Actors, activists, rabbis, venture capitalists, Jewish communal professionals, high tech startup founders, philanthropists, influencers, academics, soldiers and at least one video game designer. All 150 of them Jewish, most of them young — some 80% below the age of 50 — but ranging in age from 19 to 82. Some of them are lifelong, active participants in the Jewish world, others whose Jewish identity only really activated after the Oct. 7 terror attacks. A third from Israel, a third from the United States and a third from everywhere else. They are the first cohort of the Voice of the People, an initiative launched last year under the auspices of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The 150 members of the Voice of the People council, who will serve two-year terms, were chosen by “a special algorithm,” according to Shirel Dagan-Levy, CEO of Voice of the People, based on some undisclosed criteria that was meant to create a group that is diverse in background and in opinions. 

“People came as individuals, who they are, not as representatives of an organization,” Dagan-Levy told journalists last night ahead of a gala dinner that was held as the 150 members met in person for the first time for a five-day summit at the Dan Carmel Hotel in Haifa, which kicked off on Sunday.

Their modest task, she said: “Tackle the most urgent matters of the Jewish people.”

“There has to be a place where we can detach a little bit from the organized Jewish world and arrange a program that enables people to think together and dream big and meet each other without strings attached and be able to produce outputs that the organized Jewish world can use,” Herzog told reporters last night.

The Israeli president first announced the Voice of the People initiative at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in April 2023, when the State of Israel and the Jewish world in general were embroiled in an argument over the government’s plans to significantly overhaul the country’s checks and balances, which opponents saw as a blow to Israeli democracy and supporters considered a necessary corrective for judicial overreach. His office started the initiative with a series of labs and questionnaires to suss out what Jews considered the most significant issues facing the Jewish people. 

After the Oct. 7 terror attacks, the initiative was put on ice. When those involved returned to it six months later, they realized they had to start over. “We said, ‘Something has happened. We need to re-ask this question.’ Because we have what we call the ‘Oct. 6 report’ from back then, where, — just to give you a sense of understanding — antisemitism was [ranked] around No. 6 or 7 in the top 10,” she said. “We re-initiated a survey. More than 10,000 people replied in six languages from all across the globe answering ‘What do you think are the topics that the council needs to work on?’”

According to Herzog, while the idea for the Voice of the People preceded the Oct. 7 attacks, he believes that it is needed now even more. “In hindsight, it was foresight,” he quipped.

Based on those new questionnaires, the Voice of the People decided to focus on five core issues: antisemitism; Jews-non-Jews relations; polarization; heritage and education; and Diaspora-Israel relations. The 150 council members are divided into 10 groups, with two groups dedicated to each topic.

During their two-year terms, the council members are expected to develop actionable plans for addressing these issues. To implement them, the Voice of the People has the support of the “Jewish Agency for Israel” — which Herzog led until he became president — ”the World Zionist Organization, and we have three philanthropic partners: the Wilf Foundation, the Azrieli Foundation and the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation,” Dagan-Levy said.

At the gala, Mark Wilf told eJP that his foundation was excited to support the initiative. He said the family foundation was open to backing relevant projects but also hoped to see more philanthropic groups get involved.

Herzog said the idea for the initiative came from a similar program he participated in when he was younger. 

“It was in Davos [Switzerland] in the World Economic Forum where in the year 1998, I was elected a future leader, a global leader of tomorrow. It impacted me tremendously,” he said. “I believed that we should do that for the Jewish people… It’s obvious to me that they will become impactful people in circles of life that deal with the Jewish story, wherever it may be.”

The eclectic background of the 150 council members has made the group discussions lively, participants told eJP, both in terms of differences of opinion — Orthodox members and non-Orthodox members not necessarily agreeing on who is even considered a Jew — and in terms of operating methods — the strategic-minded Jewish communal professionals wanting to think things through and consider all possibilities, while those coming from the high tech world are more inclined to adopt a “move fast and break things” approach. 

“Some very, very interesting discussions have happened in the rooms for the past four days, and you already see the tension. But we want the tension. I met all of the council members one on one [before they came], and I told them that sometimes they will feel uncomfortable in the room because they’re going to hear opinions that are very different than theirs. But that’s exactly what we need,” Dagan-Levy said.

“It’s really not the usual suspects,” according to one of the council members, Roei Eisenberg, who is involved with the Israel Policy Forum, the Jewish Federation Los Angeles and now the World Zionist Congress, as the head of a new slate, Anu, which is running in its upcoming election. “They picked an eclectic group. None of us are the same.”

Wilf told eJP that the eclectic background of the participants was one of the things that struck him the most about this initiative. “I go to a lot of conferences, and I already know everyone, like an echo chamber. Here I don’t,” he said. 

The participants — and the Voice of the People itself — don’t yet know what will come out of this project or how it will develop. For now, Dagan-Levy told eJP that the organization has sufficient funding to support itself for three years, through this first cohort and then to launch a second one. That will also take it until Herzog’s presidential term is up in 2028, at which point the next Israeli president will have to decide if the program is worth continuing under his or her office. “We will have to prove ourselves. It’s exciting,” she said.