On Tuesday Giving, November 29, 2016, give a voice; your voice in Israel counts, it reflects what you believe, it is your long hall give a hand Mitzvah.
For the past several years, Doug Williams and Barak Lurie, breakfast co-chairs and Greater Los Angeles Board of Directors members, invite hundreds of people to join them in a JNF (the Jewish National Fund) annual breakfast. And the invitees arrive and attend.
JNF has many activity tentacles in Israel, each support a project, each helps the Jewish state prosper and grow.
Everyone remembers JNF’s tin box, the pushke, into which Jews, the world over, donated their change which accumulated to millions of dollars that were then invested in Israel.
This year, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, with guest speaker Frank Luntz, American political consultant, pollster, and “public opinion guru,” supporters of Israel gathered for an early morning breakfast in order to get their Zionist flame charged. Yes, this is what the annual breakfast does, charges your Zionist battery.
In the past it was the water issue in which JNF invested its energy and funds. Israel was drying up. There was no water. The only water reservoir, the Kinneret-Lake of Galilee, was drying up. A land that runs out of water, runs out of life; in such a land, people pack up and leave. Not in Israel. Israel did the unfathomable. It slowly and surely turned the situation around to become water secured and a world leader in water conservation teaching. Today, Israel teaches the world how to recycle water, how to turn unusable water to life sustaining water. And nations are flocking to Israel to learn the water “trick.” The “trick” was, you do not leave your homeland in time of distress, rather, you find a solution and recover to never look back.
Now JNF is all out to help Israel’s fire fighters.
As it happened to be and hardly planned, the JNF breakfast took place immediately after Israel went ablaze. Arab arson terrorists set fires all over the country; Haifa city was going up in flames and Israel had to put out SOS call for surrounding countries to come help put out the fires that were devouring the land. And they came from several neighboring countries, including far away Russia. Even the USA sent its giant fire extinguishing plane and firefighters from the sunshine state traveled to Israel to help. A week later the fires are out, but the damage, emotional and physical is huge. Hundreds of homes and buildings were damaged beyond usage and thousands of acres of land, in the tiny country were left barren. Trees JNF’s supporters planted burned to the ground.
The concern and worry in Israel and her supporters is that the Arabs residing in the land of Israel have found another way to activate their culture of hate and thus try destroy the Jewish state. They can easily put the tiny country ablaze. Luckily, this time around there were no fatalities …
But Jewish roots never die. They are put up to challenges and they triumph. The roots of a scorched trees is the voice of Israel. These roots are hurting but they do not die. Their body was burned but not the roots, not their soul. They will grow again, or they will be replaced by happy voice tree planted in Israel by JNF.
Jews took waste land and made it bloom, which her enemies want to see a nasty fire devour it.
Israel’s future is hope and construction. The Arabs future is of hate and deconstruction.
JNF believes that investing in the future of the Jewish Nation, the homeland of every Jews, is the guarantee of strong and thriving Israel, able to overcome the challenges its foes put in her way.
Imagine what Israel could do for her neighbors only if they were willing to accept the help it offers, rather than burn the land and live in a culture of hate?!
As we know, hate never leads to peace. It is not incitement, it is simply hate and the teaching of hate. The BDS movement, calling to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel is a culture of hate, not incitement.
But Israel’s foes, and there are many of them and for no real reason, chose the culture of hate.
Israel will recover, build and thrive.
And JNF is now up to the task to help to build Israel’s firefighting force, upgrade their equipment and beyond so that Israel has the upper hand when Arab hooligans try again, and they will, set the country ablaze.
Giving credit where credit is due. In JNF they do not want Jews and Israel’s supporters to speak, rather to be heard. Supporters of JNF projects are to be heard all over Israel and around the world.
The goal of Russell Robinson, JNF CEO, is to amass $1 billion dollars to invest in Israel. Your help equals your voice is much needed.
