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The connection of world Jewry to Israel is vital for Jews around the world in maintaining a sense of Jewish unity and peoplehood. Likewise, the importance of Jewish partnership in strengthening Israel is critical to Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state. Thus, Jewish partnership with Israel at its center and the role of the Jewish people in strengthening Israel must be central parts of the collective agenda of the global Jewish community. The needs of Israel are enormous and it is obvious that the Jewish people can only be involved effectively if it focuses its action. The areas of involvement of the Jewish people in Israel should be mainly where it is related to the global responsibility of the Jewish people, where the involvement of the Jewish people has an added value and where the outcome is critical for the Jewish people. The global Jewish people have helped bring over 2.9 million olim to Israel. Many of them don't need long-term special assistance. However, vulnerable immigrant groups such as Ethiopian and Caucasian olim need assistance in integrating into Israeli society for a relatively long period of time. This is a joint responsibility of the entire Jewish people and Israel. Israel, which opened the doors only because it is not a regular state, but a Jewish state for the Jewish people, cannot and should not shoulder the burden alone. These vulnerable immigrants place their trust in the Jewish people and the Jewish Agency must not let them down. Israel may be in danger of losing its control in some of its peripheral areas, while many Jewish communities there are under potential threat. The global Jewish people have an added value and a critical role in strengthening the Jewish presence in Israel's periphery, as Israel as may not be able to succeed alone. It is in the interest of Jews everywhere that the State of Israel maintains a Jewish majority in these strategic areas. The Jewish and democratic nature of the State of Israel is a critical issue for the entire Jewish people. The Jewish people must take a role in ensuring that Israel remains the state for all Jews, relevant for world Jewish communities. To this end, world Jewry has an essential interest in supporting programs that promote the religious streams in Israel; assisting Israelis who are grappling with issues of their Jewish identity; developing initiatives that bridge cultural gaps and facilitating mutual respect and dialogue among groups where tensions exist. The potential impact of Israel on the future of world Jewry is immense. Consequently world Jewry has a critical stake in ensuring that this impact is positive. All these efforts are not enough. The challenge today is not only strengthening Israel in different ways, but to ensure that we remain one strong people around Israel. There is a growing risk that tensions between the Jewish people and Israel will grow, misunderstandings will deepen and the gap between the Jewish experience in Israel and in the Diaspora will widen to the point where the two will drift apart. The Jewish Agency's challenge is to assure one, strong Jewish people in the future. We need to create a sufficient critical mass of shared values, experiences, relationships, partnerships and common hopes for the future. This can only be achieved through initiating and enabling a network of partnerships and hands on involvement of Jews throughout the world with the Jews of Israel. To this end, the Jewish Agency is expanding its capacity to develop new partnerships, by creating new and innovative partnership models. These partnerships could be community partnerships like Partnership 2000, People to People partnerships based on issues or affinity groups or collective strategic action on the model of Project Renewal or the proposed National Project for the long-term absorption of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. In building such partnerships, which should place Israelis and world Jewry on an equal footing, the relevance of the partnership to both Israel and world Jewry should be taken into account. In many respects, this mission of ensuring one people is as important as the mission to strengthen Israel. The two missions can and should go together and from now on we must focus not only on what we do but on doing it together with our partners worldwide. |