Milstein Fellows – Their AIPAC Story: Part 3

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By attending the AIPAC conference, it gave me an insight into Israel of which I was never exposed. For the first time in my life, I became involved in politics. Now that I have experienced the Policy conference, I will now act differently in a way that will help strengthen the United States – Israel relationship. This conference showed me all of the wonderful things that Israel has to offer, and the power we can have when so many people come together to advocate for Israel.

My intentions are simplistic, yet will be very effective. I learned at a young age that each of us can make a difference in the world. One person’s involvement can have a domino effect on the involvement of other people. Next year I intend to become involved in campus pro – Israel organizations that will promote a better relationship between America and Israel. I would like to reach out to many of the congressmen and congresswomen who were at the conference and talk with them about the concerns involving the different policies and also ask general questions related to Israel and advocacy. I will also become an activist towards Israel while sharing what I have learned and being passionate about my love for Israel.

Becoming involved in campus pro – Israel organizations will help me to improve the relationship between Israel and the United States of America. I plan to become involved with groups such as Students Supporting Israel, Israel on Campus Coalition, and Zionist Alliance. Each of these groups has at least one thing in common. They all support and love Israel.

I will reach out to many of the Congressmen or congresswoman who were at the Policy Conference. I hope that when I reach out to the congressmen or congresswomen, they will take what I say into consideration and be able to make a difference in the world. One of my personal favorite speakers was Ron Dermer. He spoke about the situation between Iran and Syria and how it is very volatile right now. A number of their positions is being targeted. The red lines will continue to be enforced. Nobody knows where the red lines are because it gives a certain amount of flexibility. We don’t want Iran to know where the red line is because we want them to be in a constant state of fear.

Written by a student from Southern NCSY

Milstein Fellow – Their AIPAC Story: Part 2

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AIPAC is more than just a conference. To me, AIPAC stands for passion, for life-long friendships, and for leadership. Having attended the conference last year, I was inspired to become a more active pro-Israel advocate on my campus, UC Berkeley. After attending several protests and standing up for Israel in many different ways, I decided to attend the conference again this year in order to learn more- as there is always more to learn about this beautiful country.

Having this incredible opportunity to attend the AIPAC conference this year thanks to the Milstein Foundation made me realize that being pro-Israel is easy only thanks to the many people who care about Israel and incentivize college students to attend. The conference was very enriching for me; I heard beautiful speeches from Nikki Hailey, Chuck Schumer, Marco Rubio, and my role model- Benjamin Netanyahu. I attended eye opening breakout sessions that taught me new affective ways to defend Israel on my campus and convince others to do the same. I even learned about Israel’s innovative technology that is used not only in the Israeli Defense Force, but also throughout the country civilly—such as the desalination project for sea water to drinking water. I learned many remarkable things during the conference, but the most impactful aspect of the conference to me was not the things I learned—but the people I met.

The conference brought together different people from different places with different political views—all thanks to Israel. I met many interesting people from diverse backgrounds, enriching not only my knowledge but also my social network. I met like-minded students from universities all over the U.S., some I could even possibly visit in the future.

To me, AIPAC is more than just a conference—it is a family.

Written by a UC Berkeley Student

Milstein Fellow – Their AIPAC Story: Part 1

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This was my first time being at the AIPAC Policy Conference, and to me, it was one of the most significant experiences in my life. The reason being is my family history, and how I grew up. My parents and older sister are from the former Soviet Union, specifically Minsk in Belarus. They left to Israel in 1989, shortly after my sister was born. They were the first ones in our family to go to Israel. In 1996 I was born, making me the first child born in Israel in my family. Sadly they left a few months before the turn of the century to come to the United States. But since then I have always gone back to visit my family. Growing up, my parents raised my sister and me in a very Zionist household. Along with our beliefs on Israel, my father also installed the appreciation of our political freedom in the United States, and from there spawned my appreciation of American Politics. My current career goal is to eventually become a United States Senator. For those reasons, I wanted to come to the AIPAC policy conference.

