0:10

Rick, welcome to the show.

It's a pleasure and an honor to have you.

I appreciate you joining us today.

Thanks Nate.

Glad to be with you.

For those of you who don't know, Rick is involved with J&F and his involvement is actually pretty significant.

So I'm going to actually let him talk about what his role is and what that looks like.

0:29

So I'm a Jewish National Fund US as Chief Development Officer.

I've been with JNF for 23 years and counting.

As the CDO, I'm responsible for our national fundraising campaign and manage a great team of fundraisers and volunteers throughout the United States.

0:53

Wonderful.

For those of you who don't know what the JNF is in my intro, I talked about it a little bit.

But Rick, in your words, tell us what's the JNF and what kind of drew you in?

So this is going to be a three hour podcast.

Love it.

I'm here for it.

I got 3 drinks.

1:10

So that's that that's great.

So let me let me just just frame it.

Jewish National Fund was was founded in 19 O one by a guy that you probably heard of, Theodore Herzl.

Yeah, maybe once or twice.

A couple of times you know the guy with the beard, he's, you know, he was only like the famous picture of him looking out over that river.

1:30

He was only in his early 40s in that picture, but a beard and black, you know, you black and white photography, you'd look like you were 62.

That's right.

But, but founded in 19 O1 at the 5th Zionist Congress, it was that your host in Basel, Switzerland.

1:48

And the idea was that for two millennia, the world didn't care about the Jews wanting to go back to their homeland, right?

All of our all of our biblical claims to the land, our archaeological evidence of our constant linkage to that land, The fact that there's always had been a Jewish community in the Yeshu in Israel throughout, even all the expulsions, always fell on deaf ears and the leadership of the day made the decision to do it through legal means.

2:25

So by name in 19 O1 at the Congress they created a Jewish National Fund, a national fund of the Jewish people to raise from global jewelry to let's say repurchase, repurchase land.

2:41

And at the time was Ottoman, Turkish controlled Palestine.

And so that was the very foundation of JNFJNF was was born to repurchase the land parcel by parcel, acre by acre, dunam by dunam.

2:58

We set about purchasing land.

And then of course when you purchase land what do you do, you develop the land, right.

So the the, the, the, the, the history of JNF is the land of Israel and the modern state of Israel today.

3:13

It's not hyperbole for me to say that there is no modern state of Israel without Jewish National Fund because a Fast forward from nineteen O 1 to 1947 United Nation creates A partition plan, right?

A state for Jews, a state for the Arabs.

3:31

The map of the partition plan.

Actually I can actually afford it to you if you want to put it up on your website later on.

I can't actually have the actual map of the land purchases of J&F 19 O one and 1947 and the United Nations partition plan map of 47 and they match.

3:49

So what happened was as much as the Shoah was the emotional appeal to the world, the Holocaust, the emotional appeal to the world, let the Jews have a homeland, the legal mechanism for the United Nations to make it happen where the land purchases.

And so that was JNF.

4:07

And JNF today is still developing land, building, community, making Israel an amazing place to live and 1000 other projects in between to make Israel the kind of place that has the most amazing quality of life for all of its citizens.

4:23

Awesome.

I love it.

And there's there's a lot there that I'm going to be asking you about, largely because the majority of my audience is actually Gentile, not Jewish.

And so while I know I'm no expert, I'm probably tracking with about 75% of what you've just said.

4:39

I'm sure my audience might be at about 15 to 20%.

So I'll I'll definitely ask some clarifying questions shortly.

But for yourself personally, what drew you to this mission?

Why is being a part of such a historically significant organization so meaningful to you?

4:55

And and how did you get to be where you're at within this role?

Again, this is going to be a three hour podcast and we haven't started drinking bourbon yet, but the truth of the matter is I grew up in a very assimilated family, a very assimilated home, and this was not my path way back when before I was in this business, I was in the United States Navy.

5:20

Oh, wow.

Thank you.

Spent nine years, four years on active duty, five years in the reserve forces.

