This has been a year of challenges, resolution, determination, and constant insistence on our values: that democracy and equality mean a better future for everyone.
For us at NIFC, alongside funding projects on the ground in Israel, we’ve also been hard at work in Canada. Here, our goal has been to shift the conversation away from a zero-sum game and towards a shared future. We have approached this in myriad ways. Here’s a few of our favorites from this last year here:
New Generation of Young Canadian Jews Digging in to New Israel Fund Values
Over the last year, our New Generations (New Gen) community has grown in meaningful and beautiful ways, and worked to shift the conversation among young Canadian Jews. A vibrant and progressive group of young professionals, social activists, community leaders, and students in their 20s and 30s, our New Gen participants are committed to the work of the New Israel Fund and the values it stands for. The community offers young people a way in to the conversation about Israel through hearing directly from Israeli activists on the ground, through leadership opportunities, as well as our annual Naomi Chazan Fellowship.
Our New Generations Leadership Council continues to engage their peers by hosting a variety of New Gen events, including film screenings, discussion groups, text study, and holiday observances. This year, they were a part of the Host Committee for our annual Shira Herzog Symposium and held another successful Giving Circle. Meet the members of our New Gen Council here.
Our 2024-2025 Naomi Chazan Fellowship program began with a study tour in Israel, where our participants got to meet with many of the activists and organizations that we fund, and learn about the vital work they’re doing. Meet our Fellows here, see photos from their trip here, and read a reflection on the trip from one participant here. Since returning to Canada, they’ve been sharing their experiences through online and in-person events. Looking ahead, they’ll be deepening their skills and developing projects aimed at sharing their experiences with their peers.
Growing our Community of Supporters in Winnipeg
Earlier this month, we visited Winnipeg and hosted a warm community event at Temple Shalom featuring our Executive Director Ben Murane and Board Member Michael Mitchell. Read an article on the event in the Jewish Post & News here.
Arguments for the Sake of Heaven
This year, we co-published a new survey on Canadian Jewish views of Israel, peace, and Canadian politics in partnership with JSpaceCanada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now. The survey results were covered in Haaretz, and NIFC Executive Director Ben Murane appeared on Bonjour Chai, a podcast of the Canadian Jewish News, to discuss the most important conclusions. Read the full survey report here.
Recent Webinars: Iran, Syria, and Lebanon
Last week Dr. Gil Murciano, CEO of our Canadian-funded partner Mitvim, unpacked the past month’s events with Iran, Syria, and Lebanon and told us how regional changes can be an opportunity for advancing a regional peace agreement.
We continue to amplify the voices of Israelis not frequently heard in Canada: civil society activists for democracy, Jewish-Arab partnership, and peace. You can find recordings of all recent webinars here.
Groundwork: a podcast about activists working for justice, equality, and peace.
NIF, in close partnership with the Alliance for Middle East Peace, produces an English-language podcast that brings progressive changemakers on the ground in Israel into your ears. These hosts and producers talk to activists who work for justice, peace, and equality for all. Some of them work to end the occupation, some of them work to build power. All of them offer diaspora audiences ways to think about the conflict that are outside of the black-and-white conversations we have most of the time.
In the new third season of the podcast, Sally Abed of Standing Together co-hosts with activist and comedian Noam Shuster. The season features stories like Einav Zangauker’s, whose son Matan is still in Gaza as she leads the hostage families’ movement to save him and the rest of the hostages and end Israel’s war in Gaza. You can also hear the story of Mai Shahin, a Palestinian woman who grew up participating in violent protests against Israeli policy during the Second Intifada, and now works to bring Israeli Jews and Palestinians into deep connection and empathy with each other. The seasons’ latest episode just dropped, and brings listeners one woman’s microcosm of a fight to keep a restaurant open on Shabbat, and unlearn her “learned political helplessness” along the way.