When I first arrived, I was in awe of how beautiful the area that Washington D.C. is. This being my first time seeing the Washington Monument, a sight that represents freedom in our country, something no one in my family had been able to experience for thousands of years. It inspired me to take full advantage of the conference. The first morning we left to explore the National Mall, just so I can see it in person for the first time. Afterward, we went to go explore the conference. We sat through all the speakers and listened to what they had to say. In the evenings we enjoyed networking with others at each of the reception events. I even had the pleasure of running into an old family friend that I haven’t been able to see in the past 5 years. Even with all the great things I had the pleasure of experiencing, there would be a few more things I would have liked to experience.

Being a business student, specifically in finance, I would have liked to see more about how organizations are providing students a chance to work with Israeli companies or Jewish ones here in the states. I think it would be more beneficial to target the students in State schools and community colleges, as it would help them see Israel in a better light. It would also undermine the BDS movement as it would take minority groups a new connection to Israel and swaying their opinion on being a part of the Anti-Israel movement. I would have also liked to see a chance for college students to speak to more industry leaders on social issues and how to inspire more people to be Pro-Israel through social media. But without all these changes, I still was excited and enjoyed my time at AIPAC. I can’t thank you enough for giving me this chance.

Written by an AEPi Brother

Diaspora Jews Will Rise to Meet Our Challenges With Israel in Our Hearts

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Jewish history teaches us that it takes great leaders to overcome major challenges.

At the turn of the century, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, founder of Revisionist Zionism Ze’ev Jabotinsky, World Zionist Organization president Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first female prime minister Golda Meir, and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold saw growing antisemitism and acted to lay the foundations for an independent Jewish state.

During World War II, Mordechai Anielewicz led Jews to fight Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, at the same time that Peter Bergson (a disciple of Jabotinsky) managed a heroic campaign to form a Jewish army to fight for the allies, while raising awareness about the destruction of European Jewry.

A few years later, Col. Mickey Marcus, a tough Brooklyn street kid who built a strong reputation as an American military leader in WWII, left his home in America to help save Israel in 1948 and become its first modern general.

Today, the Jewish people face a new set of challenges.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to eradicate the State of Israel, is being waged around the world. It is working to divide the State of Israel from the Jewish family around the world, transforming from the glue that unites the Jewish American community into a wedge that separates it.

These extreme challenges demand action. They demand great leadership from us the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

The Jewish American community needs to identify, encourage and support heroes of our time: our Mordechai Anielewicz, our Ben-Gurion, our Henrietta Szold, our Mickey Marcus and our Golda Meir. We need leaders who will ensure the Jewish future in America by engaging and inspiring the next generation to be courageous Zionist leaders, fight antisemitism and support the Jewish people in America and the Jewish homeland, which will always be in Israel.

I have great hope and optimism that these high-caliber leaders will emerge. This is because I meet them every day.

In my work as a pro-Israel philanthropist and activist, I meet with the next generation of pro-Israel activists – passionate, innovative and incredibly hard-working leaders – who are rising to meet the challenges of our time.

I see these leaders in the young people who return home from Birthright, energized by their new connection to Israel, with a new understanding about the necessity of instilling a strong Jewish identity in their children.

I see them in Israeli-American Council, where young Israeli-Americans are being activated as a living bridge between America and Israel, as they work to strengthen our American Jewish community.

I see them in the teenagers participating in the Tzofim and B’nei Akiva youth groups – many of whom eventually make aliya and serve in the IDF.

I see them around the U.S. and around the world, fighting against antisemitism and for the global Jewish community.

These are the people who will shape the Jewish future.

Our job is to give them the platform to develop and the tools to succeed. All of us must support and empower the next generation of leaders with pride, courage, and resources. Why? If you are proud of your Jewish identity and heritage, you will be willing to fight and defend it. When you understand the history of your people, then you understand why it is so important for us to defend your community.

The task of being a great leader is not easy: leaders face isolation, ridicule and tough decisions. For instance, Jabotinsky was often condemned for his efforts to create a separate Jewish nation. But great leaders are necessary. We must invest in them, cultivate them and support them. This is how we support the next Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Henrietta Szold. This is how the next generation will be stronger than the last. And this is how the Jewish future will be secured.

