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Guide Dog Center for the Blind (Israel)

Last modified: 2023-06-24 by martin karner
Keywords: israel guide dog center for the blind |
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[Guide Dog Center for the Blind flag] image located by William Garrison, 2 May 2022


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The Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind, IGDCB (מרכז ישראלי לכלבי נחיה לעיוורים), was co-founded by Noach Braun. As a 20-something former IDF paratrooper, Noach pursued a career that combined his love of animals and helping people After working with the Israel Nature Preservation Society for a few years, he discovered that there was no school in Israel that trained guide dogs for blind and vision impaired Israelis. He traveled to the United States in hopes of learning to be a guide dog trainer and to establish a school in Israel.

Noach appealed to numerous organizations and institutions in the U.S. to help him become a guide dog trainer, but his requests fell upon deaf ears. His search for help eventually led him to the Israeli Consul in New York who in turn referred him to Norman Leventhal, a businessman and activist in the Jewish community. The two met at the home of the Leventhal family in Pennsylvania on the first night of Hanukah in 1986. Norman was immediately drawn to Noach's vision of establishing a guide dog school in Israel, and paved the way for Noach to study to become a guide dog trainer. At the same time Noach's wife Orna began studying dog breeding. After they completed their studies in the United States Noach and Orna traveled to Great Britain, where they completed their studies. In 1991 they returned to Israel to establish the Israel Guide Dog Center. Together with Chaim Tsur of Jerusalem and Tillie, a yellow Labrador Retriever, they were the first to graduate on 5, 1991.

The center began operating from a rented house in Kfar Yedidiah, a moshav near Netanya. Two dogs were donated and trained by Noach, and the first blind clients trained with their dogs while living in Noach and Orna’s home. A guide dog school in the United States donated two breeding females, and the first breeding stock was established.

In 1994 a plot of agricultural land was purchased near Moshav Beit Oved, and the Israel Guide Dog Center moved to its present location. The first kennels were built and trailer homes were purchased to provide housing for the center’s administrative offices and lodging for clients. In 2001 a generous contribution by Lady Elizabeth Kaye of London enabled the construction of the purpose-built accessible building that now houses the center’s offices, student guest rooms, and other facilities.

The mission of the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind is to improve the quality of life of blind people by providing them with safe mobility, independence and self-confidence through the faithful assistance of guide dogs.

Blind people who approach the Center and are found to be fit for having a guide dog receive a guide dog, instruction and regular home visits during the working life of the dog at no charge.
Sources: https://israelguidedog.org.il/en/history/,
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153372721356746&type=3 and
https://shirapranskyproject.org/business-directory/4678/israel-guide-dog-center-for-the-blind/

The same image reported by Bill is also found here:
https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/motl-1296x732.jpg, source: https://forward.com/fast-forward/500350/ukrainian-refugees-to-join-march-of-living-at-auschwitz-for-first-post-covid-commemoration/.

The event in which the flag is spotted is called the March of the Living, sometimes referred to as MOTL (picture).

The flag is a horizontal white background flag with the logo in the middle, and towards the upper right hand corner of the fly, three waving stripes, from top to bottom: orange, yellow and black. And in the the black stripe, there's a dog's paw in white (this picture (https://www.facebook.com/ILguidedog/photos/10165869960115627)
showing a cyclist uniform portraying the colors of the organization confirms the description).

For example, here's an entry on the participation of IGDCB members in one of the MOL: https://israelguidedog.org/march-of-the-living/
Esteban Rivera, 3 May 2022

Logo

[Alon Israel Fuel Company Ltd. (Israel)] image located by Esteban Rivera

Image from the original located here: https://shirapranskyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/israel-guide-dog-center-logo.jpg, source: https://shirapranskyproject.org/business-directory/4678/israel-guide-dog-center-for-the-blind/.
Esteban Rivera, 3 May 2022