ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: Why did the Israeli Hope Shield of Honor program choose 14 to16-year-olds to participate in the visit to Seville?

Israeli Hope is the President of Israel’s flagship program for strengthening statehood and establishing partnership between the four main sectors that comprise Israeli society: secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox, and Arab.

 In 2015 Reuven Rivlin, the President of Israel launched ‘Israeli Hope-Shield of Honor’, within the framework of the Israeli Hope Initiative, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Council for Prevention of Violence in Sports, The Israeli Professional Football Leagues (IPFL), the Israel Football Association, The Toto (the Israeli lottery organization), and the Values Sports Association. All these bodies have become partners, aiming to leverage the power of the football clubs as a community engine for the reduction of social gaps, for cooperation between the different population sectors and as a tool to deal with violence and racism.

Shield of Honor gives support during the season to clubs from the First Division Premier League and to youth clubs of all the leagues and from all over the country.  Through group workshops and individual support for each club, it offers tools and coaching at the clubs to help them build educational programs that promote the objectives of the initiative.

Shield of Honor recently cooperated with the Sevilla Football Club in Spain to bring a group of young Israelis to that city to participate in a weekend of activities related to their goals. Eran Eytan, the head of “Israeli Hope-Shield of Honor” on behalf of the President, accompanied the group and he spoke with us about the project.