The United Jewish Appeal responded today to recent criticism of Project Renewal, stating that the critics have failed to see “clear and present signs of progress toward what may be the world’s first successful program of comprehensive rehabilitation of distressed urban areas.”
“Certainly there have been problems,” said Robert Russell of Miami, UJA national Project Renewal chairman, in a statement issued here today. “Every new program encounters difficulties, but Project Renewal has also recorded significant, visible accomplishments.”
The statement noted that scores of supportive social programs and physical improvements are in place or in progress in dozens of Project Renewal neighborhoods in Israel. They include: bomb shelters converted to youth clubs; mother and child programs; “laundry clubs” where women doing their wash receive educational instruction; some new housing units and enlarged apartments; drug prevention and other anti-delinquency programs; cleared lots, pocket parks, improved street lighting and increased bus service.
GRASS ROOTS PARTICIPATION STRESSED
Russell attributed this record of progress to Project Renewal’s emphasis on direct resident participation in the rehabilitation of the neighborhoods.
“The bulldozer approach of imposing a so-called slum clearance plan on a distressed area has never worked,” he declared, “as witness the failure of the war on poverty in the U.S. In Project Renewal, it is the people of the neighborhoods who determine their own priority needs and develop the programs that will best meet them.
“This grass roots approach requires the formation of neighborhood councils, an often slow and halting process, sometimes creating a sense of delay and leading to the kind of impatient criticism we have been experiencing.”
Resident priorities established through this process, Russell observed, are often surprising to those who expect the need for improved housing to be the dominant concern. As an example, he cited these words by a man in Amishav residing in two small rooms with his wife and six children:
“I’ve lived here for seven years and I can live here for seven more years. But my 13 year-old son can’t live seven more years without a youth program in the neighborhood.”
NEW PRIDE INSTILLED
Russell’s statement added that the new pride instilled in Project Renewal neighborhoods through central resident involvement has been reinforced by the active participation of American Jews from linked communities in the planning and programming process.
The total rehabilitation program for each neighborhood partnered with an American community or cluster of communities is the product of a cooperative effort involving steering committees established by the neighborhood councils, American community representatives, the Jewish Agency Project Renewal Department and participating Israel government ministries.
Beyond those programs already in operation, according to Russell, hundreds of additional social and physical rehabilitation projects have been approved and are awaiting funding and implementation. How quickly and effectively they will be activated, he emphasized, depends largely on the pace of Project Renewal fund-raising and cash flow in the immediate weeks and months ahead.
“Despite the critics who see only the problems and ignore the progress,” the statement concludes, “the question is no longer whether Project Renewal will work. The question is how well we will let it work.”
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