This summer, Israeli rock star David Broza performed his guitar pyrotechnics for Israel Independence Day at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens as thousands sang along in Hebrew.
A year-round chamber concert series introduced young Israeli talents to local concertgoers.
A top Israeli mime mimicked for local students.
And that was just 1996.
In the wake of the Oslo Accords, the Bay Area has seen a parade of top Palestinian and Israeli artists, writers and musicians, many sharing a stage for the first time.
All of that was due to the S.F.-based Israeli Consulate for the Pacific Northwest.
And as a new era in Israeli-Arab relations dawned, the consulate launched a major campaign to showcase another side of Israel besides politics: its people.
Now the consulate is under the gun — threatened with closure as Israel’s Foreign Ministry faces millions of dollars in budget cuts.
Not only would this area’s 225,000 Jews lose a major cultural presence but a crucial political and institutional representative for Israel as well.
Who makes Israel’s case to local radio and TV stations and newspapers? The consulate.
Who processes visa requests for travelers? The consulate.
Who paves the way for potential immigrants? The consulate.
Who maintains contacts with Northern California’s members in Congress, which votes on matters vital to Israel? The consulate.
Should Israel’s local liaison close its doors, reports say, the Bay Area would have to make do with a single envoy. But not just us, for the S.F.-based consulate serves Jews from Alaska to Montana, and as far south in California as Fresno.
Could Israel’s Los Angeles consulate fill the breach? That office is ministering to the second largest Jewish population in the United States and covers a territory stretching to Arizona.
The Bay Area stands to lose a lot. Let Israel’s Foreign Ministry know.