The Greater Los Angeles Zone

As JNF's Los Angeles Zone President and the Valley's and Coastal Communities President, we are pleased to update you on Jewish National Fund's activities in Israel, the U.S. and in our community. Our new Los Angeles Zone section of the JNF website will provide you with the latest regional news, information about our missions to Israel, as well as general information about the region. We appreciate you taking the time to visit the page and hope you enjoy our new content.

Sincerely,
David Frank and Doug Williams

Bud Levin

When I first met her, my love overwhelmed me. She was perfect. I did not see a blemish or a wrinkle. Now, 60 years later, my eyesight, though dimmed from age, has a much greater clarity. Of course, now I can see the lines, the blemishes, the gray hair, that thickening around the waist. Can I love her today as much as the first day I laid eyes upon her? This was the challenge that Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom, in the San Fernando Valley, gave to his congregation this past Yom Kippur. Of course, he was talking about our relationship with Israel as she approached her 60th birthday.

I have had a love affair with my own Judaism and Israel that stretches back to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I arrived in the Yishuv a few weeks after the cease-fire, just in time to spend 10 days touring battle fields, hospitals, and cemeteries. I saw a land that had been shaken by a near disaster, but even more determined to fulfill the 2000-year-old dream of return. I found my self in a drama that had to be real, because if it were fiction, it would never be believed.

I remember sitting in the lobby of the deserted Tel Aviv Hilton with an Israeli veteran who was weary of war. We had just received the official casualty report of the human cost of the war. We were also speculating on the financial cost to the State.

I said: “Avrum, the standard of living here will surely be depressed in the years to come.”

He said: “My son, I came here from Munich in 1938. My standard of living is just being alive.”

Suddenly my world made sense. I knew I would be forever tied to this drama. I could not be a spectator anymore. I had to be part of the action. I had a business to run and a family to raise so my brief dream of aliyah has remained just a dream. Longevity may make that dream come true. But meanwhile I have supported my dream with my funds and my feet. In February of this year I completed my 67th visit to Israel.

For years I have spoken about being a partner with Israel in its struggle for success. To me, success was not defined as just being a refuge for the endangered Diaspora. No! Israel must strive for its biblical goal of being a “light unto all of the nations.” We are not building just a fortress; we are building a society that can be a model to the world. Though, if you read the Israeli press you will know that we have a bit more work to do.

I never really felt like a partner though, at least not an equal partner. When I dealt with the soldiers, I felt humbled. I had been in the USA tank corps but I was born too early for Korea and too late for Vietnam. I never had to fire a shot in anger. I did not feel a partnership with the refugees that I had helped to bring to Israel; we were there to save them. Many times I felt like a rich uncle helping out some poor member of the family. Partnerships are not nurtured in those circumstances. It was not until 2001, when I joined with Jewish National Fund, that I began to feel a real partnership.

JNF certainly helps people in need, like we did with the “children in shelters” during the last Lebanon war. But for the most part JNF is a partner with those Israelis who are concerned with the future of the land. Our work in eco-Zionism, reservoirs, research, Zionist education, and sustainable development gives us the opportunity to truly work as partners to fulfill the Zionist dream. The development of the Negev is an example of JNF’s understanding of the key task of the Jewish People. We must seize this opportunity to partner with Israelis, to fulfill the Zionist dream, to create an Or L’Goyim, a light unto nations.

So here we are. Israel at 60. True love means understanding what the Land can do for the Jewish People and what the Jewish People can do for the Land. True lovers remember Israel for what it was, see it for what it is, and dream of what it can be.

Bud Levin is JNF’s Vice President of Endowments and Special Projects. He lives in Los Angeles.

Contact Information

Los Angeles Office
6380 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 1205
Los Angeles, CA. 90048
(323) 964-1400
fx: 964-1410
Abigail Fleishman, Regional Director, Zone Director
Jan Sacks, Campaign Executive
Monica Guss, Administrative Assistant

Valleys and Coastal Communities Office
22148 Sherman Way
Suite# 206
Canoga Park, CA 91303
(818) 704-5454
fx: (818) 704-5448
Emily Hampton, Director of Donor Relations
Donna Daniel, Campaign Executive
Miriam Higareda, Administrative Assistant