Projects

Following a comprehensive review of the status of disabled adults in the Arab Community conducted by JDC, Yad Hanadiv funded a large-scale intervention designed to improve the response to the needs of this population and create a professional organisational infrastructure to support this. The project strengthens NGOs working in the Arab Community for the disabled and their families, provides access to information in Arabic, works to eliminate prejudice and alter public attitudes within the Arab Community towards the disabled. Masira ultimately established an Arab Philanthropic Fund relying on donations from within the Community – the first of its kind in Israel.

The last 50 years have witnessed a revolution in the way archaeology is practiced.  In the late 1990s Yad Hanadiv began providing support to the Kimmel Centre for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute. The Institute is devoted to training a new generation of archaeologists in methods that incorporate scientific techniques and to promoting inter-university collaboration. The Foundation has supported cooperative efforts among scientists and archaeologists to develop unique methods of examining archaeological finds using 3D scanning and digital processing.

Yad Hanadiv began its support for Archaeology In the 1950s and 1960s with the James de Rothschild Archaeological Expedition to Hazor. It was followed by restoration work at Masada and Caesarea, in the Old City of Jerusalem, at Ramat Hanadiv, Hirbet Hamam and Huqoq among others. Throughout the years Yad Hanadiv has also promoted the publication and dissemination of excavation reports. In 2009 it set up the Yizhar Hirschfeld Memorial Fellowship in Archaeology to encourage younger Israeli archaeologists to innovate and pursue their scientific agendas.

The Centre for Educational Technology (CET) was established by Yad Hanadiv in 1971, in partnership with the State of Israel, to develop innovative and effective methods of teaching and learning using modern technologies and instructional materials.  In 1977, far in advance of personal computers, CET introduced individualized computer-aided learning systems into the Israeli school system. By 2018 CET had published 1,400 printed and 1,000 digital titles, developed hundreds of websites and trained tens of thousands of teachers. Over the years, development projects supported by Yad Hanadiv have included: an online ‘virtual campus’ for teachers’ professional learning and interaction; distance tutoring; projects to advance literacy of native Arabic speakers, online digital books, MindCET Edtech Innovation Centre and an adaptive learning platform.  

Yad Hanadiv assisted Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz to complete his Hebrew translation of the Babylonian Talmud with Commentaries and to place it online. The Foundation promoted the Friedberg Genizah Project in cooperation with the National Library of Israel and the Israel Antiquities Authority’s project to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls. Support has also been given to advance the work of Sefaria – a non-profit organisation which is assembling a free online library of digital texts in Hebrew and in translation.

Dorothy de Rothschild

The Instructional Television Centre, launched in 1966, was a ground-breaking effort to use television as a tool to enhance the school curriculum in Israel. Yad Hanadiv established the Instructional Television Trust, built its premises in Ramat Aviv and operated the project. Educational objectives were defined in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Culture. The first broadcast, which included mathematics, biology and English classes, inaugurated television transmission in Israel, and 60 television sets were distributed to 32 schools around the country to enable them to receive the first broadcasts. In 1969 Yad Hanadiv handed over the entire project to the State.

The transition from adolescence and early adulthood (from school to work) is a critical time. Yad Hanadiv is pursuing a strategy that focuses on transitional programmes built around soft skill and language acquisition, leadership experience and life skills to help position young Arabs – whether headed for higher education or the workforce – to achieve success. We aim to lay the foundations for overcoming disadvantages through support for a range of quality gap year programmes tailored to specific needs of various segments of the youth population. These programmes will be operated by organisations with expertise in gap initiatives and Arab Society, in collaboration with academic institutions and philanthropic partners, and will make use of substantial government funding that favours gap year programmes for the advancement of young people. 

GuideStar Israel is an online comprehensive database of information about Israeli non-profit organisations. Launched in August 2010, it includes information from the organisations as well as official filings required under Israeli law. It serves as an extensive source of data on the Third Sector and facilitates decision making on issues relating to Civil Society in Israel. Israel was the third country to establish a GuideStar database, after the US and UK. The project was a joint venture of the Ministry of Justice, JDC-Israel and Yad Hanadiv.  As of 2017, GuideStar is fully funded and operated by the Ministry of Justice, with the cooperation and guidance of a public committee.

The introduction of modern agricultural technology has led to the decline and loss of many cultivated, genetically heterogeneous plants indigenous to Israel. To combat this, the Israel Gene Bank was established to gather existing collections of genetic materials of traditional crops into a single, comprehensive seed bank. Yad Hanadiv funded the visit to Israel in 1995 of an international committee of experts, whose report in May 1996 recommended construction of a new bank and storage facility. The Plant Gene Bank, inaugurated on 1 January 2008, was built within the Agricultural Research Organisation of the Volcani Institute and its ongoing operation is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Science.

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The Jerusalem Seminar in Architecture was initiated in 1992 by Yad Hanadiv as an international conference series dedicated to discussing contemporary topics in Architecture, Urban Planning and Design. It was created as a platform to share and expand on the knowledge accumulated by the Foundation during the construction of the Supreme Court Building. The seven conferences held between 1992 and 2009 attracted some 1,200 professionals, researchers, students and the public, and provided a lively forum for dialogue and exchange of both theoretical and practical ideas. In addition to lectures, the seminar featured master classes and a design competition for Israeli architecture and design students.

