Approaches to the transfer of Russian-speaking children to Israeli families must be reviewed.
22.03.2009
The WCRJ organized a roundtable conference on the rights of children and families in Jerusalem on March 22. The discussion centered on the integration of Russian-speaking Israelis with Israeli society, and on legal and administrative problems arising due to differences in mentality and cultures.
Not infrequently, Israel's social workers and wardship agencies make hasty decisions to place Russian-speaking children from problematical families into families of native Israelis, which often leads to the children's alienation, or to a complete loss of contact between the parents and the child.
According to MK Marina Solodkina, social services often see immigrant families as "easy prey" and deprive the new citizens of parental rights even when modest support could have helped mothers and fathers to continue raising their children.
The decision to separate children from the immigrant parents from the former Soviet Union was justified in just two cases out of 50, according to Solodkina. In nearly all instances, social services would step in when the parents turned to them for assistance, she said.
Lawyer Yevgenia Fainstein, an expert in the recovery of parental rights to immigrant families said that the law was imperfect and needed to be amended with the focus placed on the family's interests and integrity.
Approaches to the transfer of Russian-speaking children to Israeli families must be reviewed.
The World Congress of Russian Jewry is alarmed by flaws in Israel's legislation regulating the placing of Russian-speaking children in Israeli families for upbringing. Approaches to the transfer of Russian-speaking children to Israeli families must be reviewed.The WCRJ organized a roundtable conference on the rights of children and families in Jerusalem on March 22. The discussion centered on the integration of Russian-speaking Israelis with Israeli society, and on legal and administrative problems arising due to differences in mentality and cultures.
Not infrequently, Israel's social workers and wardship agencies make hasty decisions to place Russian-speaking children from problematical families into families of native Israelis, which often leads to the children's alienation, or to a complete loss of contact between the parents and the child.
According to MK Marina Solodkina, social services often see immigrant families as "easy prey" and deprive the new citizens of parental rights even when modest support could have helped mothers and fathers to continue raising their children.
The decision to separate children from the immigrant parents from the former Soviet Union was justified in just two cases out of 50, according to Solodkina. In nearly all instances, social services would step in when the parents turned to them for assistance, she said.
Lawyer Yevgenia Fainstein, an expert in the recovery of parental rights to immigrant families said that the law was imperfect and needed to be amended with the focus placed on the family's interests and integrity.
