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Volunteerism and Charity in Israel

(Los Angeles Times) Uri Resnick - A study that ranked countries based on international giving left the misleading impression that Israelis are not generous with their charity dollars. Israel has a heavy defense burden and spends roughly 7% of its gross domestic product on defense, almost four times the average of 1.8% of other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. As a consequence, Israel is left with fewer resources to allocate for civilian purposes. At the same time, volunteerism is deeply ingrained in Israeli society. Israel's Perach ["Flower"] tutoring project engages nearly 60,000 disadvantaged children a year and involves nearly 15% of Israel's university student body. On a per-capita basis, this is more than 30 times the size of the largest comparable mentoring organization in the U.S. Yad Sarah, which provides free medical and rehabilitative equipment to anyone in need, is run by more than 6,000 volunteers. The writer is Israel's deputy consul general in Los Angeles.
2013-06-28 00:00:00
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