Under shadow of far-right’s rise, Jewish Agency head extols Jewish unity

Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog laid out his vision for the organization under his tenure on Sunday, delivering a message of Jewish unity, days after a deeply divisive Israeli election saw the rise of a far-right party that is expected to stress already strained ties with more liberal American Jews.

“We shouldn’t allow hatred in our society. We should spread love and continue the unity of the Jewish people,” Almog said.

He said that message is particularly relevant as Sunday also marks the official memorial day for former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by far-right activist Yigal Amir in November 1995, and who was explicitly threatened days prior by Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is now on track to become an influential minister in the next government.

Almog made his remarks at the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governor’s meeting in Tel Aviv’s Hilton Hotel, his first appearance since he was elected chairman of the organization at the previous meeting in July.

The Jewish Agency chairman, who has spent the past three months traveling the world to meet Jewish communities, said his primary focus would be on “bringing hearts together.

“We have major challenges ahead: to deepen the connection with the Jewish communities around the world, to support aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel) and absorption, and to reinforce Israeli society,” Almog told the dozens of Jewish Agency Board of Governors members who had come in for the event, mostly from the United States.

In Israeli-accented English, Almog said he planned to accomplish this goal by expanding the Jewish Agency’s emissary programs, strengthening ties with Israeli expats in the US and other countries, working more closely with other international Jewish and Zionist organizations, and helping new immigrants to more easily settle in Israel.

“Everything [about immigration] is difficult and at-times alienating,” he said.

Almog said the organization planned to work closely with the Economy Ministry and directly with businesses to make it easier for new immigrants to find work in Israel, which is a first step in more successful integrations.

In his speech, Almog stressed the connection between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, beginning from before the state was founded.

“My parents’ generation prevailed in the Independence War because of Jews like you from all over the world. About 70 percent of the money to buy the defenses, the weapons systems, the ships and planes came from the United States. So on behalf of my parents, thank you. I am inspired by you, by you continuing to be devoted to the only Jewish state and to our Jewish people,” he said.

However, Almog’s hope of “bringing hearts together” is expected to face significant challenges in at least the immediate future, in light of Israel’s recent election, which saw the return of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (who has had a checkered relationship with Diaspora Jews, particularly American Jewry), as well as the rise of the far-right Religious Zionist party, whose leaders have expressed anti-Arab, homophobic, and nationalist views that are at odds with the mostly liberal politics of US Jews.

Dan Elbaum, the head of the North American branch of the Jewish Agency, said that in addition to straining ties between American Jews and Israel, those issues can also “cause stress and fissures within our community.”

However, Elbaum said that he believes those divisions are ultimately surmountable and that, while they are significant, they are not necessarily unprecedented.

“But I’m not trying to diminish the magnitude of the challenges that we may face,” he told The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the conference after Almog’s speech.

Elbaum said the timing of the Board of Governor’s meeting so soon after the election — which he said was a coincidence — prevented him and other senior officials from speaking to US Jewish leaders in depth about the results and the potential ramifications for Israel-Diaspora ties.

He said he plans to hold meetings with Jewish Federations and other organizations in the coming weeks about the matter.

However, some US Jewish organizations have already raised grave concerns about the prospects of a far-right party joining the coalition, while others have opted to use obfuscatory language to avoid dealing with the issue directly, and some have avoided the topic entirely.

Elbaum, a long-time Jewish professional, hazarded that while some of the more explicitly political Jewish groups will continue to criticize the presumed coalition going forward, the larger ones will refrain from doing so in order to maintain their relationships with the government.

“Most established Jewish organizations will stand by deferring to Israel on issues of security,” he said.

However, Elbaum stressed that it is still early to make definitive statements about the next government, which has yet to be formed.

Wryly quoting baseball legend Yogi Berra, Elbaum said: “But it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future,”