Top leadership from 16 communities across the globe recently gathered in London, UK for an international conference that focused on creating a strategic plan for maintaining strong Jewish communities in the face of a changing world. Participants came from Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia and South Africa for five days of targeted seminars and workshops led by respected and renowned presenters, including Michael Strauss and Adi Strauss from Israel who led a session on Israeli philanthropy. The invitation only conference, which ran January 21st-25th and focused on both local and global issues facing today’s Jewish community, was open to top young leadership figures from large-sized communities, both professional and lay. The first of its kind, Kolenu 2011 not only brought together … Continue Reading
Bush Cancels Attending Keren Hayesod Geneva Event
Former US President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Geneva, Switzerland, where he was to address a Keren Hayesod gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture. Bush was to be the keynote speaker at the annual dinner on February 12th. However pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the country. Keren Hayesod has said they were canceling Bush's participation for security reasons, not because of the possibility of criminal complaints. … Continue Reading
Jewish Agency Emergency Response for Carmel Fire Victims
On the ground, post Carmel fire, with the Jewish Agency. … Continue Reading
Each of Us Can Make a Difference
An interview with Keren Hayesod chair Johanna Arbib Perugia. from The Jerusalem Post: Linking the chain of ‘Am Yisrael’ Johanna Arbib Perugia has two user names on the computer in her office in Rome, where she is a high-powered executive for a private equity fund investing in European real estate. One is her Keren Hayesod user, the other is for her “regular job.” But it is the Keren Hayesod user that she always switches on first. ... What is your biggest challenge as chair of Keren Hayesod? I think the best answer to that is to be found in what frustrates me the most and what I would like to achieve the most. What frustrates me the most is knowing that around the world - and Keren Hayesod covers the world with the exception of the United States - philanthropy lately is … Continue Reading
The Jewish Agency’s Strategic Plan: Now For the Hard Part
"At a time when the Jewish Agency should be looking ahead to improving its role at the nexus of the emerging world Jewish polity... the Agency must complete putting its own house in order in whatever way it chooses to do so before it can truly play the leading role that it must on the world Jewish scene." Daniel J. Elazar z"l The Jewish Agency: Historic Role and Current Crisis (1992) Last week in Jerusalem the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency approved its new strategic plan, one that The Jerusalem Post called “the most significant redefinition of the Jewish Agency’s purpose since the declaration of the state.” Without question, the Agency has set off on a path that, while uncharted, is also grounded in the belief that the fundamental challenges of the Jewish future require … Continue Reading
Sharansky at the Jewish Agency Meetings
Israeli Minister of Education Gideon Sa'ar gave the keynote address at the Opening Plenary of the Board of Governors on Sunday, October 24, 2010, at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem. The Board of Governors (BOG), which began Sunday and ends Tuesday, October 26, is made up of members representing Keren Hayesod, the World Zionist Organization, and the Jewish Federations of North America. Saar began by telling an anecdote about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1877 at age 20 with the highest grade average in the college’s history. Because of his exceptional academic prowess - and despite his Jewishness - Harvard had no choice but to ask him to speak at graduation. According to Sa'ar, Brandeis began his address by saying, " 'I wish I had not been … Continue Reading
ENP’s Director-General to Step Aside
Dr. Nigist Mengesha, the Ethiopian National Project's (ENP) long-time, and highly effective, Director-General has announced she will be stepping down in January: October 11, 2010 Just over seven years ago, I was bestowed the honor of helping to plant the seed that today is the Ethiopian National Project. Since June 2003, I have been privileged to lead this partnership between Diaspora Jewry, the Government of Israel and the Ethiopian-Israeli community as ENP’s Director-General. In January 2005, I experienced the excitement of launching this “dream on paper” in the field. Within just two years of that launch, I witnessed a phenomenon operating in 27 cities, reaching nearly one of every two of Israel ’s 16,000 Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers. Today, I read with pride the outcomes and the … Continue Reading
Zionism and Peoplehood: Toward a Historical Synthesis
by Gidi Grinstein Pesach is an intellectual feast for those of us that are engaged with Jewish identity. As we read the Haggadah and go through the Seder, we leisurely engage the three anchors of our identity - religion, nationalism and peoplehood - and have an annual opportunity to revisit the center of gravity of our identity. For more than 22 centuries, at least since the days of the Hashmonaim, the collective identity of our people has three distinct poles: our religion that emphasizes belief and ritual; our nationalism that calls for sovereignty over and self-determination in Eretz Yisrael, and peoplehood that focuses on the shared memories, fate, and destiny that bond us. For most of this period, since the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century, it was religion that … Continue Reading
The Great Reset: The Jewish Agency and the Pursuit of an ‘Exemplary Society’
“We once were a people without a home; will we become a home without a people?” This was the question I asked last week when addressing the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency as part of the presentation of the Agency’s new strategic plan. A simple question, but one that embodies the countless fears we all share regarding the future of the global Jewish family. In the face of existential challenges on all fronts relating to the physical security of the State of Israel, we must nonetheless face a question that we can ask only to ourselves - will our failure to remain connected to one another in the pursuit of our common ideals be the ultimate risk to the survival of the Jewish people? In his recent book, The Great Reset, Richard Florida writes about the impact of highly stressed … Continue Reading
A Public Art Project: East 2 East
Reaching from New York’s Lower East Side to the streets of Jerusalem. From Nolita to Tel Aviv; the East Coast to the Middle East. How can you connect two lands using the power of art? This summer New York City artists are invited to submit original work to be considered for a unique public art project. With no political or religious agenda, “East 2 East” will expose the people of New York to the beautiful and unique aspects of Israel and Israeli life through large scale outdoor murals. East 2 East murals will be created on buildings throughout Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the neighborhood where New York Jewish life first thrived. Much like modern day Israel, the Lower East Side is a melting pot of citizens from all over the globe. Israel’s landscape, history and residents will inspire … Continue Reading
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