Boca couple support Israeli child care center

Boca couple support Israeli child care center

Boca Raton philanthropists Jane and Alan Cornell were acknowledged for providing financial support for a new child care center at the dedication of a new medical center Jewish National Fund has built in the remote Halutza region in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. (COURTESY)

By Randall P. Lieberman Contact Reporter South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Boca Raton philanthropists Jane and Alan Cornell recently provided financial support to the Jewish National Fund to help build a child care center at the new state-of-the-art medical center JNF has built in the Halutza region in Israel.

The Cornells were honored at the recent dedication of the medical center.

Halutza is located in a remote area in southern Israel in the northwestern corner of the sparsely-populated Negev Desert near Israel's borders with Egypt and Gaza.

The communities of Halutza — Bnei Netzarim, Naveh and Shlomit — were founded by those evacuated in 2005 by the Israeli government from the communities of Atzmona and Netzarim in Gush Katif during Israel's disengagement from Gaza.

These modern-day pioneers moved to this remote corner of the desert — which had never before been inhabited or farmed — because they saw the Negev's development as Israel's next national mission and wanted to continue to participate in the building of the Israeli nation.

"I just admire the people who live in Halutza so much; my heart goes out to them for what they've been through," said Jane Cornell.

While touring the new medical center in Halutza, Jane Cornell was moved when talking about what inspired her to support this project.

"I just kept thinking about the mothers having to deal with driving hours just to get their kids to the doctor," Jane Cornell said. "There was a lot of thought involved in building this center to make it safe for when there are threats from rockets.

"Supporting this medical center was important to me, but also ensuring that it was built with the area's security needs in mind."

Alan Cornell added that Jewish National Fund's work is "changing lives for the better every day and we wanted to be part of that story."

"Once we learned about these Zionist pioneers who chose to live in an area so remote from any other city — a group of people who went through so much in 2005 and lost everything, and are now rebuilding their lives — we felt we needed to do our part to help our brothers and sisters who are securing our homeland have a better quality of life," said Alan Cornell.

Overcoming the emotional hardship of leaving their homes and neighborhoods, the residents of Halutza — a region built by Jewish National Fund-USA (JNF-USA) — restarted their lives, business and farms, and continued their dreams of building Israel.

"These people did not lose their pioneering spirit," said JNF Chief Israel Officer Eric Michaelson. "It is difficult to imagine how hard it was for them to restart their lives after leaving Gaza."

Being so far from the center of Israel presented a challenge to JNF in terms of Halutza's residents receiving basic services like adequate medical care.

Until this new medical center was built, the residents of Halutza had been seeing doctors in Be'er Sheva, an hour's drive away, or further.

Plans were initially made to build a small medical clinic in Bnei Netzarim, but JNF CEO Russell Robinson advised to make the center bigger to ensure it would serve all the needs of the growing Halutza communities.

The new multi-million dollar medical center — which opened with the support of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and JNF-USA — features a dental clinic, pediatric clinic, maternity care, physical therapy center, x-ray capabilities and many other modern state-of-the-art features.

The rooms are spacious and well-lit with most of the center being bomb- and rocket-proof as well — a necessity for life in the border area.

Gadi Yarkoni, mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council (of which Halutza is part), spoke at the opening.

"The fast development of this area following the evacuation from Gaza was made possible by the support of JNF-USA," said Yarkoni. "It is a privilege to meet the new pioneers who choose to move to this area and make it their home."

The Halutza region has greatly developed since its initial founding 12 years ago.

According to the JNF website, "Today, the rapidly expanding agricultural region of Halutza — which contained nothing but sand dunes a short time ago — boasts beautiful homes and successful organic farms, and numerous public buildings, schools and community facilities."

The new 24-hour medical center in Halutza was built in Bnei Netzarim, and provides an expanded range of services in a professional environment — with the ability to save lives in emergency situations.

In addition to offering general family practice services, the center is equipped to address light medical issues like setting broken bones and suturing — and can provide immediate care for emergency events until patients are stable enough to be taken to a nearby hospital.

For more information about JNF, or its communities in Halutza, visit www.jnf.org or call 888-563(JNF)-0099.

Copyright © 2017, Jewish Journal