I was an intelligence analyst, principally stationed on aircraft carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean.

5:38

When I went to school, finished college, I thought I wanted to be in professional sports marketing.

That's what my path was.

And you know, I was, you know, I was, first of all, I had an interesting resident because I'm like most of the college grads, I had the whole Navy experience and all this.

5:54

And I was, you know, I was meeting people and I was connecting with people.

I grew up in Detroit and I'm still a big Detroit sports fan, even though I've been living in Chicago now for about 30 years.

But I I made connections with the with the PR director for the from the Pistons and the Vice President Communications Alliance and all like, hey, call me when you graduate.

6:15

Awesome.

Then I come knocking on the door and said, yeah, we've got this great unpaid internship for you.

Great unpaid internship.

I said well you know, I need money to, you know, pay rent, buy food, things like that.

I wasn't a typical, you know, 22 year old college graduate.

6:33

I was already in my in my mid 20s, so that wasn't going to happen.

And Long story short, I wound up having a meeting with a Jewish agency in Detroit and they said to me that they heard that the Jewish Federation of Detroit was looking for a campaign executive.

6:53

I said, that's great.

What is the Jewish federation and what does a campaign executive do?

And surprisingly, they forwarded my resume.

I got a phone call.

They wound up hiring me.

Several years later, I asked one of the guys on the hiring committee why they hired me.

7:12

I had no grounding in this.

I mean, I had been away from the Jewish community for so long, I didn't know the secret handshake anymore.

Truly, they didn't invite you to the meetings.

That I was not invited to the meetings.

I like lost.

I lost my Jew card.

I'm telling you so I would I it was for me.

7:29

But I said to the guy said why?

He goes, you want to know the truth?

Yeah, the truth is, he said truth is we took a bet.

We thought you would last six months, but you'd be a great guy to have a beer with.

Oh, wow.

True story.

And after that?

Of an employee, right?

You want to be able to hang out with this person.

7:46

I'm sorry, yeah.

I mean, I think that's.

I think that's, I think it's a lesson, right, that people want to work with people they like.

But but taking it back to where I am today, the fact of the matter is if my eyes are wide open, you know, sometimes I say, you know that there is a plan because now here I am the chief development officer of Jewish National Fund.

8:14

I've been in this business for 30 years and I've never applied for a job.

It's got to feel great.

I think sometimes that there is, and I and I'm I'm, I'm honest, I'm serious.

There's sometimes you got to say, maybe there is a hand that guides you on your path.

8:32

And I think if I look back at my life, it's uncanny that I am here where I am now, without some type of intervention happening out of my control.

Well, I certainly believe that.

I mean even to to just give a little context as to how I got involved with J&F, I'm currently on the J&F Futures Chicago Board and I serve as the planned giving chair.

8:55

Essentially I I coordinate with other financial advisors and I I talked to them about ways they can help make planned giving part of their client strategy.

And and then I talked to other people throughout the area on how they can get involved with J&F from a donation perspective.

And really, I got involved because Becky, Becky Davidoff was connected, the two of us.

9:16

She reached out and she said, hey, Nate, I heard from Lynn Yura, you'd be a great donor.

I'd love to talk to you about J&F.

Can you get involved now?

Talk about I need to turn in my Jew card.

I did not have any kind of formal connection or tie to a Jewish organization when she called me other than I support the Lincoln Park Habad because Rabbi Mendi is just a great guy and he's he's done so much for me on the personal level.

9:45

But I don't even live in Lincoln Park anymore And but when Becky asked for a donation, I said yes and the donation led to let me learn more about what you're actually doing at J&F which then I said, oh, I should invite other people to donate.

And then that led to creating a donor campaign and inviting a bunch of people and and last month or two months ago at this point we raised several $1000 for Jews with special needs in Israel and that's that combines a bunch of causes I'm passionate about.

10:16

So you never really know what one decision will lead to.

So it's it's kind of interesting to see how your career happened.

I want to go back to a little bit of your intro.

