Ensuring the future of the Jewish collective

Published: AUGUST 6, 2020 14:06

AMSALU AYENEW at the HaTikvah Synagogue in Gondar where he served as a hazzan before his aliyah. (photo credit: Courtesy) — AMSALU AYENEW at the HaTikvah Synagogue in Gondar where he served as a hazzan before his aliyah.

(photo credit: Courtesy)

In the grips of COVID-19, intensifying efforts to care for our global family.

Jewish institutions around the world are on the verge of financial collapse. Smaller Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora are hard-pressed to meet the escalating needs of their members. Opportunities for engagement with Israel have all but evaporated. Synagogues and Jewish community centers are off-limits, severely restricting channels of moral support. And on top of all this, there has been a spike in antisemitism the likes of which we haven’t experienced for decades.

So where is The Jewish Agency in all this?

Right where it should be, taking care of the family.

Not that I can claim objectivity, serving as I do as deputy chair of the body’s executive. I can, however, claim to be impressed by the organization’s enormous ongoing effort to ensure the future of a global Jewish collective, with a vibrant and value-driven Israel at its center. I share these observations now in light of current media speculation regarding the future of Israel’s national institutions (the World Zionist Organization, Keren Hayesod, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-JNF and The Jewish Agency) as the next Zionist Congress hovers over the horizon.

But don’t take my word for it. Meet some of the people we reach and draw your own conclusions.

Amsalu Ayenew, a 22-year old cantor from Gondar, landed in Israel just four months ago – one of 278 new immigrants from Ethiopia, and nearly 8,500 olim from around the world who The Jewish Agency have already brought to Israel this year despite COVID-19. They’ve joined more than 250,000 others we’ve helped in making Israel their home over the past decade. We do that working hand-in-hand with the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, which would not be able to meet the full scope of the new immigrants’ needs – before their arrival and afterward – without our partnership. With the dramatic increase in immigration applicants since the pandemic began, those needs have suddenly grown exponentially.

AYENEW AND his mother, brought to Israel despite the coronavirus, receive Bibles and prayer books in Amharic and Hebrew from Rabbi Menachem Waldman. (Courtesy)

But aliyah, as fundamental as it is to our work, is only one of The Jewish Agency’s varied efforts to keep the family connected. Meet 18-year-old Jacob Freedland from London. He also arrived in Israel a few months ago, not to stay but to participate in a six-month leadership program.

Active in Marom, the young adult division of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement, he’s now exploring Israel in depth with others from around the world and across the religious and political spectrum. He mentions, as example, the Tikkun Layl Shavuot (all-night study session on the night of Shavuot) he recently organized together with members of diverse youth movements.

“It was an entire night of intense discussion about ideology, identity, Torah,” he says. “Powerful, emotional, passionate.”

This is the sort of experience shared over the past 15 years by 130,000 Masa Israel Journey alumni from 60 countries. COVID-19 is not going to put an end to that. The general ban on non-citizens entering Israel notwithstanding, The Jewish Agency has arranged for special entry permits to be granted to those coming to Israel on long-term programs, with a record number expected this coming year due, in part, to the widespread closure of college campuses abroad.

But Masa is only one of several platforms central to our mission of facilitating Israel experience programs. Taglit-Birthright, of which The Jewish Agency was a founding partner, is another. It alone has brought some 700,000 young Jews to Israel from 67 ‎countries since it began operating 20 years ago. But with visits to Israel of that sort curtailed by the novel coronavirus, novel ways are now needed in order to keep the connection with Israel intact.

STAFF MEMBERS of the Lauder Morasha Jewish Day School in Warsaw, working through the pandemic-induced economic difficulties. (Courtesy)

OUR EMISSARIES around the world are doing just that. Meet Merav Szulanski, one of The Jewish Agency shlichim in Argentina, among the 2,000 we send abroad each year for the purpose of strengthening Jewish identity and fostering ties between Israel and Jews everywhere.

“So many of the students I work with were looking forward to spending time in Israel this year,” she told me. “They’re hugely disappointed. But neither I nor they were prepared to give up on the experience altogether, so we’re doing everything from shakshuka to social action on Zoom – not instead of coming to Israel, but to keep the connection alive and current until they can travel again. The response has been amazing. They’re really appreciative of everything I have to give them.”

But whatever these shlichim give to the communities in which they spend time, no less important is what they gain from their experiences abroad. Their exposure to the vitality and diversity of Jewish life overseas contributes profoundly to shaping Israeli society upon their return, giving expression to the responsibility The Jewish Agency has taken upon itself to serve as the voice of Diaspora Jewry in impacting the nature of the Jewish state.

JACOB FREEDLAND unmasked! Masa long-term Israel programs will continue, COVID-19 notwithstanding. (Courtesy)

Another of the responsibilities we’ve assumed is contributing to Jewish safety and combating antisemitism. No one knows that better than Max Privorozki, head of the Jewish congregation in Halle, Germany, and the target of a deadly shooting attack last October. The terrorist’s effort to overrun the synagogue was thwarted due to an upgrade of the facility’s safety features, which was enabled by a grant the community had received from The Jewish Agency’s Security Assistance Fund.

“I can’t imagine what would have happened otherwise,” said Privorozki. His was among 600 projects in 60 communities receiving some $15,000,000 of aid over the years.

This caring for Jews around the world has found particular expression during the coronavirus crisis. In response to the devastating economic impact of COVID-19, The Jewish Agency established an emergency fund that has already distributed nearly $10,000,000 in response to 76 requests for assistance.

Anna Barbur, currently administrative director of the Lauder-Morasha Jewish day school in Warsaw, is one of many who can testify to just how vital this support has been for meeting critical needs of Jewish communities around the world.

SHAKSHUKA VIA Zoom: Keeping the Israel connection alive until travel resumes. (Courtesy)

“Many of our children’s parents lost their jobs, which has led to reduced income from tuition fees,” she explains, echoing what we have heard about the impact of COVID-19 on Jewish schools everywhere. “Without The Jewish Agency intervention, we’d have had to dismiss employees and wouldn’t have been able to continue with our plans to open our new high school in September, the first and only one in Poland since 1968.”

Bottom line: With COVID-19 dominating our lives, and the concomitant isolation with which we’ve had to cope, we’ve undoubtedly all grown in our appreciation for family. The Jewish Agency certainly has, and Amsalu, Jacob, Merav, Max and Anna are testimony to that.

They, in turn, can easily connect you with millions of others who will tell you the same. Because that’s what we specialize in – taking care of the family, in good times and bad, for nearly a century, whatever the need.

The writer serves as deputy chair of the executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel.
CANDLES LIGHT the scene of the fatal shooting outside a synagogue in Halle, Germany, in October 2019. (Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)