A Journey to Israel: the Israel & Overseas Committee visit inspires and challenges
Recently, 40 members of the Federation's leadership traveled to Israel as part of the Israel & Overseas Committee's annual consultation visit, themed " New Ideas, New Leaders, New Hope." The focus of the trip was to take an in-depth look at the state of the country, the programs we fund and our "sister" region in the Upper Galil where the fighting with Lebanon took place. Below are the thoughts of John Pritzker, president of the Federation's Board, on his last night in Israel, as well as a recounting of the trip. To learn more about the Federation's work in Israel, go to www.sfjcf.org/israelandtheworld/.
From John Pritzker
Sent on Thursday, November 2, just before returning to the United States.
This is my last night in Israel along with the Israel & Overseas Committee and I am pretty exhausted… but also, inspired, energized and really proud of our community.
Israel and its people continue to astound me. There are so many challenges and yet we saw resilience and optimism wherever we went. And we went everywhere… from Sderot, a city on the Gaza border where Kassam rockets fell 24 hours after we left, to the largest all-Muslim city in the country, and to Kiryat Shmona in Northern Israel where we saw the final traces of the physical destruction from this summer's conflict. In all of these places and many more, we saw our Federation's impact in action. Whether it was Ethiopian Israelis receiving job training enabling them to find their place in Israeli society, or Israeli Arab children getting a head start in a preschool program so that they will be better prepared to enter the first grade, or meeting residents of the North and hearing their experiences during the war and their plans for rebuilding their communities—everywhere you could feel and how our community is making a real difference.
Funding from our community is addressing Israel's toughest social issues and the most urgent needs of its vulnerable populations. Our programs are innovative, achieving concrete results and reaching thousands of Israelis today.
This trip gave me… a renewed and even stronger commitment to Israel and to the vital work that we are doing there. I return home with a deepened sense of pride and responsibility.
“Choices”
From our hotel window in Jerusalem, Israel looked like it always does—bustling, beautiful, a blending of the old and the new, tradition and new ideas.
But this was the tourist's view, not a vision of the true condition of Israel today: one that didn't reflect the challenging statistics on the economy and education, that didn't heart the grim predictions about Israel's future, that didn't see the trauma that this recent war caused, much less the deep wounds that the past decades of conflict have left on this country.
The participants on the mission did not come to Israel to see it as tourists, nor did we have the luxury of such ignorance. Instead, together we came face-to-face with many of Israel's challenges—her economic concerns, the issues facing her immigrant populations, her political and educational turmoil and, perhaps most provocative of all, her ongoing struggle to be a democratic and Jewish state in the Middle East today.
Over the five days of our journey, we met with a constellation of individuals who helped us understand these issues and see what our Federation—through the generosity of our donors—is doing to help address them. We had briefings, meetings, site visits and much more with professionals, program staff, citizens, politicians—who brought their varied ethnic backgrounds (native-born and immigrant), religious beliefs (Jewish, Muslim, secular) and views to the table to help us understand the landscape in all its hues.
Regardless of where we went—from the Gaza border in the South to the Lebanese border in the North—one of the most inspiring points that was sounded over and over again by everyone was a single concept: “choice.” The choice to address these challenges head on rather than look the other way. The choice to stay in Israel despite opportunities in the global market and fight to build a strong country and just society. The choice to call Israel home by making aliyah and leave family and ways of life behind. The choice to make a better life for all Israelis. The choice to choose Israel—for today and for the future.
Twenty-five years ago, this Federation also made a choice to choose Israel—to look in depth at the issues facing the country, to work with Israelis in identifying the issues and to do what no federation had done before—to make grants directly to organizations and programs addressing critical problems and values that reflected our belief in a society that welcomes ALL its citizens.
As we saw on our trip, that choice 25 years ago continues to be the right choice today—one that has allowed our Federation to help effect positive change in the lives of many Israeli citizens who otherwise might not be making gains in many aspects of their lives. Your generosity and support have ensured that we have been able to fund or create programs that are making a significant impact in Israel.
So what does choice look like?
It looks like hope, embodied by Ethiopian and Arab Israeli teens participating in Isracorps, a teen volunteer program designed to bring kids from disparate backgrounds together to work on behalf of communities in need. And it's the teens in the Manhigut Esre leadership program who encouraged more than 400 Israeli teens to join them in restoring the forests in the Upper Galil destroyed by fires caused by katyusha rockets.
It looks like vision, represented by the students, faculty and administration at Tel Hai College in Kiryat Shmona who are committed to making the North a culturally diverse and vibrant center of education, intellectual curiosity and economic growth with a renewed effort since the war through their Center for Democracy and Peace. And it's the work of the Shalom Hartman Institute, which is working to transform non-religious Israeli high schools into centers of Jewish study, identity and pluralism by cultivating parents and student leaders to take active roles in shaping school activities around Jewish values.
It looks like belief that Israel is the long-dreamed of homeland for Jews around the world, as seen in the faces of Ethiopian Israelis living in Sderot under constant Kassam rocket fire from Gaza who will not be deterred from building a life for themselves and their families, and others who are participating in the Tevet training programs for Ethiopian immigrants in the city of Netanya, where they learn workplace skills that enable them to find jobs and contribute to the well-being of their families and their communities.
It looks like determination, as heard in the impassioned words of the staff of Yotzer Or ("Creator of Light"), a program of the Conservative Movement in Israel based in the poor section of the middle-class neighborhood of Talpiot that is trying to build a strong and vibrant community among the residents to strengthen the future of Israel. And it's the resolve of the professionals in the Gvanim leadership program to find ways to bring their religious and social differences to the table in order to break down barriers, build collaborative programs and ultimately weave a strong, tolerant and diverse fabric of society that can find solutions to the critical problems facing the country.
Finally, it looks like commitment, embodied more than anywhere else by this Federation and it's belief in Israel and its future, and the many partnerships it has formed to make this future possible. Through our continued efforts, we have empowered these communities and their people with the belief that all of Israel—klal Yisrael—is responsible for each other, and that by strengthening all Israel's people, the country as a whole will rise up and succeed.
Today, as a donor to the Federation and a participant in our community, you too make a choice to commit to Israel's future. We encourage you to go to Israel - to see for yourself the impact you have made today and will continue to make tomorrow.
| 
