American Dental Volunteers for Israel was a
voluntary organization of
dentist
A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the mouth, oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofaci ...
s and
dental hygienist
A dental hygienist or oral hygienist is a licensed dental professional, registered with a dental association or regulatory body within their country of practice. Prior to completing clinical and written board examinations, registered dental hygien ...
s from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
providing services in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
History
Founded in 1972, by Dr. Robert S. Breakstone, ADVI was the first organization to establish a framework in which American dental professionals could volunteer their services in Israel. Its mission was to provide free high-level professional dental care for Israelis primarily on
Kibbutzim
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming ha ...
. ADVI was set up after Dr. Breakstone first volunteered on Kibbutz
Sha'ar HaAmakim in 1970. Upon returning to the USA he established ADVI, and was able to secure the cooperation of the emissary of the
Kibbutz Aliyah Desk in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in placing hundreds of dentists who were prepared to offer their services for a minimum of two weeks each year in return for modest accommodations on a Kibbutz.
Eight years later in 1980, a parallel organization,
Dental Volunteers for Israel (DVI)
was created to provide free dental services to poor children in Israeli urban settings. With
Holocaust survivor
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...
Trudi Birger
Trudi Birger (24 April 1927 – 24 April 2002) was a German-born, Israeli-nationalized writer, biologist, and Holocaust survivor. After the war Birger migrated to Israel, where she founded the Dental Volunteers for Israel clinic and published th ...
at the helm, DVI founders established the free Jerusalem clinic, the sole remaining clinic in Israel where foreign dentists may legally volunteer.
ADVI slowly phased out in the late 1990s, in good part because of a feeling from the Ministry of Health that Israel was by then producing enough dentists to fill the country's needs. ADVI donated a large share of its remaining funds to DVI and a plaque was hung in the Trudi Birger Clinic to honor ADVI leaders: Dr Robert Breakstone (Founder and President from 1973-1983), Paul Jarmon (President from 1984-1993), and Robert E. Lewis (President from 1993-1997).
Membership
At its height ADVI was sending between 200 and 300 dentists a year to Israel, with an estimated 1500 dental volunteers throughout its existence.
See also
*
Dentistry in Israel
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official website
Dental organizations based in the United States
Organizations established in 1973
Medical and health organizations based in New York (state)
Zionist organizations in the United States
Dentistry in Israel