Just three years ago, San Francisco’s Israel Center was grappling with such dilemmas as how to gather enough names to fill a database.
These days, staff and volunteers have other things on their minds, such as following up on the energy of last month’s “Way Beyond Tel Aviv.” More than 1,000 young adults packed into San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre for the festival featuring Israeli rock star Berry Sakharof.
“If you look just in the month of April alone, you will see an incredible sampling of the variety of programs we offer,” said Shlomi Ravid, director of the Israel Center of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
One of those programs was “Living Side by Side,” a joint Israeli-Palestinian show for children. Presented in association with the New Conservatory Theatre Center, the performance dramatized Middle Eastern folk tales celebrating tolerance and hope.
In addition to its San Francisco run at the theater, the show also played at the Marin Jewish Community Center, as well as a number of Jewish day schools. The Israel Center estimates that nearly 2,000 children attended.
In addition to sponsoring Israel-related programming, the Israel Center also helps to strengthen Israel-inspired feelings of Jewish identity. The first such center in San Francisco, it was launched with a $100,000 seed grant from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, with support from the JCF’s annual campaign and several Bay Area foundations.
Located at the JCF building and established in partnership with the Jewish Community Relations Council and Bureau of Jewish Education, the center targets teenagers, college students and adults.
“The Israel Center has created quite a buzz in the Jewish community,” said Michael Jacobs, who chairs the Israel Center’s advisory committee. “Jews who were once only marginally affiliated have used the center as their entry, or re-entry, into the organized Jewish community.”
When Ravid, an Israeli native and former New York-based shaliach (emissary), was originally hired to run the center, he said his goal was to “build stronger, more lasting connections between Bay Area Jews and Israel.”
Three years later, with his contract about to end and plans to return to Israel under way, he feels confident the center has gone “above and beyond” what he had hoped.
“Just look at the month we had,” Ravid reiterated.
Along with organizing the popular music festival and play, the center welcomed participants just back from two of three missions to Israel sponsored under its newly created Living Bridge program.
Specifically designed to serve the needs of previously underrepresented groups, the two separate missions, respectively aimed at early childhood educators and gay and lesbian Jews, will soon be followed by a third targeted at families.
The 10-day “Journey of Pride” mission, co-sponsored by the JCF’s Gay and Lesbian Task Force and geared toward exploring gay and lesbian life and culture in Israel, was the first such trip to be sponsored by the federation. Twenty-two area Jews joined the mission.
Participants on both missions had the opportunity to meet their Israeli peers in the JCF’s northern Galilee partner region.
Last month, the Israel Center also coordinated a well-attended community Yom HaZikaron service commemorating those who died in Israel’s wars.
Back in 1996, the Israel Center’s inaugural event featured Israel’s leading poet Yehuda Amichai, whose works have been translated into 33 languages. Amichai delivered a free public address and poetry reading at the event, which attracted a large crowd. It also helped establish the center as a “one-stop shop” for Jews of all ages, movements and degrees of involvement.
Young adults can benefit from such programs as the Israel Experience, a nationwide project intended to strengthen teenage Jewish identity and promote teen travel to Israel, and the Israel Project, which promotes pro-Israel advocacy on Bay Area college campuses and provides campus-based Israel programming. Three years ago, the Israel Experience drew 32 participants; this year, 100 are involved.
Meanwhile, adults are encouraged to use the center as a resource for Israel travel options as well as cultural programs, such as the Israel Center’s Tzavta project. An alumni network comprised of Jews in their 20s and 30s who have been to Israel, Tzavta (Hebrew for “together”) sponsors a variety of events designed to intensify connections to both Israel and the Jewish community.
Two years ago, Tzavta created the popular Café V’ivrit, a monthly San Francisco program that brings together Bay Area Hebrew speakers to shmooze and play games. Most recently, Tzavta expanded its cafe into the south Peninsula, where more than 30 attended the first event.
The Israel Center has also hosted a young adult Tu B’Shevat seder and an Israel Program Fair, both held at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
The seder, co-sponsored with six other Jewish organizations, united some 200 young adults who followed the path of the 17th-century Jewish mystics in celebrating the New Year of the Trees through music, art and ritual. The fair attracted more than 250 people and represented close to 40 different organizations.
Not ready to rest on their laurels, folks at the Israel Center are planning for the upcoming Israel Independence Day festival on Sunday.
According to Israel Center staff, the festival, “much like the center itself,” is intended to provide a glimpse of what Israel is really like “and not what you see on CNN.”