Featured in the Times of Israel

Toronto day school students place second in AIPAC contest

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By Lila Sarick, Staff Reporter
 
From left, David Roizenman, Zach Weisleder and Ryan Render pitch their idea for a game at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.

A team of students from TanenbaumCHAT took second place in a contest to design innovative approaches to pro-Israel advocacy, beating 30 university teams.

The Toronto Jewish day school was the only Canadian team, and the only high school, to enter the competition, which was sponsored by the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. The final round of judging took place at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, which was held in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.

Grade 12 students David Roizenman, Ryan Render, Zach Weisleder and Aaron Hirshberg designed a social media game modeled after the popular online trivia game, HQ. The students’ prototype, called ILQ (which stands for Israel Quiz), tests players’ knowledge of general trivia and then moves on to questions about Israeli innovators, sports figures, and culture.

READ: DOV LIPMAN – WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT ISRAEL

“ILQ can change people’s perceptions of Israel,” said Weisleder. “When people see something linked to Israel, if they are anti-Israel, they’re not going to want to open it. This teaches them something about Israel.”

The game has not been developed yet, but the students and their staff advisors, Avital Aharon and Aviva Polonsky, hope to turn it into a reality. They envision a game that will offer prizes and feature entertaining guest hosts.

One of the contest requirements was that students partner with a non-profit organization. The TanenbaumCHAT students worked with Hasbara Fellowships Canada to develop the content for the game and hope to launch a test version in several Toronto schools. Once the concept is fine-tuned, they will apply for funding to develop the app, Roizenman said.

Robert Walker, the national director of Hasbara Fellowships Canada, said the project makes sense in a world in which people are glued to their smartphones.

“Gamification is a very popular trend in business these days. If that can work in the business world, there’s no reason it won’t work when we’re selling Israel,” he said.

This was the first time TanenbaumCHAT has entered the contest. Developing the project was an intensive endeavor, with the students working down to the wire to meet the deadlines. They learned they were finalists only two days before the conference started and hastily booked tickets to arrive in time for the AIPAC Shabbaton.

Gamification is a very popular trend in business these days. If that can work in the business world, there’s no reason it won’t work when we’re selling Israel.
– Robert Walker

Participating in the massive annual policy conference, which attracted 18,000 people, was an eye-opening experience for the students and staff, who heard talks from notable public figures, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Many speakers specifically mentioned the 4,000 students attending the conference. “You could see how impactful the youth are. We’re going to shape pro-Israel culture in North America,” Render said.

The students and staff were also surprised by the number of TanenbaumCHAT alumni they ran into at the conference, many of whom were working as rabbis and community leaders in the United States and Canada. “You can see the foundation CHAT builds in Israeli advocacy and leadership,” Render said.

While it was the school’s first time entering the competition, it won’t be its last. The students say they hope to come back to work with younger students on next year’s entry and to continue developing the app.

TanenbaumCHAT’s strong showing and the AIPAC conference has created a buzz on campus and, ideally, the school will take more students next year, said Polonsky, who teaches Jewish history.

“CHAT is very pro-Israel and the idea there’s another place we can educate students is definitely in the conversation,” she said.

And while it would have been nice to win the contest, that was not the school’s only intention. “We had a goal of promoting pro-Israel thinking outside of the box and getting students and parents excited about Israel. We reached our goal,” said Aharon, the director of educational technology at the school.

Original post: http://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/toronto-day-school-students-place-second-in-aipac-contest

Who we support

Why I’m Optimistic About the Jewish Future in America

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Jewish history teaches us that it takes great leaders to overcome major challenges.

At the turn of the century, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, founder of Revisionist Zionism Ze’ev Jabotinsky, World Zionist Organization president Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first female prime minister Golda Meir, and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold saw growing antisemitism and acted to lay the foundations for an independent Jewish state.

During World War II, Mordechai Anielewicz led Jews to fight Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, at the same time that Peter Bergson (a disciple of Jabotinsky) managed a heroic campaign to form a Jewish army to fight for the allies while raising awareness about the destruction of European Jewry.

