Do-it-yourself diplomacy and public relations doesn’t just go one way, especially when it comes to building relationships with Israel.
If a self-proclaimed “The Israeli Family” (see the February Chronicle) can devote its own time and resources to showing the world what Israel is about, then Dr. Alan Cherkasky of Kaukauna, Wis., can do something similar with some of his family.
The difference is that while the Israeli Zemach family is traveling the world and is trying to build links to masses of people, Cherkasky only traveled to Israel and back, and he is now trying to build links between one part of Israel and his professional colleagues in Wisconsin.
Cherkasky is a family practice physician based in Kaukauna, a town a little east of Appleton, and he is a member of the Moses Montefiore Synagogue in Appleton.
This past Jan. 2-13, he and his two younger sons — Benjamin, 20, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Sam, 18, a freshman at UW-Milwaukee — visited Israel. They spent most of their time at the Poriya Government Hospital in Tiberias.
This institution is located in the Sovev Kinneret area, the region of Israel linked to Milwaukee through the Partnership2Gether program. Cherkasky, however, didn’t know until just before he left about that tie, nor that there have been previous meetings between Poriya staff members and people in Milwaukee.
He found his own path to Poriya in a complex way, as he explained in a telephone interview on Jan. 18. In January 2010, he had gone on his own to Haiti after the earthquake to help provide medical care.
After his return, he received a telephone call from Jewish Healthcare International. This Atlanta-based organization was founded in 1999 by Dr. Stephen Kutner, who still serves as its director. Its mission, according to its website, is “to enhance worldwide health care by engaging professionals from the Diaspora and Israel who volunteer their time and expertise to JHI international missions.”
JHI officials were seeking to put together a JHI team to help in Haiti. They had heard about Cherkasky’s work there and asked him to participate. This team went to Haiti in October 2010, and Cherkasky became an active member of JHI.
Then in the latter part of 2011, JHI asked Cherkasky “to spearhead a clinic in Ethiopia to evaluate Ethiopian Jews before they emigrate to Israel,” Cherkasky said. However, “politics intervened,” and that trip was cancelled.
Instead, because Kutner “happened to be friends” with Poriya Hosptial director Dr. Yaacov Farbstein, JHI arranged for Cherkasky and his sons to volunteer at Poriya.
This was not Cherkasky’s first trip to Israel. He had worked on a kibbutz for a time when he was in high school, and his older son, Andy, now 30 and a U.S. Air Force captain, had had his bar mitzvah ceremony there.
But this was his first up-close experience of an Israeli medical institution, and the experience was a revelation to him.
“What is so cool about this center is that it has a very diverse ethnic population,” he said. “Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses and staff all working together with a complete ethnic diversity of patients… It was heart-warming and uplifting to see Arabs and Jews work together in a trusting and supportive manner.”
Cherkasky worked “as a mentor and teacher for an intern assigned to me.” His sons mostly were observers, and “they saw everything that went on… I could tell it sunk into my boys. They saw things and listened to people and understood that [Israel has] a cultural diversity that they would never see in this country.”
He and his sons received “extensive tours of every aspect of the hospital,” and participated “in open discussions with a lot of the staff.” One such discussion was particularly memorable, a dialogue with a nurse who was an Israeli Arab and a Muslim.
“She felt Americans had been paid to vote for President Obama; she couldn’t believe America had made enough progress in ending discrimination to elect a black president,” said Cherkasky. “It was eye-opening to hear from her about her beliefs about the political system in Israel and the U.S.”
That does not mean the Arab-Israel conflict has no influence on the facility, however. “The most dramatic part was the tour of the underground hospital,” Cherkasky said. “Everything can be sealed off against germ warfare and chemical warfare… There is a whole hospital underground that can be used at an instant’s notice.”
Above all, Cherkasky had several meetings with Farbstein, and “he delegated me to be the champion for medical exchanges of doctors and nurses between Wisconsin and the Poriya center,” Cherkasky said.
He said he began working on this idea upon his return. In a telephone conversation on March 6, Cherkasky told The Chronicle he has heard from medical professionals from all over the state who are interested in participating in this effort.
While no formal date for anything has been set yet, Cherkasky said, “The ball is rolling” and “I’ll spread the wings as far as I can.”
He also urged medical professionals interested in this idea to contact him by email at acherkasky@new.rr.com.
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