The Jerusalem Inter-Cultural Center Blog

As an outcome of the work of Lod’s Multicultural Forum, a first training on cultural competency for service providers has begun. This is probably the first training of this kind at the national level.

Today’s meeting, the first in the series, was facilitated by Najuan Daadleh and hagai Agmon-Snir from the JICC. The meeting with attended by 15 participants coming from various departments of the Lod municipality, the local employment service, non-profit organizations, community centers and more.

The first two meetings focus on cross-cultural communication and an introduction to cultural competency. Additional meetings will provide models for better communication with a client of a different cultural background, using interpretation, adapting a service to various client groups, and other relevant topics. Case studies and simulations will enhance the learning process.

On February 4, we held the third training in the series that provides the Absorption Workers at the municipality with an introduction to the field of Cultural Competence.  The series covers topics such as organizational cultural competence, cross-cultural communication, tools for cultural competence, case studies and simulations.

In the training we continued and deepened our efforts to adopt Cross-Cultural Communication skills. This time, using the example of interaction between American guests and their hosts, their Israeli partners, we defined some of the main attributes of the Israeli manner of interacting and communicating. We applied these insights to interactions between Israelis who come from different cultural backgrounds, with an emphasis on new immigrants in Israel.

Next we examined positive and negative ways to judge behaviors of the “other” and how we can broaden the repertoire of behaviors that one can accept as legitimate. Yet, the main challenge is to find the bridge - to find the way to get the most out of the inter-cultural encounter. An interesting example was brought up by one of the participants regarding an Ethiopian couple who were supposed to go to the hospital for an important appointment that was set months in advance. At the last minute before their departure some of their family relatives showed up unexpectedly. According to their values and norms the Ethiopian couple had to host the guests. When they arrived to the hospital hours later the staff there were very angry with them.

At the training we took the opportunity to analyze this real life example, similar to many that we at the JICC encounter these days. We asked ourselves in which circumstances is it legitimate, in Israeli society, to arrive late to a medical appointment - e.g. death of close relative or a road closed because of a security threat. How would a “mainstream Israeli” act in order to ensure that she/he gets to the appointment even though he or she are late due to such reasons. We tried to work out how would it be possible for both sides - medical staff and patients - to get their interests and needs met in such a situation. This important example resonated with the training participants, who are exposed to similar cases in their daily work as service providers, and as those who try to help new immigrants navigate Israeli bureaucracy.

In the next meeting we will aspire to adapt medical models for inter-cultural dialogue with patients to the work of absorption officers and other service providers.

Today, we held the second training in the series that provides the Absorption Workers at the municipality with an introduction to the field of Cultural Competence.  The series covers topics such as organizational cultural competence, cross-cultural communication, tools for cultural competence, case studies and simulations.

The meeting was oriented towards Cross-Cultural Communication. Using a couple of personal and team exercises each of the participants extracted the core values and beliefs that guides her/him in interaction with others. The experience helped participants see that these core communication factors are based on our cultural background and origin, and that when interacting with clients and colleagues of other cultures the differences might create cultural clashes.

The interesting insight that stemmed from the day was the realization that while we all accept various values and beliefs as important and valuable, each of us prefers some to the others and may translate them into different behavior patterns. Hence, if we allow ourselves to see the positive values behind someone else’s behavior, we may shy away from negatively judging them. This is an important step towards better cross-cultural communication.

We will deepen our cross-cultural communication skills in the next meeting.

The Jerusalem Municipal Absorption Authority employs about ten Absorption Neighborhood Workers in the city. Their role is to assist new immigrants (Olim) who live in their neighborhoods with all the daily matters that those are typically challenged with. While these workers are usually new immigrants themselves, they cannot, of course, know and understand the cross-cultural issues relating to all immigrant communities that live in their neighborhoods

The municipal Absorption Authority, which is responsible for the recruitment, training and mentoring of the Absorption Workers, approached the JICC to conduct a training on cultural competency to this staff. The goals of the training are to leverage their work by making them more aware to cultural issues and to encourage them to become the voice for cultural competence in their neighborhoods. Our hope is that in time they will encourage local Community Councils and centers, local government agencies and branches, health clinics etc. to become cultural competent. Practically, this means that the scope of their influence will expand to include all identities living in their service area and not only new immigrants.

Today, November 19, we conducted the first training in the series that provided the Absorbtion Workers with an introduction to the field of cultural competence, including examples from health and many other applications relevant to their daily work. At the end of the training participants expressed their satisfaction with the level and scope of the training and that they look forward to future sessions. The rest of the training will cover topics such as cross-cultural communication, tools for cultural competence, case studies and simulations, and stages for making an organization cultural competent.