A few years later, Col. Mickey Marcus, a tough Brooklyn street kid who built a strong reputation as an American military leader in WWII, left his home in America to help save Israel in 1948 and become its first modern general.
Today, the Jewish people face a new set of challenges.

Antisemitism is on the rise on the Right and on the Left. In the US alone, antisemitic incidents rose 67% in 2017 compared to 2016 – and in Europe, increases in antisemitic messages in media and social media has fostered a reality in which only half of Jews feel safe wearing visible signs of their Jewishness. A poll released in February 2017 by the Jewish Federation of San Francisco found that only 21% of millennials in their community are very emotionally attached to Israel, and only 26% think it is very important to be Jewish, reflecting disturbing trends we saw in the 2013 Pew Survey of Jewish Americans and other research studies.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to eradicate the State of Israel, is being waged around the world. It is working to divide the State of Israel from the Jewish family around the world, transforming from the glue that unites the Jewish American community into a wedge that separates it.

These extreme challenges demand action. They demand great leadership from us the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

The Jewish American community needs to identify, encourage and support heroes of our time: our Mordechai Anielewicz, our Ben-Gurion, our Henrietta Szold, our Mickey Marcus and our Golda Meir. We need leaders who will ensure the Jewish future in America by engaging and inspiring the next generation to be courageous Zionist leaders, fight antisemitism and support the Jewish people in America and the Jewish homeland, which will always be in Israel.

I have great hope and optimism that these high-caliber leaders will emerge. This is because I meet them every day.
In my work as a pro-Israel philanthropist and activist, I meet with the next generation of pro-Israel activists – passionate, innovative and incredibly hard-working leaders – who are rising to meet the challenges of our time.

I see these leaders in the young people who return home from Birthright, energized by their new connection to Israel, with a new understanding about the necessity of instilling a strong Jewish identity in their children.

I see them in Israeli-American Council, where young Israeli-Americans are being activated as a living bridge between America and Israel, as they work to strengthen our American Jewish community.

I see them in the teenagers participating in the Tzofim and B’nei Akiva youth groups – many of whom eventually make aliya and serve in the IDF.

This month, I will see them in Washington among the hundreds of college students that the Milstein Family Foundation brings to the AIPAC Policy Conference.

These are the people who will shape the Jewish future.

Our job is to give them the platform to develop and the tools to succeed. All of us must support and empower the next generation of leaders with pride, courage, and resources. Why? If you are proud of your Jewish identity and heritage, you will be willing to fight and defend it. When you understand the history of your people, then you understand why it is so important for us to defend your community.

The task of being a great leader is not easy: leaders face isolation, ridicule and tough decisions. For instance, Jabotinsky was often condemned for his efforts to create a separate Jewish nation. But great leaders are necessary. We must invest in them, cultivate them and support them. This is how we support the next Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and Henrietta Szold. This is how the next generation will be stronger than the last. And this is how the Jewish future will be secured.

The author is an Israeli-American philanthropist, national chairman of the Israeli-American Council, real estate entrepreneur and president of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation.

Original Article published in The Jerusalem Post

You Can Now Experience Israeli Tour Spots On Virtual Reality

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If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit major Israeli tour spots, you can now experience some of them through virtual reality tours on the Virtually Israel 2.0 website.

A project of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation and the MERONA Leadership Foundation, Virtually Israel 2.0 features the following videos:

Philanthropist Adam Milstein told the Journal in a phone interview that the idea for virtual reality videos came about three years ago, when virtual reality was becoming “very, very popular” and was clearly where the future is headed. They initially produced two virtual reality videos two years ago and they were very well-received among various Jewish organizations.

“We wanted to give people a much wider variety,” said Milstein. “We wanted to give them all the different things in Israel that will interest Jews and non-Jews, so we’re giving them a lot of tourist attractions.”

Milstein explained that they had a team of volunteers that went to those specific areas in Israel that took footage and pictures of the tourist sites from different angles in order to create the virtual reality videos. He added that more videos could be on the way.

“Based on our success, we’ll do more things that people feel we didn’t cover in the first ones,” said Milstein.

Milstein hopes that the videos cause people to understand the truth about Israel.