You talked about the role that JNF played in founding Israel, and really from the legal side and the real estate side.

10:34

Water, not bourbon.

Water not we're all good.

I've got some water.

I've got hot tea.

I've got bubble tea.

I guess for me, thinking about my audience who's not Jewish, doesn't know the history of Israel but may have some prejudice or some misconception based on media portrayal.

10:53

Talk to us a little bit about how Israel got started and where there may or may not be some controversy over Palestine and Israel for for the average person who wouldn't really know much.

Well, first of all, Israel got started when God said to Moses, you know, to Abraham, actually to Abraham, Lekha, go to the land that I will show you.

11:20

That's the that's the beginning.

That was the start.

And that's in the Old Testament, right, that Jews and Christians, you know, both read.

And since that time there has always been a Jewish presence on that land.

11:38

And excuse me again, I'm, I'm fighting COVID.

So I'm going to.

I'm saving my voice as much as I can.

No worries.

I appreciate you even being here.

So, so the facts start with there's always been a Jewish presence on that land, and even after the expulsions by the Greeks and the Romans later on, there has been a presence on that land.

12:07

And so as I was sharing with you, if we look at Jewish text, we have Passover coming up.

Everybody's going to sit around a Seder table at Passover and they're going to retell the story, right, of our of our coming to that land.

12:31

And at the end of every sailor, at every Jewish table around the world, which has been the case for 1000 years, we conclude by saying what?

Next year next.

Year in Rushala, every Jew, every state, Jews in Chicago and Uzbekistan and Morocco, and in Iran and in Jerusalem the world over, are all going to conclude the same way next year in Ruslan, in Jerusalem, the city that has only been the capital for one people, historically the Jewish people.

13:22

And so, taking politics aside, objectively, historically, biblically, archaeologically, Israel has always been the whole and the center point of the focus for the Jewish people.

13:43

And in modern times, and in modern times, I'm really talking starting in the 19th century, then into the 20th century, that land has been occupied by the Ottoman Turks, followed by the British during the British Mandate.

14:05

And as I was talking about the foundation of J&F, which is intertwined with the modern history of Israel, the United Nations in 1947 made this partition plan.

Let half this land, let this land be for the Jews, and let this part of the land be for the Arabs, based on Jewish land ownership and Arab land ownership.

14:28

Now, it wasn't a good deal for anybody because of the way that it was carved up.

And if you actually look at the map, you know, Jerusalem was supposed to be like an international city.

But the leadership of Israel at that time said, look, it's our best opportunity.

14:51

They made a very pragmatic decision.

Our best opportunity to finally have our home, our state acknowledged is to say yes.

And in 1948 we said yes.

15:09

And unfortunately the Arabs said no.

And the result of which is five Arab armies unleashed a war on Israel.

Miraculously, Israel not only survived, but it won its independence.

15:28

And then since that time, since 1948, the war of independence.

Time and time again in 1967, you know of the Six Day War.

Again 5 armies unleash war on Israel, Egypt, Syria, Lebanese, Iraq.

15:47

The Palestinians unleash a war.

Israel wins the war, wins land in the war.

The the international community says Israel's supposed to give back land that it achieved during war after they were attacked.

No time in history has that ever happened.

No time in history's ever happened. 1973 another war.

16:07

Just, you know.

Less than a decade later, another wars unleashed.

The Yom Kippur War.

Israel hung out by its fingernails.

There was a surprise attack and won.

Explain that real.

Quick for people who don't know what the Yom Kippur War was and why, it was a surprise.

16:25

Well, you know, the Yom Kippur War was a surprise because I mean, while there's there's a lot of debate was a surprise because there are a lot of people who said there was enough intelligence to say that the Arabs were going to attack again and and the Prime Minister at the time was gold in my ear.

16:43

And there's just a lot of controversy.

I know I'm not a historical scholar, so I don't want to represent myself as being one, But the fact of the matter is in 67, the Six Day War, when there was intelligence and there was evidence that a war was imminent, Israel was proactive in taking the battle to the enemy.

