Michael Cherney Foundation
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The Michael Cherney Foundation is a charitable foundation created by
Michael Cherney Michael Cherney (, , also Mikhail Chernoy, Mikhail Semenovitch Chorny or Mikhail Chernoi; born 16 January 1952) is an Israeli entrepreneur and industrialist. He is known for his significant role in the 1990s aluminium industry in Russia, and his ...
, a Russian-born Israeli entrepreneur. He defines the foundation's mission as helping democratic nations in their war on terrorism and assisting fellow émigrés to
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
from
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
and other post-Soviet nations realize their intellectual potential and become successfully integrated into the Israeli society.


History

The Foundation was born on 1 June 2001, on the night of the Palestinian Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing in
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
. When Michael Cherney learned the number of victims – twenty-one dead and over 150 wounded – he realized that rendering assistance required a systematic organized effort.


Mission

Besides direct money grants to and paying the bills for survivors and families of the deceased, the Cherney Foundation undertook a media project that included publishing a book called ''Dolphinarium: Terror Targets the Young'', an oral history made of interviews taken by journalists Dmitry Radyshevsky and Polina Lempert with the parents who lost their children and the teenager victims themselves. The book was published in three languages (Hebrew, English, and Russian). The book was used as a basis for a documentary film, ''Empty Rooms'', also sponsored by MCF. It was directed by
Willy Lindwer Wolf "Willy" Lindwer (born 18 March 1946) is a Dutch documentary film producer, director, photographer and author. He is best known for his films on the Holocaust, Israel and the Middle East, Judaism and Christianity. Childhood and education W ...
, an award-winning Dutch director, and produced by David Gurevich. The film played at a number of festivals and received a Silver Award at Worldfest in Houston in 2003. Subsequently, the Michael Cherney Foundation helped other terror victims, both in Israel and abroad, ranging as far as
Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...
in the Caucasus and the survivors of the infamous Beslan school terror attack. The help Cherney rendered both by cash grants and underwriting treatment – for example, MCF paid for a new wing for Beit Levenshteyn Hospital, a nationally famous rehabilitation facility. The Foundation has helped a number of Soviet-born émigrés in Israel who, for a variety of reasons, “fall through the cracks” of the system. These range from personal grants, such as the Tabakin family of nine siblings, orphaned and destitute, who resisted the attempts of social services to separate them and put them in different orphanages, to institutional ones – Israeli Veterans Union, an association of WWII Soviet Army veterans; Culture and Art Center for the Russian community in Jerusalem; “Russian and Israeli Writers for Civil Society and Against Terror", a project of the Israeli Writers Federation, and many others. A great deal of attention has been paid to youth programs, from tickets to Purim Bowl for disabled children to a boarding school for Russian children in Migdal ha-Emek and a first school for recovering Russian-born drug addicts, and many others. During the last Lebanon war the Foundation paid for hundreds of children to be evacuated south away from Hezbollah rockets. The Foundation also established grants for ex-Soviet youths in all major Israel universities, a program that has already benefited over 120 young people. The Cherney Foundation also sponsors a Jewish school, the Maimonides University, in Moscow. The Foundation pays attention to sports as well, financing youth boxing club in
Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
, a soccer club in
Hadera Hadera (, ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon plain, Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5 mi) of ...
, as well as individual athletes for the Olympics. Besides ''Terror Targets the Young'', the Michael Cherney Foundation has sponsored the publication of several books, generally on Judeo-Christian subjects. Among them are ''Babylon and Jerusalem'' (Nauka, Moscow), by Jan Willem van der Hoven, the founder of
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) is a Christian Zionist organisation based in Jerusalem. History The International Christian Embassy was founded in 1980 by evangelical Christians to express their support for the State of Isra ...
, which also includes a collection of essays by Russian Orthodox church intellectuals. The Foundation also sponsors a series called ''No To Extremism: Anti-Fascist Library'', which includes a biography of
Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...
and ''From Hell to Paradise and Back: The Jewish Question: Lenin, Stalin and Solzhenitsyn'' by Arkady Vaksberg, a prominent writer and historian who was a co-author of ''Stalin's Prosecutor: The Life of Andrei Vyshinsky''.


References

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External links


Michael Cherney Foundation
Foundations based in Israel Jewish refugee aid organizations Organizations established in 2001 2001 establishments in Israel