More Than Just Facts

While waiting on line at the Haifa Information Center, Esther and Ludmilla strike up a conversation in elementary, but increasingly lively Hebrew. It turns out they both rented apartments on the same street, and their children are attending the same primary school. Esther, who worked in retail sales in Marseille recently found a job in a clothes store downtown.

At the annual "Yakir Klita" ceremony organized by the Haifa Information Center on their premises, certificates are awarded to individuals for honorary distinction in the service of absorption. Above, Immigration and Absorption Committee Co-Chair Arieh Azoulay confers the certificate on Jacqueline Herzikowitz and the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer club for their extensive work with the Ethiopian children at the Ayelet Hashachar Absorption Center.

She wants to speak to someone in French to verify if the benefits she was offered as part of her new job are reasonable. Ludmilla, a pharmacist from Moscow, needs information on the upcoming licensing exam. As Esther's turn comes, she parts from Ludmilla with a small wave and a warm smile. Her world has just become a little more familiar. Esther sits down across from a French-speaking volunteer and begins to explain her query.

The Haifa Information Center in the Aba Hushi Absorption Center is open from 8am to 4pm five days a week. There are fifteen modules and "we have volunteers who speak Spanish, French, Russian, English, Amharic or Hebrew," explains Information Center Director Orly Zuckerman. "The Center is staffed entirely by volunteers, a mixture of retirees and students, for whom we provide training. Immigrants from the entire area come with all kinds of questions, particularly about employment options." In addition, tourists receive aliyah information and as part of ongoing aliyah promotion, the Center runs programs and trips for tourists at a rate of twice a week.

"We are very excited about our recently inaugurated Immigrant Club on our premises, in which we take our services one step further. There we have more extensive job search opportunities where volunteers can sit with immigrants and go over new postings in the newspaper corner or help the immigrant navigate his or her way on the internet in the computer corner. In addition, the Club is a social spot for lone soldiers; immigrant soldiers whose families live outside of Israel. Soldiers can watch TV, socialize, have a coffee, go online or read the newspaper in a clean, comfortable environment.

The Haifa Information Center and its smaller satellites in the Absorption Centers in Kiryat Yam, Tiberias, Upper Nazareth and Karmiel Absorption Centers are also focal points for Babayit Bayachad (At Home, Together) activities. Each site offers not just technical assistance, but brings the immigrant closer to Israel and Israelis closer to the immigrants.