17:05

In 73 Israel wasn't proactive and the Arabs attacked first.

Israel felt still prepared the the the government to prepare the population for the attack.

Then on top of that, there was an embargo placed on Israel.

17:25

Nations were not resupplying Israel.

Finally, the 11th hour, the Nixon administration agreed to resupply Israel when it looked like Israel could quite quite possibly lose the war.

And they airlifted arms to Israel.

This is 1973.

17:42

And of course it happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jews.

Right.

Yom Kippur, The day where, you know, even if you consider yourself not a religious Jew, not an involved Jew, it's the one day a year where most Jews around the world observe the holiday on the holiest of holy days of the year.

18:05

And it happened on that day.

So for all of those reasons, then not much longer after that during the Carter administration, as you know, Camp David and there is a peace agreement signed with Egypt and on and on.

18:21

And then we lead up into the intifadas of the Palestinians that started in the 1990s.

There has never been more than, you know, 10 years of peace.

And you know, Israel.

Israel just fights for its existence over and over and over again.

18:38

Even today.

During the Ariel Sharon administration, Israel completely pulled out of Gaza.

There was a Jewish presence in Gaza.

Israel pulls out.

Not only did Israel pull out, but it left all of this incredible infrastructure there, handed the Palestinians and Gaza a a a, an economy of agriculture which they destroyed, and then of course, as we all know, unleashed a wave of terror and rocket fire into Israel.

19:09

I don't want this conversation with you to become a political conversation, right?

Because you know, there's enough room for debate and woulda, coulda, shoulda on every side of the issue.

My point is Israel has always been the home of the Jewish people.

19:32

Israel should never apologize for being the center of Jewish life for the Jewish people.

Every human has a right to an an existence, and the Jewish people similarly have the right to have a nation to call home.

19:54

Absolutely.

And that's actually one of the things that is probably the most important reason why I love Israel.

As a As a child, my dad taught me a lot about history.

He grew up and he went to yeshiva in Brooklyn, so he knew more about the history of Israel and most and because he was exposed to it.

20:13

But then he went to public school for high school and pretty much decided to be done with religion.

But he thought teaching me about my culture and my history was important.

At some point, I started to side with a lot of the detractors of Israel.

I said, there's all this violence, there's all this drama, there's all this war.

20:33

You know, things are pretty good for Jews here in America.

Why don't we just abandoned Israel and go set up shop somewhere else?

But it wasn't until I went back to Israel as an adult where I realized, no, the reason why it's so good for Jews all across the world is because we have a strong Israel.

20:49

And Israel to me, acts as the safety guard that allows me to be in this world as an equal.

Because otherwise, if you think about what was it like to be a Jew in America prior to Israel, there's a lot of discrimination.

There's a lot of a lot of people will look and see how successful Jews have become today and they'll, you know, they'll have all kinds of anti Zionist or anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

21:14

But the reality is if we don't have a place of our own to determine our own future, we don't get to be assimilated into America like we are today.

So that's my personal reason. 100% and by the way, you know, how would how would you like to be a Jew in Ukraine right now?

21:30

I would not.

I was in Israel last week and we could go Sunday.

We we had a meeting with one of our partners in Israel.

It's an organization called Mephesh.

But Mephesh actually gets a lot of support from the Christian community.

21:48

Nefesh Benafesh is responsible for Jews coming home to Israel.

We call it aliyah, which means going up, right?

Is that a beautiful word?

Aliyah.

Coming home to Israel, a Jew coming to Israel to move to Israel, become a a citizen of the state of Israel called aliyah means going up.

22:05

It's you're elevated.

In any case, while we were there, they were processing about 200 Ukrainian and Russians who had just arrived from the war-torn areas there.

And but fascinating there.

They're not called refugees, right?

22:23

They're called home.

They're called citizens.

Welcome home.

You know, so it was like a the psychological shift we had to do.

We were saying, right, no, they're not refugees anymore.

