Editorial

A piece of the prize

March 27, 2008

Congratulations — you just won the Israel Prize!

Well, not you specifically. But if you are among the hundreds of thousands of Diaspora Jews who have contributed to Israel through your local federation, you have a share in the prize awarded the Jewish Agency for Israel this week by Israel’s government.

The award recognizes JAFI’s work in helping to build the Jewish state, from before its founding in 1948 when it helped the clandestine immigration of Jews under the British Mandate, to its efforts since independence, which have included settling more than three million immigrants.

The Jewish Agency has been responsible for absorbing newcomers to Israel and building its infrastructure and for Jewish and Zionist education in the Diaspora. It promotes aliya; seeds the creation of development towns, kibbutzim, and moshavim; and promotes urban renewal.

But if American Jews take this award a little personally, it is because the Jewish Agency has more than any other institution represented the Israel-Diaspora partnership. The Jewish Agency has served as a main address, along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, for the millions and millions of dollars raised on Israel’s behalf by Diaspora Jews. In recent decades, JAFI has fostered direct partnerships between communities in Israel and the Diaspora — an attempt to put a people-to-people perspective on the relationship, helping millions of Israelis in the process. As “give” morphed into “give and take,” planners here and in Israel recognized how Jews in Israel and abroad could model the ideals of arevut — our responsibility to one another.

The Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel will be bestowed on JAFI during Israel Independence Day on May 10. Congratulations — to us.