Last month, 120 Jewish social justice and environmental activists from around the world came together in Israel for the second annual Siach conference.  Siach is a joint program of three Jewish non-profit social justice organizations:  The Heschel Center for Sustainability in Israel, Hazon in the United States, and the Jewish Social Action Forum/JHUB in the United Kingdom. Siach exists to promote conversations, connections and collaborations among the many different Jewish social justice organizations that exist globally.  

As a participant at Siach from the U.S., I was reminded throughout my four days at the conference what significant social action work is being done in the State of Israel.  Because the conference was in Israel this year (it rotates annually:  last year’s meeting was in the U.S. and next year’s will be in Europe) there was a focus on organizations and individuals in that country working to address domestic social justice concerns such as poverty, environmental challenges, inclusion of immigrant populations and more.  

As I met and spoke with people on the front lines of addressing these domestic concerns, I realized that Diaspora Jews rarely get the chance to learn about these types of efforts in Israel.   It is important that we hear the stories of those social justice activists whose work is making a difference in the lives of the citizens of Israel.  And it is important that we learn of ways that we as Jewish-Americans can help these causes.

One of the people I met at Siach was Yuvi Tashome.  Yuvi is an Ethiopian Jew who works for the non-profit Israeli organization Friends by Nature. Its mission includes promoting tolerance and acceptance of immigrant communities in Israel and promoting a strong sense of identity among Jewish immigrant communities in that country.  One of its main activities is running programs for at-risk Ethiopian Israeli Jews.  These programs have been successful in greatly reducing high school drop-out rates among this population.  

Joining Yuvi at Siach was Dana Talmi, whose Israeli non-profit Yahel-Israel Service Learning works alongside Friends by Nature on a collaborative service project.  Yahel runs a program for Diaspora Jews ages 21-27 that involves a nine-month service learning experience. Yahel volunteers from the U.S. and elsewhere live, learn and volunteer alongside their peers from the local Ethiopian Israeli community on empowerment and education projects.  

On a site visit to the village of Beit Shean in Northern Israel as part of the conference, I met Rabbi Kobbi Weis of Rabbis for Human Rights Israel, and Valerie, one of the women he helped. Valerie and her two small children became homeless after she and her husband divorced.  Valerie and her sons were living in a tent in Jerusalem for months until Rabbi Weis was able to assist them in moving to an apartment in a public housing project in Beit Shean.  Our group learned that Israel, like the US, has not built any new public housing projects for decades even though poverty and homelessness has increased in Israel (as it has in the U.S.).  It takes advocates like Rabbi Weis to help low-income Israelis find an affordable place to live and also to help them deal with the sub-standard conditions that are prevalent in what public housing does exist.  Valerie let our group know how grateful she was to have assistance not only in finding a home, but also to have assistance from Rabbis for Human Rights in accessing needed special education services for her older son after her family moved to Beit Shean.      

Yet another social justice organization I learned about was Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME).  This organization brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists to promote cooperative efforts to protect shared environmental resources of all three peoples.  One of its many projects is the Good Water Neighbors (GWN) program.  Begun in 2001, it exists to raise awareness and cooperation among Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli communities about shared water problems. There are now 28 combined Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli communities participating in the project. These communities have built a level of trust and understanding such that they are coming up with real solutions to develop sustainable water management surrounding the water they all share.  As Amy Lipman Avizohar of FoEME noted, water scarcity and pollution is not a national issue.  The common dependency on natural resources fosters collaboration among people who otherwise might not want to dialogue with each other.  FoEME has a simple yet powerful name for this concept: Environmental  Peacemaking.

Sharing the stories of social justice organizations in Israel such as Friends by Nature, Yahel, Rabbis for Human Rights and FoEME is an important way to educate Diaspora Jews about social justice activism taking place in Israel.