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In 2015, the American Friends of ILAN, Inc. raised almost $120,000 to support ILAN’s activities in Israel.

Scholarship Fund Challenge

Throughout its history, ILAN has worked to educate its children, guiding them through school and helping them to develop the skills – and the self-confidence – they need to enjoy productive lives within society, and where possible, to join the workforce.  ILAN encourages physically disabled youths with normal cognitive potential to attend college.  However, those students who want to pursue graduate studies require scholarship support: the Israeli government provides financial assistance only through the undergraduate years.

In 2015, ILAN received a $50,000 grant from the National Lottery for scholarship support.  But there was a condition: to receive this grant, ILAN had to raise an additional $50,000 in matching funds by the end of the year.  Supporters throughout the U.S. responded to this challenge, and in December the American Friends of ILAN forwarded $50,000 to Israel for the Scholarship Fund, thus securing the grant from the National Lottery.

Personal Aid Fund Appeal

As we Americans prepared to celebrate the December holidays, Am-ILAN asked supporters to remember those brave families in Israel, who struggle daily to meet the needs of their disabled loved ones, by making a contribution to ILAN’s Personal Aid Fund.  Many of you gave generously.  ILAN’s special personal aid committee will decide how this money is distributed.  Grants, which help these families to purchase equipment necessary for their loved one’s rehabilitation, range from $250 to $1,350, and in each case the family is expected to cover a portion of the cost.  The number of applications for assistance is significant, and ILAN cannot respond positively to everyone, so support from the American Friends to the Personal Aid Fund is especially welcome.

Support for the Onn School in Zahala

Once again in 2015, Am-ILAN received a significant contribution from Sabina and Oz Garinkol of Brookline, MA, and from Mrs. Garinkol’s father, Fred Licht, to support the Onn School in the Tel Aviv suburb of Zahala.  The Garinkols’ connection to the Onn School goes back to the 1960’s, when Sabina’s grandparents, Ruth and Arnold Licht, founded the Walter Licht Center for children with cerebral palsy.  The story begins on the Lichts’ 40^th anniversary, when Arnold bought Ruth a diamond ring at Harry Winston.  As Sabina tells it, “Not being much of a ‘bauble’ woman, Ruth asked Arnold to return the ring and to use the money instead to build something to benefit children in Israel, in memory of their son Walter, who had died as a child.”  Sabina remembers the pride she felt at a very young age seeing the photograph of her grandparents, shovels in hand, at the groundbreaking for the Center.  Several years later, the Walter Licht Center merged with ILAN and formed the Onn School.  The commitment to support the Onn School has spanned three generations, and Sabina reports that her children, too, have said that they will continue the family tradition.  She writes that, like her grandmother, “I could never enjoy a material good as much as I enjoy making a donation to a good cause.”

Support for the Gilo Home

Each year, Am-ILAN receives a significant gift for ILAN’s residential facility in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem, which is home to more than 70 disabled adults, including some married couples.  Residents are encouraged to be as independent as possible – many leave the hostel each morning to go to work −, and they participate in the operation of the home through a democratically elected committee that has a say in decisions affecting their way of life.  Constructed in 1988, the Gilo Home recently underwent a much-needed remodeling and the installation of new physical and occupational therapy equipment.

Support for the Ilanot School in Jerusalem

Also in 2015, donors earmarked gifts for the Ilanot School, located in the Katamon Hey neighborhood of Jerusalem.  The School serves children aged 3-18, most of whom are wheelchair-bound.

 

 

 

In Memoriam

The American Friends of ILAN would like to acknowledge a generous gift from the family of Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams, Ph.D., who died in October in Houston.  Rabbi Abrams was a celebrated Talmud scholar and an editor of the 2006 book, Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability.