Bank Hapoalim and Telfed support Higher Education

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A generous endowment from Bank Hapolalim has enabled Telfed to award scholarships to four deserving candidates, enabling them to continue with their higher education. At a moving ceremony in mid-July at the Telfed offices, Orit Nagar, manager of Bank Hapoalim's main Raanana branch, which donated the funds, explained how important it was for the bank to contribute to the successful futures of young people. 

The Endowments & Scholarships (E&S) committee screened and identified the four appropriate candidates, each one showing need and the determination to succeed. During the moving ceremony, each recipient told their own story.

(Picture shows L-R Sid Shapiro, Telfed Director, two Bank Hapoalim staff and Adele Bassin, Chairperson of the Telfed E&S Committee.)

Telfed chairman Maish Isaacson and E&S committee chairman Adele Bassin spoke about how Telfed has made scholarships and support for education a priority, and regards this pursuit as the most important tool for advancing Israeli society today, in particular among immigrants and their children. They expressed hope that this would become an annual function and that Telfed and Bank Hapoalim would walk "hand in hand" over the years to come to contribute to improving Israeli society and assist those that choose Israel as their home.

Our recipients:

Dalya from Haifa is studying art therapy and hopes to work in rehabilitation after she graduates. Her father is South African and her mother is English. She has had to support herself since she completed her army service. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, while living in Haifa, which was the target of dozens of katyusha attacks, she realized that she would only be able to help others if she went to study. It was extremely difficult for her to fund her studies and this scholarship was a lifeline for her.

Avital, born on Kibbutz Yizrael, is studying Industrial Engineering at the Ruppin College. As a result of the financial upheaval over the past decade, her parents, one from South Africa the other New Zealand, are not in a position to help with her tuition. So she works to support herself and pay for her tuition while studying full time. Before her army service she served for a year doing community service in an underprivileged neighborhood in Netanya. 

Darso was born in Ethiopia and is the 11th and youngest child of a family that made aliya 10 years ago. He is currently studying at the pre-army academy (mechinah) in Kiryat Malachi. This mehinah was set up for boys who, under their regular circumstances would have little chance of getting accepted into good units in the army or going to the army at all, getting their bagrut certification or continuing onto higher education. The year he is spending at the mechinah will give him the tools to start a life as a valuable citizen and to be the helping hand his aging parents need.

Ella, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who lives in Beer Sheva, is studying education at the Achva College in the south. When she completed her service in the navy she used her post-army grant to pay for her first year of studies. Now in her second year she works to pay for her studies.

Written by
Adele Bassin
Chairperson - Endowments and Scholarships Committee.