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Email this pageTA Mayor Recognizes Mechina for Community Service
Ron Huldai, mayor of Tel Aviv, helped mark the city’s centennial by recognizing several individuals and groups for excellence in volunteering, among them the Mechina, the pre-draft program of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. The ceremony took place in Tel Aviv on December 2.
The Mechina is a gap year initiative that helps prepare young people for the challenges of army life through academic, spiritual and ethical enrichment, as well as involvement in social and community projects. Participants – there are 44 this academic year – live in Jaffa, where they spend about 15 hours a week working with groups ranging from senior citizens to troubled youth under the aegis of the Tel Aviv Municipality’s social services department. In addition, they spend additional time volunteering on an individual basis.
In recommending the Mechina for this year’s mayoral citation, Dana Karmel, who coordinates volunteer activities for the city’s southern district, which includes Jaffa, wrote: “There are also projects and programs that have been the sole initiative of the Mechina…. One example is a study center that has been active for a couple of years, tutoring children for free and helping them with their homework – a direct initiative of the participants and completely under their own supervision. Karmel added that thanks to her department’s close ties with the Mechina, opportunities arise on an ad hoc basis for individual projects that include holiday fund-raising for needy families, providing transportation to senior citizens and painting their homes.
“Each year, it is exciting to see and hear the reactions and experiences that different people have after working with the Mechina: teenagers who have improved their academic achievements, senior citizens who have enjoyed dancing and playing checkers, children who given a place to be during the afternoon, all thanks to the Mechina's volunteers. The Mechina's contribution to the population of Jaffa, with the guidance and management of the program’s devoted staff, is highly significant. The participants work with a sense of modesty out of pure altruism, with respect for everyone and a true belief in justice and serving society.”
The Mechina program is directed by Rabbi Aharon Fox, who also heads the IMPJ’s youth movement, Noar Telem. Fox is a senior reserve commander in one of the IDF’s most elite units and was ordained in 2003 on Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Jerusalem campus.
By the way, the Web site of the Jewish United Fund / Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago features a delightful article on the Mechina penned by the noted Israeli writer Stuart Schoffman. He has a daughter who’s a Mechina participant, and a son who’s a Mechina grad now serving in the IDF. The article can be accessed by clicking here. 
Mayor Ron Huldai (center) awards his citation for exceptional volunteer work to the IMPJ’s Mechina gap-year program. Accepting the award are Liora Vered-Ezrachi (right), the Mechina’s coordinator for voluntary activities, and Lior Doron, a program grad now serving in the IDF.
IMPJ activists and Mechina supporters give the gap-year program and its representatives a rousing ovation at the awards ceremony.
