The Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) opened a new day-care center in Tel Aviv sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Younes and Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation.
Named the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Day Care and Early Childhood Education Center, the facility was dedicated last week in a ceremony attended by Soraya Nazarian and her daughter, Dr. Sharon Nazarian, and WIZO president Esther Mor and chairperson Anita Friedman, alongside others. WIZO already operates 183 day-care centers throughout Israel, which care for 14,000 children from the ages of three months to three years.
The new Nazarian Center will have four classes for more than 100 children.
“By investing in young children, we are investing in Israel’s future, as the toddlers in this wonderful center will one day be our nation’s leaders, innovators and defenders,” Mor said at the ceremony.
In the 1950s, Nazarian family matriarch Goldbahar Aviva Chachami Nazarian volunteered in WIZO medical facilities after making aliyah to Israel from Iran. Her daughter-in-law, Soraya, later became a founding member of WIZO Los Angeles after she moved to the United States from Iran.
Soraya, who is a renowned sculptor, created a bronze relief of her mother-in-law, which includes an inscription about her, that is placed at the entrance to the day-care center.
“Research has shown that the investment in children between birth and 5 years old is critical, and that if you start that young, the rest of their lives will be a path to success,” said Sharon Nazarian at the ceremony.
Friedman added: “The partnership between the Nazarian family and WIZO, born of a love for Israel, its children, and a deep concern for its future, has given birth to this magnificent act of generosity, in support of this new center, which is all about our love for Israel, its children, and its future.”
