A group of female ambassadors from Slovenia, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, Nepal, Guatemala, Panama, Albania, Kosovo, Spain, and Croatia visited the Jerusalem Civilian Command Center (JCCC) earlier this week to understand its role in contributing to the victims from Israel's south.
"This amazing group of women uplifted our volunteers, who have been working tirelessly for seven weeks, with their display of solidarity and care, coming as a large group on a rainy day," Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who spearheaded the visit.
The ambassadors learned about the various departments within JCCC, which is currently running out of Nissan Nativ Acting Studio.
The role of the center during the war
The call center, for example, is multilingual and links evacuees relocated to Jerusalem to the services they need, such as transportation and psycho-social support. A packing center manages donated and purchased goods, from baby formula to dry goods, given to the evacuees at no cost.
Jerusalem has taken in around 30,000 evacuees from the south and north of Israel, accommodated in 64 hotels across the city.
A highlight of the center is a store tailored for evacuees that provides a genuine shopping experience for everything from coats and shoes to books and toys.
The evacuees and the volunteers have connected at the center, said Jerusalem city councilor Laura Wharton – including people who may have been on different sides of the political aisle before October 7.
The JCCC is run entirely by local volunteers. It emerged from grassroots initiatives in the early days of the war. It now works closely with the Jerusalem Municipality and several local NGOs, including the civic protest movement "The Students Protest," among the leaders of the protests against the judicial reform.
The ambassadors also visited special programs run out of the JCCC, such as a collaboration with Ariel's Village, a sports therapy initiative.
"Even with the huge devastation of this war, we witness an everyday miracle here at JCCC of so many volunteers," said co-founder Gila Rockman of Shalem College.
"The huge support that we're getting from Jewish communities abroad and the Israeli civic society that really has stepped up and is working together is not only crucial to Israel's strength and resilience now, but it also has a key role in ensuring that we manage to win the war and overcome the challenges that are ahead of us as a society."