For decades, the Jerusalem Rotary Club has granted modest scholarships to worthy high school students in the capital.
By GAVRIEL FISKEA high-school student receives an award from the Jerusalem Rotary Club.(photo credit: Courtesy)
The venerable Jerusalem Rotary Club engages in numerous charitable activities, foremost among them the annual scholarships awarded to promising city high-schoolers. This year these awards, which over the years have helped some 3,000 students, will be presented at a public ceremony on June 10 at the YMCA in downtown Jerusalem.The purpose of the awards is to “provide assistance to Jerusalem students in their education, in recent years focusing on those studying technical, hi-tech and scientific subjects,” says Rotary Club member Kern Wisman, a former head of the Jerusalem Rotary Club Foundation, the nonprofit established in 1964 to manage the club’s charity efforts.The amount granted to each student varies from year to year, Wisman explains, and recently there has been a shift toward a larger number of smaller awards. This year, 70 students will be granted around NIS 800 each; three “higher awards” offer NIS 2,000 ; and a single exceptional student will receive NIS 2,500, the largest grant.The awardees were chosen from over 300 applicants, selected according to “academic excellence, participation in their school’s activities, community service, economic status of the family and the recommendation of the student’s teachers,” according to a press release, which noted that “the recipients come from every sector of Israeli society – religious and secular, Jewish and Arab, new immigrants, established families and the disabled. Of late, many of the recipients have hailed from the Russian and Ethiopian communities.”Wisman declined to reveal any specific details about the students ahead of the ceremony, but emphasized that the awards are given to those “who can benefit from the assistance and show achievement.” Each year, eight to 10 schools in the capital are approached by the foundation; school councillors and staff nominate individual students to be considered for the grants. From this initial pool, the final awardees are chosen by a special committee of Jerusalem Rotary Club members, then approved by the organization’s board.Schools from east Jerusalem are not currently included in the grant process, although they are “on our radar,” Wisman clarifies. “We have tried to make contact with east Jerusalem schools, but haven’t succeeded… We don’t have a way to do that yet.”In addition to the scholarships, the foundation has been involved in a host of other activities, including aiding the fire brigade, providing wheelchairs for Yad Sarah, donating handrails for the Jerusalem Theater and providing assistance to Hadassah University Medical Center.The Jerusalem Rotary Club was founded in 1929 during the British Mandate, and many – though not all – of the first members were British officials. The founders also included Arab and Jewish figures, including Gershon Agron, who would later become The Jerusalem Post’s founding editor, then mayor of Jerusalem; and archivist Hugo Bergmann, who went on to become the first rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.According to an account drawn from the 1999 book History of the Jerusalem Rotary Club and posted on the club’s website, member Elie Eliashar, who was club president during the 1940s, recalled that during the years of World War II, membership consisted of “Britishers in high government employ, members of the Consular Corps, Muslims and Christian Arabs and Jews. Disturbances and riots did not prevent Rotarians from meeting under most difficult conditions. Once around the tables at the King David Hotel or the YMCA, all differences were set aside. Collaboration was intimate and friendly for the good of Jerusalem and in matters of social welfare, the club often serving as a moderator of public opinion.”“The club was founded in the Land of Israel in 1929, and it was sponsored at the time by the Rotary Club of Cairo, which I find is an interesting historical reference,” explains program chair Art Braunstein, who adds that while he has been a member for 18 years, there are some current members whose membership go back 40 or 50 years. Historically, “the club allows for a mix of professional contacts and social action…we focus of course on Jerusalem, but it has an international flavor,” he says.When the Jerusalem Rotary Club was created during the British Mandate, many, but not all, of the first members were British officials. The founders also included Arab and Jewish figures, including Gershon Agron, who would later become the founding editor of The Palestine Post (now The Jerusalem Post) and then mayor of Jerusalem, and archivist Hugo Bergman, who became the first rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.The club was also closely linked at the time to similarly newly founded clubs in other Middle-Eastern cities such as Cairo, Damascus and Beirut. However, after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, due to the politics involved, the contact between the Israeli Rotary clubs and clubs in Arab countries were broken off, and the Israeli clubs were spun off into their own region of Rotary International governance. According to Braunstein, today there is little if any contact between the Israeli Rotary Clubs and the still-active Rotary Clubs in other Middle- Eastern countries.In the years before 1948, membership consisted of “Britishers in high government employ, members of the Consular Corps, Moslems and Christian Arabs and Jews."Disturbances and riots did not prevent Rotarians from meeting under most difficult conditions. Once around the tables at the King David Hotel or the YMCA, all differences were set aside. Collaboration was intimate and friendly for the good of Jerusalem and in matters of social welfare, the Club often serving as a moderator of public opinion,” according 1940s club president Elie Eliashar, whose account, drawn from the 1999 book History of the Jerusalem Rotary Club, is posted on the club’s website.To this day, the club conducts its business in English; of the 53 Rotary clubs operating in Israel, it is the only one to do so. The Rotary club idea began in 1905 in Chicago as a way to formalize friendly meetings between businessmen, and today “Rotary is a worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional and community leaders. Members, known as Rotarians, provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world,” according to a press release.The Jerusalem club today has some 40 members, comprising “a very, very eclectic group of people” according to program chair Art Braunstein, who describes himself as a “retired American Foreign Service officer.”Club membership is “non-sectarian and professional,” and includes former ambassadors, business figures, rabbis, Arabs, Christians and others.Among the current members are Irene Lewitt, a former governor (elected leader) of all the Rotary clubs in Israel; former diplomatic figures Bernard Avital and Werner Loval; and Nezar Tannous, an Arab Christian who is now club president. Wisman is originally from America and is the official representative of the Bahai religion in the capital; Post archivist Alexander Zvielli is a former member.Member Kern Wisman joined the Jerusalem Rotary Club in 2000 when he moved to Israel to take up his position as the official representative of the Bahai religion in Jerusalem. He relates that “my father was a Rotarian before me and you find a lot of people who continue the Rotary tradition... the Rotary was a good home base. If you need a plumber, you can find one, that’s the practical level. But on another level, it is a way to continue to do community service... it is appealing to find like-minded people of all kinds gathering together to service the community.”Since 1953, the Jerusalem Rotary Club has held their meeting at the YMCA building on King David Street, and the organization maintains a close relationship with the YMCA – several senior staff members have been at various times Rotary Club members, including current YMCA director Forsan Hussein, and the club foundation donated $50,000 for a renovation of Gan Shalom, the YMCA’s Jewish-Arab pre-school.The club has regular Wednesday lunch meetings, which are open to the public and often feature a guest speaker. Membership is theoretically opened to anyone, but “you have to be recommended or sponsored by a current member, and be of some professional standing,” Braunstein explains, and adds that “we try to keep a balance among the professions,” meaning that too many members hailing from the same professional background will not be allowed. But all are still welcome as guests, he stresses. The Jerusalem Rotary Club Foundation Scholarships will be awarded at a ceremony on Wednesday, June 10 at 2 p.m., at the Jerusalem YMCA, 26 King David Street. Attendance is free of charge.The Rotary Club meets at 1 p.m. every Wednesday at the YMCA, including this Wednesday before the awards ceremony. Further information: www.jerusalemrotaryclub.org.