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We have all heard of a growing chasm between American and Israeli Jews. We have heard that young American Jews don’t think much about the national homeland; that their philanthropic dollars and spare change are less likely than in previous generations to go into the blue and white tzedakah boxes of the Jewish National Fund.
Russell F. Robinson of Livingston has heard all of that, too, and disagrees with the facts that he knows.
Robinson, now serving 23 years as executive director of the US Jewish National Fund, appeared this year, not for the first time, on the Jerusalem Post’s annual international list of the “50 Most Influential Jews.”
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“The facts are these: At the Jewish National Fund, the fastest growing part of our donor base is people in their 20s to 40s,” Robinson said. “We have 20,000 children who participate in Zionist activities each year between kindergarten and high school.
“Our American Alexander Muss High School in Israel is sold out. We have 110 children, 40 percent of the day school children and most of the public and private school children, there right now on a semester experience abroad, taking general courses like AP calculus while learning and living 4,000 years of Jewish history, ”he added.
“The facts are that the Jewish community in America is growing, that more people in the United States speak Hebrew than ever before, and that more people are connected to Israel in more positive ways than ever.”
The JNF-USA campaign “One Billion Dollar Roadmap for the Next Decade” launched seven years ago has reached the $ 720 million mark, it reported. “And despite the pandemic, this year’s campaign ended with $ 5 million earlier than last year’s campaign. It not only grew in dollars, but also in the number of donors. “
Founded in 1901, the organization that Mr. Robinson leads with such passion and optimism has long been known for planting trees throughout Israel. While forestry still claims a share of 35 percent of JNF’s allocation pie, along with water solutions, special needs services, and heritage preservation, most of it goes to building communities, in particular , the Negev in the south and Galilee in the north.
“The Jewish National Fund has built more than 1,700 housing sites in Israel over the past four years,” Robinson said. “We do not do projects, we do vision.”
Mr. Robinson speaks animatedly about what JNF has been doing for the past 18 years to reach its goal of bringing half a million residents to the Negev, particularly its unofficial capital of Be’er Sheva. The city was losing population 16 years ago, but is now the fastest growing city in Israel, he said.
In five years, a $ 300 million Zionist village in Be’er Sheva will encompass a second Alexander Muss High School campus, a tech hub where recent college graduates can step foot in the high-tech door and center. Zionist Adult Education. for Israelis and tourists of all kinds.
In the Upper Galilee, JNF-USA hopes to attract 75,000 new residents, and to that end has partnered with Israeli NGO ii2020 to build an ecosystem of food technology and innovation, business accelerators and incubators, and a suite of culinary arts institutes. of World class. to open in a year and a half.
“I love cooking and I always wanted to go to the Culinary Institute of America,” Robinson said with a laugh. “So when we started plans for the Galilee Culinary Institute, my friends started joking that I couldn’t get into the CIA, so I’m building my own.
“It really has nothing to do with me, but I can’t wait to go there and learn from some of the best chefs in the world. And it will be the best in the world, because in Israel there are 80 different cultures that come together to make the best food in the world ”.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Robinson flew to Israel at least once a month to oversee the organization’s operations and meet with local staff of seven.
“We don’t come as America’s big brother telling people what to do,” he said. “That was yesterday. Now we try to set agendas with the people of Israel. Our lay leaders work closely with the Israelis, set priorities, raise the money and implement the vision. We don’t get involved in the corridors of the Knesset but with the people on the streets of towns and cities.
“Our army of lay leaders can tell you everything about, for example, the city of Yeruham in the Negev and the fire department that they built there, and about the medical center that we are building there.
“They can tell you the same about the Arava Valley, where we are the lead partner in a school called AICAT – the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training – where 1,100 students from Southeast Asia and Africa are earning college credits and returning to their countries not like job seekers but as job creators.
“They can show you a new community, Tzukim, developed in Arava by our Women’s Campaign. Fourteen years ago, all that was there was a dirt hill. Now it looks like Santa Fe, New Mexico. “
How would a kid from Livingston know what Santa Fe is like?
Mr. Robinson, now 62, grew up about 300 miles south of Santa Fe in El Paso, Texas. The city of 300,000 includes some 1,500 Jews. There he began his long career in Jewish community service, as a youth director and deputy director of the local Jewish community center.
“In El Paso you’re hundreds of miles from, like, anything,” he said. “You had to work to be a Jew. You had to learn to lead. And Zionism was that connection you had. Israel was a kind of unifier of the Jewish people. “
He vividly recalls the transformative effect of Israel’s miraculous victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. “The Jews were left undiscovered,” he said. “Suddenly we were not just the survivors or the wandering Jews. We talked less about ‘oy vey’ and more about greatness. That was my inspiration. “
In September 1997, Ronald S. Lauder, then president of JNF-USA, hired Mr. Robinson as CEO. This turned his inspiration into an opportunity.
“The Jewish National Fund is the caretaker and builder of the Jewish people’s land for the Jewish people everywhere,” he said. “It is what we do with the land that makes the difference.”
Mr. Robinson and his wife, Marci, have a son, Sam, who lives in North Carolina, and a daughter, Alyssa, who made aliyah several years ago.
“Today, Israel is a place that people want to go to live because they love it, not to ‘save’ it or because they are running from something,” Robinson said.
“But we cannot make Israel an option for everyone to come without the Israelis deciding to stay. We have to provide growth opportunities in the great places we have available: the Negev, which comprises 60 percent of the land, and the Galilee, which is 17 percent of the land of Israel. “
He said that both legally and operationally, JNF-USA is a separate organization from the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund in Israel and from JNF branches in countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada and South Africa.
“It’s a great relationship, but a separate relationship,” he explained. There are many points of contact between them. For example, “At Alexander Muss we have almost 200 Australian students every year and next year we hope to have 100 from Great Britain.”
Now, with travel to Israel strictly restricted, JNF-USA has been offering a wide variety of virtual experiences through its website, called the Jewish National Fund on Demand – it’s at jnf.org.
“We have Zoom events across the country and we are getting incredible attendance,” Robinson said. “From the beginning of the pandemic until now, we have had more than 117,000 people join our meetings.”
One of those shows is a series of virtual Israel missions conducted live on Zoom by Israeli tour guides who would otherwise be out of work right now. Each session costs $ 50 per person and has 24 spots. “So far 4,200 people have participated. We are sold out during October and November. “
Upcoming regional virtual events include the annual Northern New Jersey brunch on November 15, featuring writer and television producer Alan Zweibel of “Saturday Night Live” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame; Central New Jersey’s Women for Israel event on November 18 with author and speaker Erica Brown on the benefits of friendship; and Breakfast for Israel from the Central New Jersey chapter on December 1 with writer / producer Phil Rosenthal.
The tenor of these events illustrates Mr. Robinson’s point that “oy vey” no longer works in Judaism, “but boy, the celebration does,” he said.
“It is a different world, and the Jewish world now has the opportunity to capture this incredible moment of change. We can debate, but we have to dialogue. The vision of the Jewish National Fund is to build that conversation. “
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