This Rosh Hashanah, we look toward a year filled with endless possibilities. A year in which you play a vital role.
With your participation, the future for the land and people of Israel is limitless. So, let’s be bolder than ever before. Let’s think bigger, let’s do more. With your help, Jewish National Fund-USA can continue to:
• Build cutting-edge research institutes and medical facilities
• Improve access to affordable housing for Israelis
• Create unforgettable Zionist education opportunities for our young American Jews• Lift up new immigrants and refugees through housing, community services, and job creation Let’s make this year one for the books.
We at Jewish National Fund-USA are already strategizing for bigger and bolder ideas, and we need your support to ensure we achieve them. Will you make a commitment of to support a brighter future for the land and people of Israel? We need you!
This has been a year of challenges and triumphs. We need to think bigger to meet the needs of tomorrow. It’s astounding how quickly things can happen and how important it is to be prepared for every possibility. Do you remember when war suddenly broke out in Ukraine and how you stepped up? You helped ensure that when thousands of Ukrainian refugees arrived in Israel, Jewish National Fund-USA affiliates were ready to receive them. Thanks to your support, staff and volunteers at our affiliates have helped settle new immigrants into life in Israel, provide a range of social services, and run enriching youth leadership and recreational activities for new arrivals. Your help enables us to make refugees feel welcome, find them homes, connect them with therapists, and support their integration into a new country. For these new immigrants, though, the road is just beginning. Will you be there to help them along the way in creating their own brighter futures?
Olga arrived in Israel with her two adult sons after fleeing Ukraine. They ended up in the Negev town of Arad with nothing but one small suitcase each to find that Jewish National Fund-USA had prepared apartments for all of them. Each apartment was ready to welcome them home, down to food in the fridge and pillows on the beds. We can only imagine the relief Olga and her sons felt after escaping the unthinkable horrors of war to find that they were home because someone like you said that funding immigration and absorption matters. That Olga and her sons matter.
February 24th was supposed to be a normal day for Anat Bondarenko, 26, from Poltava, who was in Kiev celebrating the birth of her cousin’s son. Yet at 7am she was woken by air raid sirens as Russia invaded. It took her two weeks to reach the border with Romania, from there to Moldova, across Europe to Austria, and finally she landed in Israel. She quickly found a job with Jewish National Fund-USA’s Lauder Employment Center in Be’er Sheva to help fellow Ukrainian refugees find work and homes. In the beginning, it was devastating. As Anat recalled, “I spent my first three days of work sitting at the Leonardo Hotel here in Be’er Sheva where other refugees were being housed and just crying with everyone about what was happening to us and our country.” Now, Anat and her colleagues are busy connecting refugees from all skill levels and backgrounds with the 2,000+ jobs that the Lauder Employment Center has mapped across the Negev. We are dedicated to Anat’s success and that of every person who is building a new life in Israel. We couldn’t put it better than Anat, who so powerfully said, “Together, I know that we are going to make a difference in these people’s lives, just like the Lauder Center has already helped to make a difference in my new life here in Israel.”
A book of endless possibilities is open before us – what does it mean to think boldly about our future? I think it means pushing the work we’re doing to be better, do more, and increase our impact. At our rehabilitation village in Israel’s south, already a revolutionary, world-class facility thanks to your support, the opening of their new Neuro-Orthopedic Rehabilitative Hospital allows for the expansion of the life-affirming services they can provide and so much more.
Speaking emotionally about this new venture, the founder of our rehabilitation village, General (Res.) Doron Almog stated, “From day one, we have been committed to providing love, attention, and the highest levels of specialized professional care for the most vulnerable members of our society – individuals born with disabilities and those in need of extensive rehabilitation following an accident or health event. By establishing the first-ever rehabilitation hospital in the Negev, The Harvey and Gloria Kaylie Rehabilitation Medical Center, we will be able to expand our reach and deepen our commitment to empowering those touched by disability and their families.”
