Women for Israel
Circle of Sapphire Plus member Peggy Wingate’s love for Israel began when her feet first touched the ground there nearly 25 years ago on a Jewish National Fund-USA trip with her late husband, Monroe. He was already involved with the organization at the time and had been to Israel on several occasions.
On that visit, Peggy says that she recalls seeing firsthand what the country is really all about. “Jewish National Fund-USA does such fabulous trips,” she said. “They’re very well-coordinated." One of the most memorable parts of her tours was seeing Israel’s future taking shape right before her eyes. They visited a town near Be’er Sheva that was in its infancy in the early 2000s when it consisted of one or two mobile homes. The Wingates chose to donate a park to help its development. When they returned several years later, they were thrilled to see the beautiful park completed and enjoyed by the now many families who lived there. “The growth was pretty amazing,” she said.
When the Wingates were deciding what aspect of Jewish National Fund-USA’s work they were interested in supporting, they zeroed in on what was becoming a growing need: college campuses. “About 10 years ago, we were discussing our shared concerns about anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses,” recalls Peggy. “We came up with this idea that if we could send non-Jewish college professors to Israel and let them see the country for themselves, then perhaps we could slowly change some minds and hearts.”
Their idea took shape and became what is now known as Jewish National Fund-USA’s Faculty Fellowship Program in Israel, a competitive academic fellowship that invites university and college faculty members to participate in an exclusive academic trip to Israel. Participants meet with professionals and experts involved in government, industry, education, media, and other sectors to understand the many facets of Israel’s evolving reality. The goal of the program is to link scholars from diverse disciplines with their Israeli counterparts at major institutions, and Peggy says that this has led to some real success stories.
For example, Penn State Professor of Architecture, Ute Poerschke, was particularly interested in the Bauhaus designs found in Tel Aviv.
“Traveling through Israel with professors from diverse disciplines in an incredibly thoughtful schedule organized by Jewish National Fund-USA was mind-blowing,” said Poerschke. “Opportunities to meet Israeli citizens with different backgrounds and visit landmarks throughout the country were interwoven with visits to the major universities in the country. I was deeply impressed by the superb 20th-century architecture, reaching from modernist pioneering structures in Haifa and Tel Aviv to brutalist architecture in Be’er Sheva.”
Since Monroe’s passing in 2022, Peggy has stayed involved with Jewish National Fund-USA as a way to honor his memory. She says that he “didn’t really recognize his Jewish background until he was an adult,” so she got to witness how important this aspect of his identity was to him, including becoming a bar mitzvah at the age of 80.
Just as Monroe and Peggy made an indelible impact on the land and people of Israel, and on academic discourse and exchange, so too were they affected by their involvement.
“Peggy Wingate and her beloved husband Monroe crafted this successful program to ensure that faculty members of universities travel throughout Israel to see the ‘real Israel,’” says Deb Rochford, National Campaign Director. “The investment of their time and treasure is a testament to their Zionism.”
To learn more about Women for Israel, contact Sara King at [email protected]
Back