by David Bedein and Randy Hayman

"This is my ultimate wish as a school teacher," Barak says, "to do everything possible to put a stop to the cycle of violence that too many adolescents now experience. As a teacher I felt that I had to invest in a public campaign that everyone would witness."

Nava meets Hillary
Barak's interest in ELEM was ignited five years ago while in the United States with husband, Ehud, after he completed his term as commander-in-chief in 1995 and accepted a six-month research fellowship at CSIS, a security think tank in Washington. Shortly into her extended visit in Washington Nava met Hillary Clinton.

Nava says she spent endless hours with the American first lady, explaining that she wanted to learn from the American experience about the campaign to reduce violence in schools and in society in general. It was then that Nava decided to combine her teaching skills with the marketing skills she had recently acquired from a communications course she took in Washington.

Israeli youth beset by violence
Barak, who joined ELEM three years before her husband became prime minister, was honored this past May for her work with ELEM in the plush gardens of the residence of United States Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk in Herzliya.

At the reception, Nava introduced Sigal, a 16-year-old victim of a violent courtship. Asking reporters not to divulge the family name, take pictures or describe any features of the teen to the public, Nava went on to say that "all women's organizations and schools in Israel should look at this young girl, in the eyes, and understand that there are hundreds of teen-age girls like her who are brutalized in teen-age society."

Nava also introduced Herzliya Mayor Yael Germain as an example of someone who has looked such girls in the eyes. Germain instituted a special three-hour a week violence-prevention curriculum in all the city's schools.

statistics mount as war rages on
A force to be reckoned with in Israeli society with some 80 full- and part-time workers and about 500 volunteers, ELEM, established in 1982, reaches out to the urban centers of Israel to youth who are ravaged by drug use and violence and caught up in the cycle of crime.

According to reports from National Council for the Child, a 20-year-old nonprofit advocacy, monitoring and research center based in Jerusalem that receives more than 8,000 youth-related cases each year, many categories of violence are on the rise.

For instance, in 1995 about 1,100 misdemeanors (disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace) were committed by Israelis ages 11 to 17. Four years later, that figure more than doubled. Property damage, caused by kids and teens, numbered about 2,900 in 1995. In 1999, almost 5,000 cases were recorded. Teen drug use rose from about 600 reported cases in '95 to more than 1,300 in '99. Across many categories including assault, sex offense and murder, the numbers have climbed in recent years.

And among recent immigrants the statistics are even worse in some categories. In 1995, about 90 misdemeanors were reported. Four years later, more than 500. Property damage cases numbered about 400 in '95 and in '99 nearly 1,700.

the right connections help
In addition to waging war against teen violence and drug use city by city, Nava has a secret weapon: the prime minister's office, specifically Avraham Ben Shoshan, ELEM chairman and special policy adviser to the prime minister, who has helped draw more official attention to matters of child abuse and teen-age violence. Nava's involvement in ELEM, she says, is coordinated with her husband though not dependent upon him.