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dear friends In 2007, as Israel approached 60 years as a sovereign nation, the longstanding and sometimes acrimonious debate over who has a more legitimate claim to be counted as a supporter of Israel broke out more openly — in the Jewish organizational world, in the media, and on campuses. For the New Israel Fund, being “pro-Israel” means promoting progressive values such as equality and social justice for all citizens and residents of the country. Being pro-Israel requires acknowledging Israel’s multicultural reality, which includes a sizeable Arab minority and large numbers of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia. Being pro-Israel means seeking to ensure that the population’s religious and ethnic diversity and multiculturalism are nurtured — not strangled by a fundamentalist religious establishment and a sclerotic political elite. NIF stands for something different in the constellation of organizations that unite Israelis and Diaspora supporters of Israel. We provide a home for those who want to be part of a community that cares not only about Israel’s physical survival, but also about the values that informed the country’s original founding. As NIF president-elect Naomi Chazan stated last year, “The majority of Israeli citizens — who have achieved real successes advocating in an open, argumentative, self-critical society — need support from their American counterparts. When the most visible American backers of Israel are the right-wing-fellow-traveler Jewish groups and the Christian right, it is almost impossible to counter those powerful and well-financed voices and the retrogressive values they champion.” The Diaspora news media too often divide the story between those for whom Israel is always right and those for whom it is always wrong. At NIF we see a different, more nuanced Israel, where civil
“Judge the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the poor and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” The New Israel Fund thanks Peter Edelman for his six years of service as Chair, for his tireless dedication to our organization, our values and our commitment to social justice in Israel.
society is producing a new class of national leaders who speak for the underprivileged, the invisible and the ignored. We see an Israel that is threatened but not yet overwhelmed by the forces of extremism, intolerance and ultra-nationalism. So this year’s Annual Report focuses on the emerging voices that represent Israel’s future. They are the leaders of civil society, and they are organizing within their communities and advocating before the Knesset and the High Court. As a supporter of the New Israel Fund, you have reason to be proud of the thousands of voices in Israel that we empower and strengthen every day. But they need something else, too, if we are to help them fully in building the Israel for which they work so hard. They need to hear our voice as well. They, and all the world, need to know that in the Diaspora, Israel has fervent supporters whose core values reflect an insistence on equality, inclusion and economic justice for all. That is a major challenge as our work goes on. Sincerely,
Larry Garber
Peter Edelman
Eliezer Yaari