When they were at the border fleeing on a bus, right in a car, they were refugees.

22:39

They got to pull in their refugees.

They got to Romania.

They're refugees.

They got to Moldova.

They're refugees.

They got on a plane and flew to Israel.

They were no longer refugees.

They were coming home.

What a beautiful, what a the beautiful essence of what Israel means for Jews around the globe.

22:56

You know, it's really nice when Israel is a want to during quiet times.

I want to be in Israel.

Well, how amazing what Israel has to be a have to.

It's a have to because you got no other place to go.

Well, and that's one of the one of the reasons that it's important for me to engage with people like you, to help people in my audience who don't necessarily live in this space understand these things.

23:20

Or why is it important to have in Israel, you know, not only for Jews but for the world alike.

And what is the good work that we're doing in Israel?

I know we have a lot of different types of programs and different types of efforts at JNF.

Can you talk to me about a few of the different types of ways we're we're helping with boots on the ground initiatives and and how it helps the country alike, not just Jews?

23:43

Sure.

So first of all, Jewish National Fund's mission is to make Israel a great place to live for all of its citizens, right?

It's Jewish citizens, It's Christian citizens.

It's Arab citizens.

It's it's it's Bedouin citizens and on and on and on.

24:02

If you're a citizen, we want it to be a great place for everybody to live.

And how do you do that?

You know, first of all, you have to make sure that there's great housing opportunities and job opportunities and access to good quality health care and quality of life infrastructure.

24:18

J&F is involved in a lot of that.

The fact of the matter is that today much of Jewish national funds work is outside of the center, right?

So your listeners are familiar with this.

When I say the cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or even Haifa, that makes a triangle in the center of the country.

24:39

Today, about 75% divisible population lives right there in the center.

But the Negev, the desert, we think about Beersheva, right?

Beersheva, which is where Abraham actually first settled all the way down to a lot, which is all the way down by the Red Sea, is about 60% of Israel's land mass.

25:00

And then, especially if you're a Christian audience, the Galilee, right, the footsteps of Jesus and the Galilee.

And the Galilee is about another 18 to 20% of the Land of Israel, so has very little population.

Jewish National Fund today is working really hard to make the Negev and the galley great places to live as I met with housing, education, job opportunities, healthcare and the like.

25:26

The other thing though is, you know, J&F has become synonymous with a green Israel, right?

The ecological Israel.

Many of your listeners know when they hear about JNF.

Oh yeah, the tree people.

Jews, not Jews, like the tree people.

25:43

Why?

When we started purchasing land at the turn of the 20th century, we started planting.

It was a great way for us to put our literally, physically, metaphorically put our roots back into the land.

And we started planting trees.

And then trees became this opportunity for people to connect with the land of Israel.

26:02

Plant a tree in memory of a loved one.

Plant a tree in honor of somebody, right?

We wound up planting over 250 million trees.

Listeners may be be surprised to know Israel is the only country on the entire planet that began the 21st century with more trees than it had 100 years prior.

26:26

Only country.

The only country on the planet that had more trees after a 100 year period?

The only one incredible.

So we became synonymous with a green Israel and ecological Israel 25 years ago.

26:44

We got very heavily into the water issue, right?

Water in the Middle East is a big issue.

A lot of experts predicted the next war in the Middle East would be actually fought over over water.

And actually Six Day War was actually fought over water.

But it's an untold story.

27:01

We'll do that at another podcast.

So we got involved in building water reservoirs throughout Israel because Israel is a very dry place.

We then became experts in doing agriculture, using recycled water.

27:18

Today Israel, it's agriculture, 80% of its agricultural water is.

Is recycled water the only place in the world where they're recycling that much water and using a fragriculture?

How?

How do they recycle water?

What does that mean?

And so people can contextualize like it.

27:35

It's not just like taking dirty water and and watering plants with it.

Like what is that?

Recycle.

It's like, you know, like here, look, you clean up the water, right?

You flush your toilet here, You run your sink here.