“Israel is not a war zone. It’s not a place of the conflict between the Palestinian and the Israeli,” said Milstein. “It’s a place of peace and prosperity and happiness and innovation, a place that anybody should go and enjoy. We’re showing Israel the way it is, the real colors, we don’t let the media contaminate the image that we have on Israel.”

“The main takeaway is we’re using innovation to tell the truth about Israel.”

The videos are all available on 2D and can be seen in 3D on platforms like Google Cardboard.

Original post: Jewish Journal

BY AARON BANDLER | PUBLISHED JAN 31, 2018

Milstein Family Foundation, MERONA Leadership Foundation Significantly Expands Virtual Reality Video Program to Showcase Israel’s Most Popular Destinations

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A revamped website will allow people anywhere in the world to experience a variety of sites in Israel

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–This week, the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation, in partnership with MERONA Leadership Foundation, launched Virtually Israel 2.0—quintupling the number of free Virtual Reality (VR) videos of Israel’s most popular sites—in response to enthusiastic support from a variety of viewers across the country. The launch is highly anticipated after a video teasing the expansion of the program went viral.

Virtually Israel helps bring Israel to life for anyone who wants to explore Israel, anywhere in the world.

Through cutting-edge technology, Virtually Israel helps bring Israel to life for anyone, anywhere in the world, who wants to explore the country. This one-of-a-kind free Virtual Reality experience showcases historic and lesser-known attractions across Israel—from Jerusalem’s Old City and the Tower of David to Tel Aviv’s beaches and startup offices.

“People love this experience because it shows the beauty of Israel,” philanthropist Adam Milstein said. “Through this amazing technology, people can experience the Jewish State without even leaving their living room. I am very proud to expand this program and ‘bring’ more people virtually to Israel.”

The 360-degree videos are hosted on YouTube and Facebook and can be viewed in 2D on any platform, and in 3D using VR viewers such as Google Cardboard or Samsung VR gear. The YouTube videos can be viewed in 4k (the highest resolution possible), and the Milstein Family Foundation also partners with a variety of groups around the world, that are interested in screening the videos at maximum resolution.

There are 11 videos available: Beaches, Bible Lands Museum, Dead Sea Scrolls, Independence Hall, Jerusalem & the Dead Sea, Sarona Market, Startup Nation, Taglit Innovation Center, Tel Aviv & Jaffa, Tel Aviv Balloon Ride and Tower of David Museum.

About the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation: The MFF works to safeguard and strengthen the Jewish People and the Jewish State by igniting Jewish pride and courage in the next generation, providing pro-Israel Americans with knowledge and expertise to advocate for the State of Israel, and bolstering the critical U.S.-Israel Alliance. Learn more at http://milsteinff.org/.

About MERONA Campus: MERONA Leadership Foundation’s mission is to support pro-Israel activists of all backgrounds, on campuses and beyond, by providing programming, professional guidance and funding for student-led initiatives while collaborating with pro-Israel nonprofits and engaging pro-Israel community leaders.

Contacts

For Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation
Media Contact
Nathan Miller or Rachel Bracker
310-571-8264
[email protected] / [email protected]

Original pst on Businesswire: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180122006605/en/Milstein-Family-Foundation-MERONA-Leadership-Foundation-Significantly 

Pride and Courage: Gifts for our Children in 2018

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This month, we recounted the heroic story of the Maccabees, the Jewish rebel group that lived in the Land of Israel in the second century BCE, which makes clear that we must have pride, courage, and passion to fight for our survival and freedom as a people.

During the time of the Maccabees, the Land of Israel was dominated by Greek armies. Many Jews, especially the cosmopolitan elite, sought to assimilate into the Greek culture as a road to political and economic power.

The Maccabees – a small group of Jews determined to protect their Jewish identity and homeland – used their wits, courage, and determination to defeat the Greeks and establish a free Jewish nation in our homeland, notwithstanding their tiny numbers and inferior weapons.

Today, in the face of existential challenges, how can we find inspiration in the Maccabees’ example? How do we redouble our commitment to strengthen and secure the future of the Jewish People and the State of Israel? During this season of giving, what are the most important gifts that we can give to each other – so that future generations will live in freedom, security, and prosperity?

