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Grinstein-Weiss leads effort to implement child development accounts in Israel

UNC School of Social Work assistant professor Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Ph.D. is leading a new initiative to implement child development accounts (CDAs) in Israel. In March, she traveled to Israel for three days of meetings with Israeli government officials and United States experts on asset building.

Grinstein-Weiss, who is from Israel, and her team presented a proposal for an Israeli national CDA policy and a demonstration project to test the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing a CDA program building on the child allowance structure and education system. The feedback from Minister Isaac Herzog and the Directors General was very positive. The Israelis decided to form a steering committee for CDAs in Israel to move the proposal forward, which will include Grinstein-Weiss and her team.

The following week Minister Herzog released details about the proposal to the public. The Marker, an Israeli daily newspaper, published an article entitled, “Herzog’s revolutionary proposal: Long-term savings in child benefit.”  The article covers the specifics of the proposed long-term child development accounts and states that Herzog is determined to champion this effort.