NIF in the News: Last summer’s war in Lebanon exposed a great chasm between rich and poor in Israel. Those in the north who could afford to fled to hotels or family members in other parts of the country.

But many — among them new immigrants, the elderly, disabled people and Arab citizens of Israel — did not have the opportunity to leave. In some cases, immigrants didn’t understand Hebrew commands telling them to get into bomb shelters; in some Arab villages, bomb shelters don’t exist.

Although the war didn’t create this reality, it did expose it, said Ronit Heyd, director of the Social and Economic Justice Initiative at Shatil, the New Israel Fund’s Israeli arm.

Slightly more than 100 supporters of the NIF attended a symposium at the JCC of San Francisco on Sunday called “Toward a Progressive Vision for Israel.” The symposium was one of several around the country, and let supporters of the NIF hear firsthand about some of the projects they are supporting.

The New Israel Fund was founded in San Francisco almost 30 years ago to create a new model of philanthropy in Israel. It raises money for groups working on religious pluralism, Arab-Jewish coexistence, women’s rights, the environment and more. Shatil, which means “seeding” in Hebrew, provides NIF grantees with training and consulting in all the areas they need to achieve their goals.

At the symposium, attendees could choose from sessions on a number of these topics, and hear from specialists working in these areas.

After the war in Lebanon ended, Heyd said, Shatil held a number of public hearings in the affected regions so people could talk about how they were affected. She told of an 82-year-old man who had called social services, but didn’t get help for two weeks because no one there spoke Russian.

“This was the first time the voices of these people were brought to the Knesset,” she said.

Ilana Litvak, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, is the project coordinator for Shatil’s former Soviet Union program, which works especially with at-risk immigrant youth.

She said that up to 25 percent of Russian immigrant youth drop out of high school and abuse drugs and alcohol. And although there are organizations for their parents, Russian immigrants are not of the mindset that they can affect change.

“We helped to unite them in a coalition, and they started to come to Knesset meetings to say there is a problem,” she said, adding, “It’s not just the immigrants’ problem, it’s society’s problem.”

Nidal Abed El Gafer is an Arab citizen of Israel with a private law practice who has spent many years working with Shatil. He now serves as legal adviser for the Mixed Cities Project for the Promotion of Housing Rights.

There are five so-called “mixed cities” in Israel where Jews and Arabs live together — Lod, Ramle, Haifa, Akko and Jaffa. But not all provide Arab citizens with the same services they provide for Jews, participants said.

Abed El Gafer cited the city of Ramle, where the mayor decided he could not provide transportation for children from one Arab village within the city limits to come to school because it is an unrecognized village.

Abed El Gafer helped bring the case to court, and the mayor was forced to build a bus stop there and bring the children. But then, even though some Arab children were already attending a Jewish school, the school suddenly stopped accepting new Arab children, with no reason given.

“How is it in a state called a democracy, the minority has to petition the court for basic rights because of a racist mayor?” he asked.