Despite these amendments, advertisements for sexual services continue to be commonplace in Israel. In response, TFHT brought the matter to Israel’s Supreme Court.  In preparation for the case, TFHT placed false advertisements for sexual services in newspapers to demonstrate to the Supreme Court the ease with which such ads are published in Israel. The advertisements included phone numbers prospective clients could call to schedule an appointment with a prostituted woman. Those who called were greeted by a recording of an actress telling the story of how she had come to work in prostitution. TFHT monitored how many calls these phone numbers received and used them to evidence the widespread demand for prostitution in Israel.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that police and newspapers required more time, albeit very limited, to understand and comply with the law.  In the few weeks since the Supreme Court ruling, Israel’s police have arrested the owner of “Banana”, a monthly publication that exclusively advertises sexual services, the country’s largest carrier of such advertisements. This arrest marks significant progress in Israel’s fight against prostitution and sex trafficking and delivers a strong message to advertisers that the State will no longer tolerate those who do not comply with the new legislation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The struggle to pass this legislation has been a long one, for which TFHT laid the foundations and lobbied for every step of the way. The process began when Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On first proposed the bill and MK Orit Zuaretz took on the bill’s sponsorship. This January, the legislation came before the Ministerial Committee, where it was reviewed for a month.

During that month, TFHT and its many dedicated volunteers initiated Project 119 to lobby the Committee to support MK Zuaretz’s proposed bill. With the help of volunteer organizers such as Peggy Sakow in New York and Leonie Fleischmann in London, demonstrations in London, Jerusalem, New York, and Washington, D.C. were organized.

The Task Force also conducted a letter writing campaign, sending hundreds of letters to the Committee members; collected thousands of petition signatures; contacted international community leaders, such as Mark Lagon, the former U.S. Ambassador to Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State, who agreed to appeal directly to the Committee; and paired Israeli volunteers with specific members of the Committee to intensively lobby for the legislation. In large part a result of this campaigning, on February 12  the Ministerial Committee voted unanimously to support Zuaretz’s proposed legislation, and on February 15 the legislation passed its pre-reading in the Knesset.

The legislation will now go before a committee for review and to ascertain the funding it requires. After the Committee has finished its review, the legislation will be returned to the Knesset for its first, second, and third readings. Due to coalition obligations, Knesset members are expected to vote in favor of the legislation at these readings, though TFHT is taking nothing for granted.

Thus, it is important to note the legislation has still not been passed into law. It is possible that some MKs or ministers will stall indefinitely to delay the process, allowing Israelis to continue to purchase sex at the expense of the suffering of thousands of women and children.

It has been an extraordinary effort to get the bill to this point; we have not yet reached the end. Let’s not lose momentum. To find out how you can help make this legislation a reality, please visit our website and “Like” our Facebook page.  Help us secure passage of this progressive legislation that will put Israel at the forefront of the fight against sex trafficking and forced prostitution.

Kayla Zecher
Projects Coordinator for ATZUM’s Task Force on Human Trafficking

The application can be found here.

The Abe and Gert Nutkis Scholarship is intended to enable young adults to study and volunteer in Israel. The recipients will receive up to $5,000, so that they can study in a co-educational institution, while volunteering a minimum of four hours a week, either with ATZUM or an organization approved by ATZUM. Priority will be given to applicants with financial need and those who have little or no previous experience in Israel.

Past recipients have lived in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and various other locations throughout Israel. Their courses have covered a wide range of topics from religion to art history. In addition, candidates are afforded the opportunity to learn Hebrew as well as experience and explore Israeli Society.

If you are interested in applying for one of next year’s scholarships, please begin the application process today!

Several years ago, I was unaware that sexual slavery not only exists in Israel but is a thriving business. It brings up to three quarters of a billion dollars a year into Israel’s economy. I was unaware that 3,200 women, many of them orphans, all of them poor, are trafficked across Israel’s borders every year. I was unaware that for a few thousand dollars, I could buy a girl or a woman, and sell her body to others to use and abuse as they saw fit. I was unaware that despite Israel having strong anti-sexual slavery and anti-trafficking laws, they are rarely enforced.

