JNF-USA's CEO Russell F. Robinson describes Betsy Frischman Fischer as someone who “puts in her money, her heart, her advocacy, her career, and her emotion.” He goes on to say, “To be emotionally and strategically involved and engaged. That’s leadership.”
Betsy’s introduction to the work of JNF-USA came through her husband, Peter. Not knowing much about the organization, she recalled that Peter regularly went to JNF-USA meetings on the third Tuesday of the month. “There’s Peter’s wife,” was how JNF-USA ambassadors (donors) used to refer to Betsy. Now they say, “That’s Betsy’s husband,” when Peter walks by.
Past President of JNF-USA’s Southern New Jersey Board, Betsy is the founder and outgoing chairperson of JNF-USA’s Rebuild the Envelope Task Force, formerly known as the Gaza Envelope Task Force. Following the Hamas massacre on October 7, she and Peter donated $1 million to accelerate the rebuilding of southern Israel, primarily through enhancing the recreation facilities in Sha’ar HaNegev. “This is an area for resilience and healing, which are more important to the community there than ever before,” said Betsy. The Regional Councils of Sha’ar HaNegev and Eshkol and the city of Sderot are collectively referred to as the Israel Envelope.
Betsy’s first trip to Israel was in the summer of 1978 when she was still in high school, and her parents gave her the choice of traveling to France, England or Israel. She chose Eretz Israel. It clearly had an impact because upon her return home she began taking Hebrew classes in high school and continued to study the language at Rutgers University. Her next visit to Israel wasn’t until 2008, with her family in tow, as part of a synagogue trip. Arriving before their tour began, they were able to see some JNF-USA projects.
But her interest in JNF-USA was piqued when Peter returned from a visit to Sderot, bubbling with enthusiasm over the indoor recreation center/fortified bomb shelter built by JNF-USA. The facility is designed to provide the children of Sderot (a town that has suffered from frequent missile attacks from Gaza), with a safe, protected place to play, and to give parents a sense of stability and normalcy while they work or manage daily life under difficult security conditions. Betsy, who was a special education teacher, a dance and Zumba instructor, a mobile DJ, and owner of the New Jersey “Groove Lounge” dance party venue, told the mayor of Sderot, “I’m coming to your city one day to throw a party.” True to her word, she hosted a fabulous dance party right inside the bomb-proof center. She dubbed it “one of the best days of my life.”
When the people in Eshkol, a community near Sderot, wanted to build their own bomb-proof indoor playground like Sderot’s, Betsy says, JNF-USA pushed them to think bigger and make their recreation center more high-tech. Thus, Eshkol-based GrooveTech was born, and the building was dedicated in Betsy’s honor. This state-of-the-art safe indoor multi-media and innovative learning center that provides a welcoming space where kids can thrive was completed during COVID. The center houses virtual reality rooms, a planetarium, science and robotics spaces, art workshops, a vertical farm, a master chef kitchen, and more.
On her most recent visit to Eshkol, Betsy called out, “That’s my husband!” as she rushed over to plant a kiss on a painting of her golfing husband that decorated a bomb shelter near GrooveTech. She and Peter had given each other painted bomb shelters in honor of their 60th birthdays. “I thought that dedicating a shelter in a place so meaningful to him, doing what he loves best (playing golf), would be a perfect gift for the man who has everything,” she said.
Another of Betsy’s philanthropic endeavors through JNF-USA was the construction of a new auditorium at the Gush Etzion Heritage Center. Visitors to the center learn the story of Gush Etzion, a Jewish settlement region just south of Jerusalem, where four kibbutzim were thriving on land purchased by JNF-USA until they were destroyed by Jordan’s Arab Legion the day before David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel. The bloc fell on the Jordanian side of the armistice line until the 1967 Six-Day War, when the region was reclaimed and resettled by the Jewish people.
In 2016, Betsy’s life took a new turn when she met Gadi Yarkoni, the former head of the Eshkol Regional Council, through her work with JNF-USA. Gadi had lost both his legs in a mortar explosion, which also took the lives of two of his close friends, during the final hours of Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Immensely inspired by his resilience and positivity, Betsy felt compelled to share his story with the world. She closed her Groove Lounge business and devoted the next seven years to writing Even After Everything, How One Humble Kibbutznik Believed in Heaven While Living Through Hell, her debut book. According to Betsy, writing this book only came about because “serving on a JNF-USA task force gets you knee deep in the needs of the region, and you develop close working relationships with regional mayors, such as Gadi.”
Now, when Betsy promotes her book about Gadi, she begins her talk with an introduction to the JNF-USA Rebuild the Envelope Task Force that she recently chaired. That leads to the story of how she encountered Gadi. Often, the audience members at these events begin talking about their own JNF-USA experiences. Thus, her book promotion gatherings inadvertently become JNF-USA promotion vehicles. Way to go Betsy!
Together, We Women Can Make a Difference Through JNF-USA
Written by Betsy Rosenthal, who was excited to write about a fellow Betsy and is a proud Sapphire Society member
