link between being a member of a youth movement and active and participatory citizenship and volunteering. In 2010, there were eleven Jewish youth movements operating in Jerusalem – 4 secular movements (Hamachanot Ha'olim, Hashomer Hatzair, Hano'ar Ha'oved Vehalomed, the Scouts), 1 conservative youth movement (Noam), 2 3 National-Religious movements (Bnei Akiva, Ezra and Ariel) and 4 3 Ultra-Orthodox movements (Bnot Batya, Degel Yerushalayim, and Heichalei Oneg and Ezra). After a short dip in the number of active members experienced between 2007 and 2008, the number of youth movement members steadily grew from 32,400 in 2008, to 34,300 in 2009, to its current peak at 37,200 in 2010. Overall, between the years 2008 and 2010, the number of members in Jerusalem’s youth movements saw a 15% increase: the secular youth movements saw the largest increase (20%), and they were closely followed by the Ultra-Orthodox movements (a 1917% increase) and the conservative movement, Noam (a 13% increase). The National-Religious movements, which experienced a 2.53% decrease in membership rates between the years 2008 and 2009 followed by a 4% increase between the years 2009 and 2010, maintained their size overall between the years 2008 and 2010. The National-Religious youth movements were the last to recover from their drop in membership rates.

All of the data brought in this column is taken from data compiled by the Department of Community Services in the Jerusalem Municipality. The Jerusalem Municipality uses the data on the number of members in each youth movement to allocate funds proportionally among the different youth movements. In the early 2000’s, the Jerusalem Municipality developed a system for distributing funds on the basis of detailed reports submitted directly by the youth movements and subject to auditing by the Department of Community Services.

A Master Plan for Jerusalem's Ultra-Orthodox Schools

Dr. Maya Choshen

In December 2009, a master plan for Jerusalem's Ultra-Orthodox schools was published. The master plan, which was prepared by KESHET Inc. – Planning Services, was commissioned by the Jerusalem Municipality to assess future needs and to identify buildings and grounds that can be used for classrooms and school facilities so that the city will be able to provide the education needs of its Ultra-Orthodox students by the year 2020. With an already existing shortage of classrooms today, the shortage is expected to increase as the number of students grows.
For the preparation of the master plan, Ultra-Orthodox school enrollment projections for Jerusalem were calculated on the basis of the neighborhoods of Jerusalem which either currently have or are projected to have a sizable Ultra-Orthodox population by 2020. Students enrollment projections are used to project future demand for classroom facilities. The study also included a survey of current school enrollment and facilities and of available land that might be used for building new schools to serve the Ultra-Orthodox educational system.

In 2005, which was used as the scale mark for the study, school enrollment in the Ultra-Orthodox educational system (for children aged 6-17) was approximately 55,800 – 67% of those students lived in neighborhoods with an Ultra-Orthodox majority. Another 15% of them lived in areas that are "switching over," i.e., areas where the percentage of Ultra-Orthodox as a percentage of the total population is steadily increasing. Another 4% commuted to school from outside of Jerusalem. Only 9% of students enrolled in Ultra-Orthodox schools were residents of other neighborhoods of Jerusalem. (The addresses of 6% were unknown.)

According to the estimates of the master plan, 69,400 students will be enrolled in Ultra-Orthodox schools in Jerusalem by 2020. Neighborhoods of Jerusalem which are expected to have the largest number of school-aged children (ages 6-17) enrolled in Ultra-Orthodox schools are: Ramot Alon with an estimated 8,300 students, Romema-Komuna – 8,200 students, and Ramat Shlomo – 8,100 students.

In order to provide adequate schooling facilities by 2020, the Ultra-Orthodox educational system in Jerusalem will need three new special education schools and an additional 600 classrooms with an area of 77,000 sq m.

Source: Jerusalem Municipality, Master Plan for Ultra-Orthodox Educational
Facilities, December 2009, prepared by KESHSET Inc. – Kidum Sherutei Tichnun

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City Sponsors

Yair Assaf-Shapira

"The Government shall provide for the development and prosperity of Jerusalem and the well-being of its inhabitants by allocating special funds, including a special annual grant to the Municipality of Jerusalem (Capital City Grant)." These responsibilities are listed in the Jerusalem Basic Law. To what extent, then, is Jerusalem dependent on national funding, and to what degree is it fiscally self-sufficient?

In 2008, Israel's government contributed approximately one billion NIS to the ordinary budget of the Jerusalem Municipality (in addition to another 208 million NIS allocated to Jerusalem outside of the ordinary budget). The city of Jerusalem was the largest recipient of national funding of all of Israel's cities, and it also enjoyed high municipal tax revenues. Municipal tax revenues, also known as Major General Fund tax revenues, are collected from taxes and fees that are paid directly to the city such as the Arnona property tax, service fees, business licenses and other taxes. The larger the share that municipal tax revenues play in the city's annual budget, the more the city can be said to be self-sufficient and independent of the central government, and vice versa.

Jerusalem's tax revenues reached 2.18 billion NIS in 2008 – more than any other local authority in Israel that year, with the single exception of Tel Aviv - Yafo (3.42 billion NIS). Haifa, by comparison, the third largest city in Israel after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - Yafo, collected 1.41 billion NIS. Jerusalem's high municipal tax revenues are undoubtedly connected to its sheer size as the largest city in Israel.

Jerusalem's tax revenues covered 68% of its ordinary budget – a percentage that was significantly higher than any other local authority in the Jerusalem district, excepting one small locality, Har Adar. However, 68% was still low in comparison with Haifa (71%) and Tel Aviv - Yafo (88%). All local authorities in Israel rely on national funding in addition to their self-generated municipal tax revenues for their ordinary budget.

The primary source of self-generated income in all Israeli cities is the Arnona property tax imposed on residential and non-residential properties. In 2008, the city of Jerusalem collected 1.41 billion NIS in property tax (Arnona), as compared with 2.32 billion NIS collected by Tel Aviv - Yafo and 945 million NIS collected by Haifa. Comparatively speaking, residential property taxes accounted for a larger share of Jerusalem's total property tax revenues in comparison with Haifa or Tel Aviv - Yafo, and in 2008, 47% of Jerusalem's Arnona tax revenues were accrued from residential properties.

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, Press release from 28/04/2010: Local Authorities in Israel 2008