“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.” (Proverbs 11:25)
About half of Israel’s bed-and-breakfast owners agreed to provide cancer patients and survivors free “healing holidays” at their restful retreats.
The owners were approached by Robyn Shames, the Jerusalem-based founder and CEO of non-profit Refanah Healing Holidays who had decided to “do something good on a daily basis.”
With 28,000 new people diagnosed with cancer in Israel each year, Shames began to explore how to equip Israeli vacation homes owned by foreigners abroad and empty through spates of the year for cancer survivors and patients to use.
“I liked the idea of using available resources not fully utilized for the benefit of people who could really use it,” Shames told Times of Israel. “I thought the idea was really interesting, especially with all the ghost apartments in this country.”
When her initial idea fell through because of insurance liability, Shames turned to Israel’s bed-and-breakfast equivalent, recognizable by their relatively small, one-story tzimmers (צימר) — cabins or apartments — often ensconced in a pastoral setting.
With her idea in mind, Shames reached out to 100 tzimmer owners, looking to find interest from 5–10 percent of those she called. She was surprised to find that one out of every two owners jumped at the idea, offering “multiple repeat visits.”
“My great surprise is the number of places that give me carte blanche and said, ‘You keep sending us people and when it’s enough, we’ll tell you,’” Shames told Times of Israel. “People in general are very, very excited about having this opportunity to do something nice.”
Wooden tzimmers in the Nofey Gonen Holiday Village, Upper Galilee, Israel
It is not the only source of relief for cancer patients.
In mid-January, just weeks before World Cancer Day 2016, Israeli designer Ron Arad revealed to Dezeen Magazine plans for Beit Shulamit (Shulamit House) a new cancer-treatment center to be built at the Ha-Emek Medical Center in Afula, northern Israel, also with a pastoral feel.
“The joy and the rewards of engaging in the design of a hospital are huge, said Tel Aviv-born Arad to Dezeen. Six years ago, Ron Arad Architects completed its work on the first design museum in Israel, Design Museum Holon, located outside of Tel Aviv. Ron Arad will partner with Mochly-Eldar Architects on the new cancer center.
To be built on a hill on the outer ring of Ha-Emek, Beit Shulamit will house departments for radiation therapy, breast-cancer care, and pediatric oncology as well as ambulatory clinics and centers for well-being, infusion therapy, and research.
Like the ministerial nature of the tzimmers, “we allowed the outdoors to play a big part,” Arad said. “At any point you have amazing views of the outside. In a way, the rooms are outdoors and the bedrooms are the spaces around them.”
The cancer research institute will be led by 2004 Nobel laureate in Chemistry Dr. Aaron Chiechanover, who has conducted research on cellular homeostasis beside Dr. Avram Hershko. (JP)
“… there are some places where not only is your eagerness to do architecture satisfied, but also your eagerness to do good, and this one is a perfect example of that,” Arad told Dezeen, noting that the cancer center will reach out to all populations in Israel proper as well as the nearby territories of Judea-Samaria.
Israel’s Civil Administration reports about 3,000 Palestinian cancer patients received treatment in Israel during 2015, according to Stand With Us.