With these questions lingering in my mind this holiday season, I have put together a list of the eight most important gifts that we must give in every Jewish family in 2018 so that our people will continue to thrive.

Gift one: Pride

There is nothing more powerful than understanding who you are and taking pride in where you come from.

If we can’t instill Jewish pride in our next generation, there will no one left to carry on our tradition and face our future challenges.

Every day, I feel incredibly fortunate to be a Jew – to come from a tradition that is the original source of the Western values, and to be a part of a people who, while tiny in numbers, have accomplished extraordinary things in so many fields.

I am proud to be connected to Israel, our Jewish homeland, a country that became independent against all odds and serves as a beacon of light and innovation, making the rest of the world a better place. Through education, community involvement, and family heritage, we must foster a sense of pride in being Jewish and a pride in the State of Israel, in our children and grandchildren.

Gift two: Courage

The State of Israel, the Jewish People, and the Jewish faith have only survived because relatively few Jews were willing to stand up and fight for what they believed in when our Jewish homeland, our people, our traditions and our values were threatened. It’s not always easy or convenient to be a proud Jew or to be a supporter of Israel. Yet, we need the courage and conviction to stand up and speak out against those that threaten the future of the Jewish state.

Gift three: Persistence

Alongside courage, the Jewish People also need to be consistent and persistent. It’s not enough to stand up once; we need to cultivate a next generation that has the strength and will to stand up, again and again, and fight against our detractors. Whether you are building a business, working toward a degree, raising a family, or advocating for your community, the ability to work hard and keep going strong in the face of adversity may be the single most valuable skill.

Gift four: Knowledge

Over the course of centuries wandering as a small and stateless people, we learned to invest in the greatest resource: knowledge. The Jews have prioritized education above all else. Today we must continue this investment, imparting the knowledge that not only gives our children the ability to thrive in 21st-century careers, but also that grounds them in Jewish wisdom, provides a moral center and makes them committed to family and community.

Gift five: Innovation

The Jewish propensity to innovate has driven inventions ranging from ethical monotheism to the Theory of Relativity to Waze. This has been the secret sauce of Jewish survival, allowing us to adapt and succeed in a wide range of cultures, countries, and eras. Empowering our children to think outside the box will be critical for their success in our modern information era, and for the survival of our communal institutions, which must adapt to remain relevant for the next generation.

Gift six: Belief in the Impossible

Although we are less than 0.2 percent of mankind, the Jewish People have been able to accomplish extraordinary things because of our belief that the impossible could be achieved. From Joshua’s conquest of the land to the Maccabees overcoming the Greeks, to the newly formed State of Israel defeating six Arab armies in 1948, we have held the belief that the impossible can be achieved against all odds. We must empower our children with this perspective, as they go out to fight for their dreams and contribute solutions to the challenges facing Jews worldwide.

Gift seven: Brotherhood

In the Talmud, it says that each member of the Jewish People is responsible for the rest. During challenging times, the proud and committed Jews always knew how to unite and support one another. In response to the many threats facing the State of Israel, the Israeli people join together as one united family that cares for and protects each other. We are infinitely stronger when we are united – religious and secular, in Israel and in the Diaspora, old and young.

Gift eight: Passion

Discovering and channeling your passion in life to make a difference in the world is the key to personal fulfillment. If you don’t make each day matter and don’t have the passion for how you spend your time and resources, you don’t have much at all. Each and every day, I strive to give my children and grandchildren the encouragement to discover their passion and purpose, and the support to channel that passion into careers, families, leadership, community and the country in which we all live.

As we look to begin anew in 2018, let us give and inspire all eight of these gifts – and many more – to enrich the lives of our young generations, strengthen our families and secure our common future. In doing so, together we can write a new chapter in the ancient story of the Jewish people.

The author is an Israeli-American philanthropist, chairman of the Israeli-American Council, real estate entrepreneur and president of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation.

Original article featured in The Huffington Post

Israeli Americans can be the glue that builds a stronger Jewish community

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The Israeli-American Council’s Fourth Annual National Conference in Washington, D.C., held last month felt like a long-overdue family reunion. Enveloping warmth and a powerful sense of togetherness, the love for Israel was infectious, radiating to and from all the participants.