That water gets fed into a system that goes into a plant that winds up, you know, recycling it.

Here in the United States, when we do those things, right, they go to wastewater treatment plants, right?

27:56

And it cleans up the water.

Then typically that water is flushed back out into the water table, into river streams and whatever.

In Israel, they're recycling the water to a tertiary degree.

That makes it basically potable.

You can almost drink the water.

They're then using it for agriculture.

28:13

You know, we're in the United States going to have to learn a lesson from Israel because for example, you know, if you're if, if you're today in California or Arizona, right, you're not getting water from the Colorado River pretty soon and you're going to figure out how to continue to have water resources.

28:31

We don't do a great job recycling in the states, but they do do a great job in Israel.

But you're asking even a larger question.

You know, there's there's a, there's a phrase in Israel and among the Jewish people.

Let us be a light on to the nations right.

28:47

Let us be a positive force for good globally.

And all of that technology, watered water, resource development, recycling, trees, ecology and agricultural development in arid land, right?

29:02

We're doing amazing work in growing vegetables and fruit in the desert, right?

We have all kinds of programs that bring that technology to Africa and to Southeast Asia, and the number of projects that J&F supports brings agriculture students from Africa, Southeast Asia to Israel to learn how Israel does its farming practices.

29:28

These people go back home being not only enlightened and smarter and uplifting their villages and their towns and creating a better agricultural economy so they could feed their families and their nations, they become great advocates for the state of Israel.

29:44

Sure.

Well, one of the one of the quotes that I've always I've always heard that stood out to me was Nelson Mandela talking about Israel not being an apartheid state.

Because people say who don't know if you don't know any better.

You hear what's on the news and you say here's a predominantly light skinned group of people, here's a predominantly dark skinned group of people.

30:06

It's classic oppression.

Then you have somebody who lived in apartheid in the country that studied Germany, studied America, said how do we create the best racially structured caste system in the world?

And that was South Africa.

The the leader of South Africa who lived and came up under that comes to Israel and says that is not what is here.

30:27

Talk to me a bit about some of the demographic diversity in terms of different countries of origin, different cultures.

I know we talked about different religions, but there's a surprisingly international community in Israel for a country the size New Jersey.

For people that think that Jewish is what you and I look like, then they don't know the Jewish population.

30:47

They don't know what the Jewish population is all about.

Because after we were after our dispersion, right?

You know, you know, during, especially during, during Roman times and later the Byzantines and so forth and so on, where do we wound up?

We wound up in places like Persia and Iraq and in Tunisia and Morocco and Yemen, right.

31:08

And then we made our way up into Europe and across Europe into Western parts of Europe.

We look Jews today.

And actually I would, I would, I would encourage you to let you know if you want to see what the mosaic of of jewelry looks like today.

31:25

First of all, I encourage all of your listeners go to Israel.

I just got back Israel's open for business.

They want tourists go to Israel and then go to downtown Jerusalem on Saturday night after Shabbat ends in an area called Ben Yehuda St.

31:41

And just sit there when Shabbat ends and you'll watch this mosaic and you're going to see white faces and yellow faces and brown faces and black faces and everything in between.

And many of them are Jewish, right?

Tell me another nation that welcomed Africans, Africans home and said you are now citizens, the Jews of Ethiopia, Jews who had lived in Ethiopia for Millennium, who are welcome home, and black Jews who are in Israel now, right, Jews from Arab lands who came and culturally a Jew from Yemen or Morocco.

32:23

It's like they're on a they literally are on a different planet from a Jew whose original ancestors came from Poland or Russia.

They eat different cuisines, right?

They have different practices and they're all Jews.

Israel is not what you and I look like, but it's also what you and I look like among other faces in black and brown and yellow, with many different cultures.

32:45

There's such cultural diversity in Israel.

It's really incredible.

And by the way, as, as I as I mentioned earlier, that's just the Jewish population.

You also have Christians and Druze and Arabs, Muslims who are also part of the state and more to the point about Israel, it is the only democracy in the area.

