LOD, Israel — In the summer of 2011, at the height of the social-justice protest that shook Israeli society, Avital Blonder sent a personal email to hundreds of her friends. At the time, she wondered how she could contribute her share toward correcting the social wrongs that inspired hundreds of thousands of young people to take to the streets in protest.
Avital, a university graduate in her 30s from a well-heeled family, was looking for different path from the demonstrations and the tent pitching on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv. An article recounting the endless woes of Lod had caught her eye and gave her an idea. She would go there, she thought, on the social mission she was so desperately looking for.