Several years ago I was unaware about the realities of sexual slavery in Israel, and worse I was doing nothing about it. Then I had a cup of coffee and a conversation with the wrong person. You should be very careful with whom you have coffee. Without much introduction I was made aware. Someone forced me to acknowledge the presence in Israel of an industry so perverse it undermines the ability of a just society to exist. She provided me with this information, and left me with difficult questions about what to do with it.

There are many reasons for not doing anything; I’ve heard nearly all of them.

Yet Israel was created with a hope and the dream we would proactively be a model for decency and dignity, a prophetic light for other nations” (Isaiah 49:6). We always recognized this would not be an easy task and this undersanding is embedded in the name of the State, Medinat Yisrael, a nation that would wrestle with God — and wrestling with God can be exhausting, and exhilirating. For engaging ultimate resposnibility is to engage difficult questions for which we will not have all the answers. To wrestle with ultimacy is to refuse to undermine our dignity.

Thus, we need choose to engage this struggle, refuse to tolerate sexual slavery on the streets of Israel. There are many ways to do this, and each of us has something to bring to this effort. I encourage you to get involved.  Read this newsletter, learn more about our Task Force on Human Trafficking, send a letter to a Knneset Member, donate money or time. Contact us to see what  you can do to help. Join us in wrestling with God.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Levi Lauer
Founding Executive Director, ATZUM

In addition to actually funding the dental care of 10-15 survivors of terror per year – including routine dental treatments and endodontic, periodontic and prosthodontic services – the initiative also hopes to identify and recruit Israeli dentists and dental suppliers who would offer their services at a reduced fee to survivors of terror and their families.

“Due to the severity of their injuries, survivors of terror frequently suffer from acute dental issues that demand immediate and extensive treatment.  We have found that death or injury also leaves families unable to afford even the most routine dental care,” explained Rabbi Levi Lauer, Founding Executive Director of ATZUM.

“With the launch of this unique initiative, ATZUM will be able to provide these individuals with financial and practical assistance to obtain any necessary dental care services.” 

The ‘Jewish Tooth Fairy Fund’ is the brainchild of Rachel Rudman, Dara Freedman-Weiss and Dena Rapoport, graduate students who spent last year studying and volunteering in Israel.  Studying this year in New York, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. respectively, the three have begun fundraising for the project with the goal of collecting $50,000 by the end of 2012.  ATZUM seeks additional donors to augment their efforts.

“Though my original objective was to simply meet with the students to discuss ATZUM’s projects and the issues we are facing with our clients, it quickly became so much more,” said Karyn London, the coordinator of ATZUM’s Roberta Project for Survivors of Terror.

“The students chose to become actively engaged in our projects, focusing on the dental needs of survivors of terror and making it their mission to find a solution to this problem.  It is very inspiring to see young graduate students take on a project like this and commit themselves to seeing it through to the end.”

Leading up to the New Year, we endeavored to speak personally to these families wishing them health and strength and a peaceful beginning of the year.

There are those families who in addition to the anguish and pain have a meager income which makes the holiday season even more challenging.  With the assistance of many friends and donors, ATZUM distributed food coupons for Rosh Hashana to these families enabling them to brighten their holiday table and bringing joy to their hearts.

Here’s to a year of peace and healing!

L’, whose father was an egged bus driver, was killed in 2002, “I won’t let the terrorist win-every day I am in school and the work is hard, so I study to make my father proud”.

R’ whose husband z”l was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2005, “The missing gets harder but I stay strong for the children- I am the only one left to see that they succeed. We are always sad but we find joy because that is what he would have wanted”.

C’, whose teenage son was gunned down while waiting for a ride near his home in 2005, “Every day is a day of mourning in our home, but we live on and I tell my other children, “Remember the good things, the simcha, the smile, the laughter, the music and the friends.”

Yiheh Zichram Baruch

Karyn London
Director, The Roberta Project for Survivors of Terror

However, there is another type of heroism that we can find in the Holocaust, and that is the heroism of the Righteous Among the Nations. Non Jews who defied all of their surroundings, who went against the laws of their countries, who acted differently than all of their society, who risked their own lives, and very often the lives of their families, all in order to save Jews.

Click here to read stories of the Righteous Among the Nations, the rescuers.

Yael Rosen

Project Coordinator, Righteous Among the Nations