In the corridors of the Washington Convention Center, teenagers spoke with unique pride about their hybrid Israeli-American identity, rooted in the idea that they are deeply connected to their home in America while maintaining a strong affinity to their Jewish homeland in Israel.

Groups of Jewish-American and Israeli-American young professionals exchanged business cards and then headed to a packed dance floor, moving and shaking the steel floors of the convention center to the beat of Israeli music. A young Jewish couple —  the man from New York, the woman from Tel Aviv — joined with their 2-year-old and hundreds of other young families in a circle with picture books in Hebrew and English.

Groups singing Israeli songs blended with panel discussions about what it means to be Israeli and Jewish in America, centered around the idea that we were connected by the Israeliness in our character and the love for Israel in our heart. Many echoed the sentiment that Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans are one family, need each other and complement each other.

This sense of unity extended to the event’s political conversations. The politicians at the conference held views that spanned the ideological spectrum. They shared these radically different views on stage – in very frank conversations. All received thundering applause from the mixed crowd. In the many conference sessions and events, it was clear that Israeliness is a unifying force that can overcome political disagreements.

We live during a time of growing gaps and serious challenges in the Jewish community — both inside American Jewry and between Israel and the Diaspora. How do we address a declining Jewish population in the face of assimilation? How do we overcome divides among our different denominations, political orientations, ethnic backgrounds and geographic centers? How do we ensure that Israel is not a wedge that divides our community, but rather the glue that holds us together and strengthens us?

The nearly 3,000 participants in the Washington conference suggested the role that Israeli Americans can and do play as important partners for American Jewish institutions in addressing these questions and as bridge builders to the State of Israel and its people.

There are three unique value propositions that Israeli Americans — and groups like ours that represent them — can bring to the table for the Jewish community.

The first is our Israeliness, a character and multifaceted quality that brings together many aspects of our identity: Jewish values, the Hebrew language, Israeli culture, pride in our history and heritage, the unique accomplishments of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and above all, a belief that “All the people of Israel are responsible for one another.”

Through Israeliness, our community is bringing new people into our communal conversations and re-engaging others from a wide variety of backgrounds. We understand the importance of Israel not just as a vibrant country and proud culture, but as a crucial part of our spiritual beliefs as Jews. We speak Hebrew at home and at shul — the same language with two unique and intertwined purposes. Our community offers new ways to engage with Israel and Judaism itself.

The second value proposition is our deep love for Israel, rooted in personal experience and an appreciation that it is not just the homeland of the Jewish people, but a source of our pride, common history, culture, courage, and strength. We recognize that Israel isn’t perfect but accept and support it without any preconditions.

As a result, Israeli Americans are uniquely equipped to advocate for Israel. The Israeli-American Council, for example, has worked to advocate for laws that keep states like California, Nevada, and Texas from allowing taxpayer funds to support groups that discriminate against Israelis with economic boycotts. In partnership with existing organizations like AIPAC and Jewish federations, the Israeli-American Coalition for Action and the Israeli-American community have acted to advance bipartisan support for the Taylor Force Act, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and other important pieces of legislation.

The third value proposition is our willingness and ability to think outside the box. Israeli Americans have much to learn from the American Diaspora community about how Jewish culture and community can flourish outside of a Jewish state. Yet we are also contributing fresh perspectives that have brought a range of programs to American Jewish life – initiatives that are engaging not only Israeli Americans but also Jewish Americans of all ages.

By uniting Israeli Americans and partnering with existing Jewish-American institutions, we believe that we can strengthen the American communities we live in and build their connection to Israel. Our vision for the coming decades is optimistic: Where some see challenges and gaps, we see promise and opportunity to reignite Jewish life, re-inspire Jewish pride, and courage, and re-imagine our existing institutions so that they serve the next generation in our community.

By working together as one big Jewish family, Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans of all backgrounds can forge the future we desire.

(Adam Milstein is a co-founder and the chairman of the board of the Israeli-American Council.) 

Original post: JTA