The prospect of war is frightening for most Israelis but is especially terrifying for children with special needs. Roadblocks, for example, are an inconvenience for most people, but when a therapist arrives hours late for an appointment because of them, the wait can be excruciating for a special needs child, says Milwaukee native Amy Slater-Ovadia.
“People with special needs are in a place many times where we think that they don’t understand the world around them. But they do have their own understanding of it, and when that gets disturbed, as it does many times in Israel, it affects their inner sanctity,” said Slater-Ovadia, social worker and San Francisco-based regional director of Beit Issie Shapiro.
Slater-Ovadia, 41, and the daughter of Milwaukeeans Kerrie and Al Slater, recently moved from Israel, where she was fundraising volunteer coordinator for Beit Issie Shapiro.
Beit Issie Shapiro (the House of Issie Shapiro), founded in 1981 in Raanana, Israel, just north of Tel Aviv, seeks to solve the challenges facing the special needs community through a continuum of programs providing care, education and treatment for them and their families. Some of its programs are partially funded by Milwaukee’s Helen Bader Foundation.
In addition to an early-intervention, early-childhood day program for children to age four, the center runs a therapeutic daycare and educational program for children to age 12. Other services include family support services, social education and community outreach programs, research and program evaluation, student field training and continuing education.
In preparation for an impending U.S. war with Iraq, Beit Issie Shapiro is planning to quickly revamp its three bomb shelters in Raanana, according to executive director Naomi Stuchiner, who co-founded the center in honor of her father, Issie Shapiro.
Also, the center, which at any time has about 200 people in it, has been working on the logistics of getting everyone to the shelters quickly and providing extra emotional crisis support.
“We have to make sure we’re totally prepared,” Stuchiner said during a recent visit to New York.
Heart is in Israel
Though physically far from the crisis in Israel, Slater-Ovadia’s heart never strays far. “I went to Israel when I was 16 for the first time with the [Milwaukee Jewish] federation and fell in love,” Slater-Ovadia explained. “Everything I’ve done in my life since I was 17 was so that I could live in Israel.”
She made aliyah at age 19, returned to Milwaukee to finish her bachelor’s in social work from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. While living in Israel, she earned a master’s in social work from Yeshiva University.
In 1994, homesickness prompted Slater-Ovadia to return to Milwaukee with her husband, David Ovadia, and 11-month-old daughter Danyal. Though her intention was to spend only one year, she was offered the position of executive director of the Hillel Foundation-Milwaukee and accepted it. “I spent three years doing that and loved it,” she said.
The notion of staying in the United States hadn’t crossed the couple’s minds, so Slater-Ovadia and her growing family — daughter Aviv was born here —returned to Israel. Then she started working for Beit Issie Shapiro.
For Slater-Ovadia, that work has enriched her personally. “It is a place that has allowed me to grow, that’s doing something to make a difference,” she said.
This summer, the couple and their three children — Danyal, 9; Aviv, 7; and Ariel, 4 — returned to the U.S., pursuing the West Coast opportunity with Beit Issie Shapiro with the clear intention of being near the Slater side of the family. Two of Slater-Ovadia’s brothers live in the Bay Area.
“I miss Israel terribly; my heart is always there, but our lives are here now and I hope to do important work for Beit Issie here,” Slater-Ovadia explained.
She concluded, “I’m very proud of Beit Issie Shapiro and of Israel for being home to such a wonderful organization. There’s so much hope and there’s so much work left to be done.”
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