User talk:Ron Rodney

Chanita Rodney, President of Enosh, the Israel Mental Health Association
Chanita Rodney is "president for life" of Enosh, the first and most comprehensive Israeli mental health organization. The organization was created in 1978, with support from many parents of the mentally ill, backed by sympathetic professionals in the field and led by Chanita. She has won many honors including the President’s Volunteers Award, given in 1981 in recognition of her lifelong devotion to helping others. She has also received the Knesset Speaker’s prize (1983) for Enosh’s contribution to the quality of life in Israel. Chanita also received an award entitled “From Human Tragedy to Humane Activity” given by “Israel Hayafa” (beautiful Israel) in recognition of her contribution to Israeli society. She has served as a ‘Board Member at Large’ of the World Federation of Mental Health, a federation of organisations and individual members in 72 countries throughout six continents. Chanita Rodney was born in Berlin in 1929, to Richard and Gertrude Lowi and sister to Hans, her older brother. She escaped from the Nazi regime on the last boat of “kinder transport” from Germany, never seeing her family again: they perished in the Holocaust. She was adopted by the Levy couple, Doris and Leo, in Liverpool, England and was active in Habonim in Liverpool, leaving after two years of ‘hachshara’ for Kibbutz Kfar Hanassi. There she married her husband Bob Reuven Rodney (Born:Rudolf Anton Roidner), Jewish, born in Germany and raised in France; he escaped the Nazi regime, going to England (there he had joined the 6th Airborn division). After eight years at the Kibbutz, the family moved to Moshav Timorim, where they raised four children: Rina, a member of the moshav, Rafi has three children and lives on the kibbutz Ein Shemer, Ron, married to Anita, has 4 children and lives in Hod Hasharon, and Ruty, a kindergarden teacher who has three daughters and lives in Hod Hasharon. A personal family tragedy, her daughter falling ill to schizophrenia, encouraged Chanita to be the driving force behind the foundation of Enosh. A belief in Greater Israel led the family to set-up home in Ariel where, tragically, her husband Bob passed away. Today, Chanita lives in Kfar Saba where she is busy with the local Enosh and Rotary Clubs. The Rotary Club now meets once a week in the newly-built Enosh Centre that provides sheltered housing, social meetings and vocational training to the entire Sharon area.