MANOF is a residential youth village situated north of Acco. It was founded in 1975 at the initiative of Yad Hanadiv and in partnership with the Ministries of Education and Welfare, based on a recommendation of Professor Haim Adler. Since then, some 1,600 youth-at-risk have studied and lived at MANOF, gaining high school education and vocational training. Yearly enrolment is about 180. MANOF accepts students aged 15 to 17 who have been unable to integrate successfully into other educational frameworks. Their experience in the youth village restores their self-esteem, provides an opportunity of acquiring a profession and fosters their reintegration into society.

In 2008, Yad Hanadiv provided support towards the NanoMed programme at the Technion, led by Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Aharon Ciechanover. The programme aims to develop large-scale activity at the interface between Nanotechnology and Life Sciences by breaking down the boundaries separating scientists in Engineering, Life Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Medicine. It emphasizes biomedical imaging, novel disease biomarkers and targeted drug delivery. Support included a PhD programme, faculty positions and infrastructure investments.  

In 1971 Yad Hanadiv invited a commission of experts to Israel to examine the establishment of an ‘Everyman’s’ university based on international models. In August 1973, the government adopted the commission's recommendations and Yad Hanadiv undertook to set up and finance the University for its first five years. The OU opened its doors in 1976 and today has an enrolment of 46,000 students. Yad Hanadiv supported the construction of The Dorothy de Rothschild Campus in Ra'anana, inaugurated in 2004. Since then, the Foundation has helped to fund numerous OU initiatives, including the Centre for Information Technology in Distance Education (Shoham), the Peer Open Books project, translation of texts and course materials into Arabic and MindCET. 

Quality of care is a critical factor in fostering early childhood development, determined by both structural and process components. Structural elements include framework size, equipment, material resources, staff-to-child ratios, and formal staff qualifications. Process components encompass interactions between caregivers and children, as well as staff and parents, which directly impact children’s experiences and development; these are considered to be the most important parameters, with direct impact on children’s experiences and ultimately on their development.

Most children in Israel from birth until the age of three are cared for in unsupervised private frameworks. The percentage is higher among children from weaker socio-economic backgrounds. Typically, these frameworks are of lower quality, as caregivers are not required to undergo training or professional development. The absence of a national body or office charged with supplying the most basic types of training and oversight perpetuates the low quality of these frameworks and deepens developmental gaps from a very early age. Despite the shortage of players or organisations in the field committed to upskilling these caregivers, there is a noticeable need and strong desire on their part to learn and acquire professional tools to improve the quality and professionalism of their work, and to become part of a professional community.

The Quality of Educare Strategy aims to:

• Significantly improve the quality of educare in unsupervised frameworks, prevent developmental disparities and enable children to develop the necessary skills to thrive.
• Establish standards, practical knowledge and professional development systems for all caregivers.
• Expand local authorities’ responsibility over these frameworks and provide caregivers with training, supervision and support supplied by professional organisations.
• Advance new policies and methods to foster sustainability of the initiative and facilitate its expansion.

Upon his death in 1957, James de Rothschild bequeathed a sum of money for a Knesset building in Jerusalem, expressing the hope in a letter addressed to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion that the new building would become ‘a symbol in the eyes of all men of the permanence of the State of Israel’. The widow of James, Dorothy de Rothschild, undertook to carry out the project. A decade later, on 30 August 1966, the new Knesset building was dedicated in a ceremony in Jerusalem.

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The Water Research Institute was established in 1993 by the American Technion Society and Yad Hanadiv to address critical issues surrounding the supply and quality of Israel’s water and to advance the science, technology, engineering and management of water resources. The Institute operates from a broad national perspective, fostering interdisciplinary work and encouraging cooperation among diverse researchers in Israel, as well as promoting projects with neighbouring countries.

Yad Hanadiv initiated a competition in December 2019 to select a river rehabilitation project that could provide social and ecological benefits and serve as an inspiring model for similar initiatives.

This project aims to:

• Bring streams to good ecological health, eliminating hazardous pollution and waste
• Provide local communities with an inclusive, shared public space for recreation, education and economic development
• Demonstrate the societal benefits of river rehabilitation
• Create a model of shared governance to regulate interests and activities for the common good

The Kishon Drainage and River Authority (DRA) won the competition with a proposal to rehabilitate the Zipori Stream, which flows for 32 km from the Nazareth Hills to the Kishon River and Haifa Bay. The project was selected from a shortlist that included the Kinneret Drainage and River Authority and the Kiryat Shmona Municipality for the restoration of the Ein Zahav and Ayun Streams; the South Jordan DRA for the Tabor Basin Stream; and the Soreq Lachish DRA for sections of the Soreq Stream near Beit Shemesh and the Tzora Valley.

The Zipori Stream is highly significant because it is part of a key ecological corridor in Israel that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee. The stream – with its valuable and accessible open spaces – has recently grown increasingly important due to development plans in the area. It plays a crucial role in conserving habitats and biodiversity.

The vision of the Zipori River Park initiative is to build a healthy ecosystem with rich biodiversity, and develop the area in a way that attracts tourists, locals and the public at large. The project will also create a series of open spaces that integrate natural and sustainable agricultural practices with community-oriented infrastructure, thereby enhancing the area’s capacity to cope with climate change.

The project, which took off in 2021, focused on the Zipori Stream’s restoration, water quality, social development, environmental awareness and nature conservation. It could serve as a model for other coastal stream restoration projects, with knowledge sharing both within Israel and abroad. Committee members involved in the programme, including experts from the UK and France, have said that the initiative ‘would be a breakthrough in the field of river rehabilitation in Israel and could provide inspiration at an international level.’