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Joel Tauber
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Until the age of 13, Yardena Fanta lived in a rural village in Ethiopia and had never set foot in a classroom. Now she's in Harvard completing her post-doctoral studies in the field of education, after earning her PhD in Tel Aviv University.
Fanta owes her success largely to her own prodigious efforts, but there's no doubt that her path was smoothed significantly by a man who has dedicated his energies to making a difference in Israel's Ethiopian community.
American entrepreneur and philanthropist Joel Tauber, already a generous supporter of a variety of causes, has turned his focus to the plight of Ethiopians in Israel, and specifically to their educational needs.
The Emigration Of Ethiopians To Israel
When thousands of Ethiopians emigrated from Africa to Israel in the mid-80's and early 90's, the enthusiasm and hope that drove them and their Israeli supporters seemed powerful enough to overwhelm any obstacle. The Ethiopian immigrants were eager to embrace their new land, and they in turn received a warm welcome from many Israelis.
The problem which no one had accounted for was the wrenching difficulty for an agrarian people, who had never seen even the most basic technology, in adjusting to a life that is supported entirely by technology.
Before they arrived in Israel, most Ethiopians were unaware of even such basic Western necessities as electricity. To arrive in a technologically advanced country, and especially a country whose economy is powered mainly by the fields of hi-tech and science, has proved a trauma for many Ethiopian immigrants.
For adults, this trauma has translated into a psychological and economic crisis, with unemployment and violence statistics climbing at an alarming rate. Even the state of marriages has been affected, as the role of women in the developed world has led to rifts of misunderstanding between Ethiopian spouses. For example some Ethiopian husbands find themselves struggling to reconcile with the notion that wives can be breadwinners.
For children, a central element of their trauma is that in schools they may be far behind the rest of their class in every subject. Israel's school systems, which had until then only handled immigrants from developed countries, were not equipped to cope with a mass immigration of people with such detailed and complex needs.
Seeing children's development as the key to the future of the community, Joel Tauber has decided to direct his efforts toward Ethiopian children's education.
It is only through education and full integration that Tauber believes that the problems currently being played out in Israel's Ethiopian community can end.
The Work Of Joel Tauber
The Tauber Initiative for the Advancement of Ethiopian Youth, which is being funded by Tauber and run by Tel Aviv University, provides educational enrichment and assistance to Ethiopian children from the 7th grade.
The goal is not simply to provide remedial tutoring, but to fully incorporate Ethiopian children into the Israeli educational system, and thereby encourage those children to aspire to higher education in university. The program continues during the phase of higher education, and Tauber funds the studies of the students who qualify for a doctoral program.
Until recently, academic statistics in the Ethiopian community were grim, with the vast majority of Ethiopian teenagers failing to graduate from high school. For that reason, the Tauber Initiative begins in junior high, in a concerted effort to prepare Ethiopian students for high school matriculation exams and beyond.
Another stated goal of the program - just as important as completing a degree - is to build confidence and a sense of empowerment in the Ethiopian population.
The Initiative builds upon other programs that Tauber has funded in the past for Ethiopian youth, but this is the first program that entails an intense involvement in the process of education. Tauber has also worked with Tel Aviv University on other projects in the past, which influenced his decision to work with them again, recalling that he was impressed with the skill of the university staff in implementing a common vision.
Why Joel Tauber Is Committed To Helping Ethiopians
Tauber traces the beginning of his passion for the Ethiopian plight to a fateful weekend in 1991, when in response to increased destabilization in Ethiopia, about 14,000 Ethiopians were airlifted from Africa to Israel in a single weekend. Tauber was in Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv when one of the planes landed, and expresses today that he was deeply affected by the experience.
"Everyone was teary-eyed," Tauber said in interview. "It was the completion of a very emotional rescue operation." The people that Tauber was watching clearly believed that they had arrived in the 'Promised Land.' From that point on, Tauber was determined to do whatever he could to make that belief a reality.
Another root of Tauber's passion for the Ethiopian cause is his own personal history. In Tauber's native Detroit, 85% of the residents are African-American and many, according to Tauber, live in the same impoverished conditions as before the city's 1967 riots.
Tauber sees parallels between the situation of African-Americans in Detroit and that of the Ethiopians in Israel, elaborating, "African people are people and they deserve every chance that we and the majority community have. I live in Detroit where the situation for African Americans is even worse than it is for the Ethiopians in Israel…My hope is that through success in Israel we can show the world and specifically Detroit that it is possible to make a difference for these people - but you have to put time and money into it."
The next issue that Tauber plans to address is that of getting Ethiopians hired for quality jobs, in a move similar to affirmative action in the U.S. He confirms that there are already philanthropists who are taking action in support of that goal. Tauber expresses hope that the relatively small-scale operations taking place to eliminate poverty and prejudice for a minority population in Israel will stand as an example to the international community, saying, "We'll show the world what we can do."