Jewish Federation of San Diego Hosts Israeli Social Workers from Sister City Sha’ar HaNegev

This week, the Jewish Federation of San Diego is hosting Israeli social workers from Sha’ar HaNegev, San Diego’s sister city in Israel. The hope is that this trip will offer these social workers from the region the opportunity to process their own trauma and get much needed rest away from the Gaza war.

Their time in San Diego is possible through funding from the Federation’s Emergency Israel campaign. Closer to the October 7th attacks , the Federation and San Diego community raised more than $9 million in emergency aid in just a few weeks. The majority of this aid has gone towards the rebuilding of Sha’ar HaNegev, while also aiding relief and recovery efforts across Israel.

“We have time for being together, to rest, to reconnect,” said Adi Cohen, one of the members who is visiting, and the head of the unit for couple and family therapy.

“All our staff was like all over the country. So we aren’t used to meeting each other for lunch or in the hallway. And now we get to be together for five days.”

Both Cohen and Malkit Spiegl recall immediately jumping into emergency protocol to help patients despite their own confusion after the attacks first happened. The first days focused on receiving phone calls from patients in distress and helping whoever they could find.

There was little to no sleep the first month as they worked around 100 hours a week.

“Until October 7, We had like 10% of the population under our responsibility,” said Spiegl, who is the team lead for the Department of Social Services in Sha’ar HaNegev, “In one minute, 100% of the population were in our responsibility.”

Since then, their efforts have been able to move past surviving and towards rebuilding. According to Spiegl and Cohen, their services have been key to providing a sense of normalcy for their communities. These rebuilding efforts have included regaining the ability to schedule appointments, providing social workers for each kibbutz (agricultural community), and growing their staff from 30 therapists to 150.

One of the bigger rebuilding efforts includes the planning of a physical location for their Resilience Center. The center has existed as a department for years but the physical location will now house individual and group therapy services, a place to study courses on therapy and even an animal center. While the center operates independently, the federation is funding renovations and improvements through the emergency campaign.

As they move forward in their work, both Cohen and Spiegl say the support they have received from the Federation and the San Diego community has given them energy and reminded them that they aren’t alone.

“We really appreciate everything that the community is doing for our community. And we hope one day that we can reciprocate,” said Cohen.