Nina Avidar Weiner

President and co-founder of the ISEF Foundation, Nina Weiner is a "zealous advocate of education" who has dedicated thirty years of her life to ensuring that young Israelis from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to higher education.

Weiner served as an alternate representative of the NGO Wizo, the Women's International Zionist Organization from 1973 to 1977. In 1977, with the encouragement and support of Edmond Safra, as its co-founder with his wife Lily Safra, she established the ISEF Foundation, with the purpose of developing the intellectual potential of gifted Israelis from inner-city neighborhoods and isolated development towns (more bio here).

With the crisis in Israeli universities not yet over, we will discuss the role of education in the Jewish world and the role of Americans when it comes to Israel's education system. Readers can send questions to rosnersdomain@haaretz.co.il.

Dear Nina,

I'll start with a basic question: If Israel's education is in a crisis - why is this your problem, and why won?t you let the Israeli institutions deal with it?

Best

Rosner

Dear Shmuel,

I really believe that in order to survive in a hostile, complicated world, Jews in Israel and the Diaspora need to help each other. Education is relegated to the back burner in Israel, by governments of the left and the right. We just saw two examples of this during the year with the months long secondary school strike and then a three month strike by university professors. Israeli governments have failed the Israeli education system and failed Israeli young people. If we can help young Israelis achieve to the best of their ability through a non-governmental organization, it's our duty to do so. It's important not to be capricious or to follow just our hearts, but to follow the facts closely.

We start in America with people who care about Israel and study the issues and the needs. We talk to teachers, university professors and presidents, and students, who are the best source of information. Our U.S. board works together with our Israeli board, led by director Zion Regev, and with our alumni. The best way to do good things in Israel is to listen to Israelis, to go to the source of who it is you want to help.

I am grateful that from very early on we have relied on--and continue to rely on people who were once ISEF-supported students and are now renown in Israel, like Dr. Yair Ronen [Children's Rights Advocate Lecturer, Hebrew University Bar-Ilan University] or Dani Ben Simon [Haaretz journalist] and Dr Yossi Dahan [Chairman of Adva]. Our students become role models to generations of Israelis who desperately need this, young people who want to escape the vicious cycle of poverty that has continued in some cases for three generations.

We have initiated two-dozen programs that help children from the periphery get their bagrut [high school matriculation certificate]. We empower the students and the students empower their society. Let me explain what I mean. One example of the ripple effect of the work that ISEF does is a program of parliamentary assistants, chosen by Hevrei Knesset (parliament members). These young assistants assist the Knesset members in passing social legislation related to housing, support for single mothers, education, and special education and rights of children and much more - because all of these issues are related to improving education.

When I would enter the Knesset, although I had a friend or two like Ran Cohen or Yossi Sarid [former Minister of Education] or Silvan Shalom [former Foreign Minister], many looked at me like a nuisance. Haim Ramon didn?t want to take a picture with me. Now, they line up to get a student of ours to be their free parliamentary assistant. Colette Avital didn?t understand why she had to wait one year to get a parliamentary assistant, since she is a friend and we worked closely with her when she was the Consul in New York. This program is such a success story; it brings me back to why we need to have this support.

All the best,

Nina