Kiryat Motzkin

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The Challenge

Living in Two Different Cultures: Educative and Cultural Challenges for the Ethiopian-Israelis in Kiryat Motzkin

Kiryat Motzkin is a city that is located 8 kilometers north of Haifa. It is one of the five Krayot (plural of Kirya). This town, together with Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Yam, Kyriat Ata and Kiryat Haim form a cluster of cities in the Haifa Bay area. The small city is known for its beautiful zoo, called Hai-Park. 

Around 38,400 people inhabit Kiryat Motzkin. It has a population of 863 Jews of Ethiopian descent. 158 Ethiopian-Israelis of the total Ethiopian population in this city are between 13 and 18 years old.

It has been reported nationwide that Ethiopian-Israelis still face difficulties making a living in Israel. There are different reasons for this, as well as different consequences coming out of this:

    • The dropout rate from schools is around 2.5 times higher among Ethiopian-Israeli students than among their non-Ethiopian peers.

    • Solutions that the government seeks to find to help this community have been completely unsuccessful until now.

    • Ethiopians face difficulties with the fast transition from a traditional culture to a Western culture.

    • Living with two different cultures often causes problems within the family realm. Parents may lose control over their children, and are unable to help their kids with homework due to their lack of proficiency in Hebrew.

ENP's Response

A Place that Creates Feelings of Belonging and Identity

At the end of the school year in 2009, up to 134 students joined the Scholastic Assistance Program in Kiryat Motzkin. Unfortunately, due to a lack of sufficient funding, this program had to be suspended. ENP is still searching for new funding for this program in order to provide more Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers the help they need in order to lessen the gap between the academic achievements of themselves and their non-Ethiopian peers.

Ethiopian-Israeli youth in Kiryat Motzkin struggle with important issues related to their personal and cultural identity: who they are, who they want to become, and how they fit into Israeli society. Are they Ethiopian or Israeli? Are they rejecting their traditions by trying to integrate into Israeli society? Questions such as these prompted the development of the ENP Youth Outreach Center, with more than 100 teenagers, a whole range of fun, and educational and social activities as a response to this issue:

• During the Leadership Training, teenagers learn how to make decisions in their life and how to take responsibility for all different aspects of their lives.

• The goal of the Identity Workshop is to let Ethiopian-Israelis explore their personal identity and identification with Ethiopian and Israeli traditions, culture and society.

• For the Ceremonies and Educational program, the youth center organizes different activities relating to Jewish and Israeli holidays.

Did you know that…

Many of the counselors running the Center are young, Ethiopian-Israeli university graduates who serve as positive role models for the teenagers.

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