You helped create a hospital that will serve the thousands of Israelis who are dealing with congenital conditions, battle wounds, and injuries. Treatments will be available using cutting-edge therapeutic technology, including robotics and virtual reality. As the Director of the hospital, Dr. Tzaki (Itzhak) Siev-Ner explained, “The hospital will ensure that we have the best possible chance of restoring shattered lives faster and more effectively than ever before.” If that wasn’t enough, the new hospital is adding countless jobs across a wide variety of professions to the region, bringing in new opportunities for all and fulfilling Jewish National Fund-USA’s strategic plan for the Negev.
Did you know that thinking boldly is contagious? When we believe and invest in new, big ideas, others become inspired to join our mission.
In southern Israel, not far from the Gaza border, Jewish National Fund-USA, with your support, has turned underserved regions into flourishing frontier communities, with one city even being recognized as having the best educational facilities in the country. How did we do it? Through innovative educational endeavors. Our new GrooveTech Center in Eshkol is one such example. What is a “GrooveTech” center, you ask? Well, think of it as an almost magical place where schoolchildren come to enjoy and learn from the center’s extraordinary experiential offerings. From a planetarium, virtual reality zones, flight simulator, a 3D Maker Space, professional TV studio, and so much more, there is no other place on our planet like it. You won’t find anything like this in Tel Aviv, but we believe in the limitless potential of the children in the Eshkol region.
Programs at GrooveTech are empowering the next generation of Israeli leaders. One such program, STEAM Sisters, encourages young girls to see a future in science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Rotem Katry, 13, participated in STEAM Sisters and said, “It was an incredible opportunity to see how many options the other girls and I have. We even met an astronaut, a woman! We saw that we can do anything and it’s right here in Eshkol. This wasn’t possible for us before GrooveTech Center was built and before Jewish National Fund-USA got involved.”
Our vision is bold, our actions are strategic, and our impact is enormous. Our Housing Development Fund is building housing lots and changing lives by attracting new residents to the north and south of Israel. It’s not just about the buildings though, it’s the communities we’re creating and supporting that mean the world.
Naomi Becker raised her four sons in Moshav Hatzeva in the Arava. Now, two of the sons have children of their own, whom Naomi dotes on when she gets to see them. Thanks to our Housing Development Fund, 118 new housing lots have been approved and established in Moshav Hatzeva after years of bureaucratic stagnation, and two of Naomi’s sons were among the first to purchase. Without the Housing Development Fund, these homes may never have been possible. Now, Naomi is looking forward to spending Shabbat with her grandchildren and being a part of their daily lives. The desert is a place of beauty and peace. It’s a place where magic happens and flowers bloom, colorful fruits and vegetables grow, and families blossom. Jewish National Fund-USA is turning the desert into a vibrant place of life and growth; will you join us?
We’re building the frontier of Israel to create beautiful communities that thrive. Will you join us through a commitment of ?
I want to take a moment here to ask you, what are your personal hopes for this year? Is it to be with family more, to travel, perhaps to take on something new? If any of that sounds like something you’d like to do, I’m pleased to tell you that Jewish National Fund-USA is your one-stop resource.
We are gearing up to make this year our biggest year ever not just in impact but also in travel, with trips for everyone from Israel’s 75th Independence Day celebration, to trips for food and wine enthusiasts, active retirees, tours for synagogue groups, and so much more. As we always say, remember the family, come home for a visit! Nobody knows Israel like Jewish National Fund-USA, so let us show you around. Or, join us in Boston for our National Conference this November 4-6. It will be the biggest conversation about Israel this year. Register at jnf.org/nc.
Make a difference by making a commitment today. We can’t wait to see what we’ll do together this year. From all of us at Jewish National Fund-USA, I wish you a happy and sweet new year, shana tova u’metuka!
Sincerely,
Sol Lizerbram President
Jewish National Fund-USA