Maag’olot: The organization supporting French women who made aliyah
Program has brought together a group of ten women to create a resource network to carry out personal professionalizing projects.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, AARON REICHMaag’olot zoom meeting during the coronavirus pandemic.(photo credit: Courtesy)
Maag’olot, a social impact program, is working to support women who make aliyah from France amid coronavirus.
The program brings together a group of 10 women, selected by a committee of female mentors, in order to create a network of resources to carry out personal professionalizing projects in Israel.
The projects span industries, including an application to link volunteers to organizations, the development of ecological technologies, and community embroidery.
Maag’olot entrepreneurs are supervised and given necessary support to help make their projects a reality. Most recently, the program partnered with Ogen Bank so participants could benefit from a microcredit.
It also focuses on social integration of French women making aliyah, by "restoring their self-confidence and encouraging them to become more independent in order to be better integrated in the Israeli society," according to a press release by the group.A Maag'olot promotional picture. (Photo credit: Courtesy)
The program was founded by Yaëlle Ifrah, a parliamentary adviser to the Knesset and a columnist in French-speaking media, and had a partnership with the Unified Jewish Social Fund (FSJU), a central institution of the Jewish community in France, who funded their first session.
The second cycle of the program will begin in October, and applications for the program are already open.Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday - Bastille Day commemorating the French Revolution - Maag'olot program coordinator Sarah Chemla spoke about the importance of the initiative and how it, like the storming of the Bastille, helped give France a new start and can help with the struggle of having a new start for their lives.
"It is one thing to promote aliyah from France, but it is another to actually help the women, mothers and wives who made aliyah, leaving everything behind, sometimes their carriers, to create their own businesses and become independent in Israel, where they usually had to start all over again," Chemla explained
"We at the Maag'olot program are helping women learning how to give and give back, to get used to the Israeli mentality at work, to learn how to create an efficient network around them that will support and boost their project and overcome all the difficulties on the way, especially during these last two hard years with the coronavirus pandemic."
