Batsheva Kasay
New-Immigrants Coordinator, JDC Center for Young Adults, Rehovot

In 1984, Batsheva Kasay arrived in Israel at age 7 after traveling through the desert with her mother and three sisters; her father had been arrested in Ethiopia prior to their departure. The family spent nearly two years in a Sudanese refugee camp until they were finally airlifted via Paris to Israel. Despite this traumatic experience, Batsheva’s determination saw her through to a graduate degree and a successful career in Israel.

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After two years in a new immigrants’ class at an ulpan in Afula, the family settled in Kiryat Malachi, where they were the only Ethiopian immigrants in their community. Very quickly, Batsheva realized that she would receive the supplementary help she needed, as well as a better education, if she attended a boarding school. Therefore, on her own, she applied and interviewed, until she was accepted to Kfar Batia, where she completed high school matriculations.

A memorable experience in high school was Batsheva’s trip with an Anti-Defamation League youth group on a mission to Washington DC, where she and others met with African American youth and helped them explore the difference between Zionism and racism.

Following a year of voluntary National Service with the police force, Batsheva decided to improve her grade average,after which she applied to Ben-Gurion University in the Negev. It was during her undergraduate studies that she began working as a new-immigrant coordinator for students through the Student Affairs Office at Ben-Gurion University, while simultaneously volunteering with school-aged new immigrants, drawing on her own experience, skills, and motivation in both frameworks. By the time she completed her B.A. in Health Systems Management, Batsheva was married and expecting the first of her three children.

Batsheva went on to complete an M.A. in Business Administration from Ben-Gurion University. By then living in Rehovot, Batsheva worked at the Rehovot community center assisting Ethiopian-Israeli youth, teaching them to make informed choices as they navigated from their teen years through military service and young adulthood.

Three years later, Batsheva joined the professional team at JDC's Atidim Center for Young Adults in Rehovot, where she has been working as the New- Immigrants Coordinator for the past year. This position has expanded the scope of her work to include not only new immigrants from Ethiopia, but also those from the former Soviet Union.

JDC's Centers for Young Adults
Israel’s immigrant population includes some 250,000 young adults (ages 18-30) who made aliyah or were raised in immigrant families. Many of these young adult immigrants are struggling to find their place in Israeli society, due to their families’ unresolved economic, social, and cultural difficulties. A lack of services at this crucial age, when life-shaping decisions about army service, higher education, and job options are made, has led to a high rate of chronic unemployment—over 30%—among this group. As a result, potentially contributing Israeli citizens are being cast to the margins of Israeli society.

Centers for Young Adults are established in cities which are home to large immigrant populations. Open to all young adults, they serve as a central and non-stigmatizing platform for launching projects to help young immigrants. Centers provide a wide range of counseling and orientation services under one roof, including guidance regarding higher education and vocational training; job skills such as how to find and keep a job as well as advance in the workforce; life skills, such as money management, volunteering projects, housing advice, and courses on key skills for education and employability.

May 2007