The Israel Center, the first of its kind in the city, was launched this summer with a $100,000 seed grant from the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Endowment Fund.
With support from the JCF’s annual campaign and several Bay Area foundations, it now operates as a central address for communitywide Israel-related programming in the areas served by the federation.
It also helps to reinforce and strengthen Israel-inspired feelings of Jewish identity.
Located at the JCF building and established in partnership with the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, Bureau of Jewish Education and Northern California Hillel Council, the center targets teenagers, college students and adults.
Ravid, who worked in Israel as a consultant in leadership development and now lives in Foster City, said there is a widening chasm between Israeli and diaspora Jews.
The former New York-based shaliach (emissary) who is now a doctoral candidate in philosophy further cited recent studies showing that the majority of American Jews have never been to Israel.
“Even for those who have, there is often little or no follow-up programming available upon their return,” he said.
“It’s not enough to get people to go to Israel,” added Debbie Cohn, who chairs the Israel Center’s advisory committee. “Our community needs to elevate, celebrate and contemplate as a key component of our Jewish identity.”
Young adults can benefit from the center’s involvement on a range of projects, including 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 university students with campus-based Israel-related programming.
Adults are encouraged to use the center as a resource to find out about Israel travel options and Israel-oriented cultural programs. This month’s inaugural event features Israel’s leading poet Yehudah Amichai, whose works have been translated into 33 languages.
Heralded as “the poetic soul of Jerusalem,” Amichai will be delivering a free public address and poetry reading at the event, cosponsored by the Consulate General of Israel, at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 30 at the Fort Mason Center Firehouse in San Francisco.
In addition to organizing the kickoff event, Israel Center staff and volunteers are equally busy creating a database of Bay Area residents who have been to Israel.
Members of this alumni network, called Tzavta (Hebrew for “together”), will be invited to a variety of events, like the Amichai reading, designed to intensify their connections to both Israel and the Jewish community.
“When people go to Israel, they usually have a tremendous experience. Yet when they come back, they are often disconnected with Jewish life. That’s why this new Tzavta program is so important,” said Michael Jacobs, a member of the center’s advisory committee.
Also in the works are a number of missions to Israel aimed at specific groups, such as families, doctors, lawyers and Jewish community leaders.
One potential mission targets marginally affiliated college students, who, in exchange for the opportunity to participate, make a commitment to be trained to create Israel-related campus programs back home.
“Five years ago the challenge of addressing the anti-Israel assault on campuses presented a crisis situation unique to college students,” said Doug Kahn, executive director of the JCRC.
“Today, the central challenge — fostering a sense of connectedness between American Jews and Israel — is shared by Jews of all generations, on and off the college campus.”
To that end, Cohn reported that the center will be relying on the JCF’s special relationship with its sister region in Israel’s Northern Galilee to play a key role in developing opportunities for direct “people-to-people” exchanges between Bay Area Jews and their Israeli peers.
“As relations between Israel and the diaspora continue to change, it’s important that new methods of linking Bay Area Jews and Israelis be found,” said Ravid.
Ideally, said Cohn, the Israel Center is intended to serve as a “one-stop shop” for Jews of all ages, denominations and degrees of involvement in the Jewish community.
“Our office may be sparse, but we do have a home…and it’s a place filled with wonderful human potential,” she said.
To contact the Israel Center or to reserve a seat (space limited) for the Amichai event, call (415) 278-0630.