His Excellency Hector Quintero-Montiel, Charge d’Affaires and Acting Ambassador of Venezuela

OneFamily’s new Jerusalem Center was the scene of an appreciative homecoming on June 19 as His Excellency Hector Quintero-Montiel, Charge d’Affaires and Acting Ambassador of Venezuela stopped by for an unannounced visit.

Mr. Montiel spent a lot of time in the building during his youth while his father served as the Second Secretary at the Venezuelan Embassy in Jerusalem in the mid-1960s. The building that was then the Venezuelan Embassy is now the OneFamily Center, and is located two short blocks from where and his family lived. He remembered every detail of every room as he toured the building, even remarking on a door that was installed only two weeks ago, and commenting, “That’s new.”

Mr. Montiel and his assistants meet with OneFamily Communications Director Yehuda Poch

During his tour of the building, Mr. Montiel was given an overview of the assistance OneFamily gives to victims, and the scope of need we face on a daily basis. He was shown where support groups an activity sessions are held, where the planned memorial room will be, and was introduced to many of the Youth Division counselors who are busy preparing for the upcoming camp this summer. He was introduced to Chantal Belzberg and given a glimpse of an allocations committee meeting that was in progress at the time.

Mr.Montiel was also introduced to Geula Hershkovich, herself a terror victim and the coordinator of support activities at the new Center.

OneFamily Communications Director Yehuda Poch explains to Mr. Montiel about the services OneFamily offers to terror victims in our Jerusalem Center

After hearing and seeing a lot of what OneFamily means to the people we help, Mr. Montiel offered to help in any way he could to make life easier for the victims, and agreed to consider the possibility of hosting groups of victims at his own residence in Herzliya during the coming summer.

OneFamily places great importance on the contacts we build with foreign dignitaries and diplomats. It is through our representation of the victims and their needs and feelings – something that can only be fully understood through the deep connection OneFamily forms with every victim of terrorism – that we can affect a change in the attitudes of foreign decision-makers toward Israel and toward the inhumanity of terrorism with which we must deal every day.