Guide Dog Center Aims To Ease Shortage For Blind Israelis
A guide dog Image by Getty Images
Of the approximately 27,000 registered blind Israelis, only about 250 own a guide dog. The Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind is working to change that.
Founded in 1991 near Moshav Beit Oved, the center is only accredited guide dog training school in Israel, and it remains the only option for Israelis who need a guide dog that can respond to Hebrew commands, according to the Times Of Israel.
For many years, their only option was to travel to the United States, where they would need to pass an English exam before receiving a guide dog.
About 1 percent of blind Israelis own a guide dog, on the lower end of the scale for global ownership. The center’s primary function is to train the dogs, but they also must combat “a lack of awareness for the need in the country and a shortage of funding for the expensive facilities and training.”
Though the obstacles are many — training dogs to navigate an Israeli sidewalk presents an especially difficult challenge, according to the center’s founder — the spirit and enthusiasm of the volunteer-run center should make their project a walk in the park.
Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter @__jbernstein
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward What’s next for suspended student who posted ‘F— the Jews’ video? An alt-right media tour
-
Fast Forward ‘New Jersey tough’: Gov. Phil Murphy on released Hamas hostage Edan Alexander, a Tenafly native
-
Fast Forward Hamas releases Edan Alexander, last living American hostage, to Red Cross
-
Fast Forward In Tenafly, NJ, a crowd awaits the release of local son Edan Alexander from Hamas captivity
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Is Pope Leo Jewish? Ask his distant cousins — like me
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
News In Edan Alexander’s hometown in New Jersey, months of fear and anguish give way to joy and relief
-
Fast Forward What’s next for suspended student who posted ‘F— the Jews’ video? An alt-right media tour
-
Opinion Despite Netanyahu, Edan Alexander is finally free
-
Opinion A judge just released another pro-Palestinian activist. Here’s why that’s good for the Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.