33:08

And yes, everybody gets one vote.

There's you're a citizen, one vote per person, and it doesn't matter if you're a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Druze, Bedouin, everybody gets a vote today.

Today, as we speak, there is an Arab party that is part of the sitting coalition government in the Knesset, right?

33:31

The Knesset has Arab parties sitting in the Knesset who are making votes, judges Arab Christian in Israel today.

So, you know, for those who want to cast aspersions against Israel, maybe Israel makes it easy to cast aspersions because there's a freedom of press, right.

33:51

So there's a freedom of press in Israel.

There's a freedom to protest and Jews know how to protest really well.

We're, you know, we're really good protesters.

And and so when in when, when Israel has an open debate publicly as a society and there are opposing opinions that are proudly put out there for public broadcast, There are those who are outside of business playing and say, well, see, I told you so, I told you so.

34:25

But what they're responding to is this amazing, this amazing ability to have an open and public debate.

Well, and that's one of the things that's always just struck me as odd or off, is that a lot of people, specifically in more marginalized communities will look at Israel through the lens of how the media portrays them.

34:49

When people who know, let's say Tel Aviv in the 90s at one point was the party capital of the world and is one of the most welcoming places for the gay community at the time.

And now the broader LGBTQ plus community.

And there are people who identify that way in America who just see Israel as this place persecuting Palestinians.

35:10

And I've always just kind of chuckled at the irony of how how much they're willing to fight for the rights of people who don't allow them in their own society.

Like good luck having a pride parade in Gaza.

Like that's that's one of the things to me that has just kind of fascinated me with almost the double standard to which Israel will get held to.

35:29

Outside of that though, being a welcoming place for Jews and non Jews alike, getting involved with water, getting involved with agriculture.

Talk to me a bit about what's going on in education and tech.

Because those are two of the, I'd say, the biggest and fastest growing segments of of what the world is looking for outside of the agriculture and water.

35:49

Well, they don't call Israel Startup Nation for nothing, right?

And you know, Israel.

Israel is one of the most entrepreneurial countries on earth, and it's it, it permeates the spirit of the entire nation.

Think about Israel is Palo Alto, right?

36:09

On steroids.

The entire country is a Palo Alto and and it just, it just permeates, you know, throughout throughout the culture of, you know, let's create, let's build something.

And that goes back to the early days when, you know, there was an embargo against Israel.

36:27

Israel had to create its own products, right?

Had to create its own arms, you know, had to create something out of nothing to be able to survive.

So that's just, that's the attitude in Israel.

You know, everybody likes, you know, it's kind of funny.

We were talking about, you know, those who cast aspersions, you know, and they love casting aspersions.

36:44

So they.

Oh, yeah, though this was, this was made in Israel.

Oh, that computer chip inside my phone.

We hate you, but we want your computer chip, right?

You know, we, we want, you know, we, we hate you, but we want to have, you know, that great security system on our computers, right.

So we don't get spam and phishing you know we hate you but we but show us how you do you know that that drip irrigation you know you know we hate you but show us how and and that's that's the reality of of Israel today.

37:13

But but the tech sector is booming in Israel.

It's not just in Tel Aviv by the way and you know as I mentioned Janiff is doing a lot of work in the Negev.

Beersheva has become the cybersecurity capital of the world right now in Beersheva the you know the in the in the desert.

37:29

So tech is booming.

One of the projects we're working on by the way we're in the process of developing right now and we're in the planning stages for a $350 million campus in Norsheva.

It's going to be a 20, it's a 20 acre site.

37:45

It's going to be multi functional.

But one of the pieces of the campus it's going to be a residential village for American kids, smart young people who are in Israel to do gap year programs or internships in the tech space.

38:04

Our our young people are smart.

Young people have a hard time getting internships at Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Intel because they're competing around the globe for a handful of slots.

All of those companies are also in Israel and Facebook, Israel, Intel, Israel, Microsoft, Israel on and on and on are dying for American kids to come and do internships with them.

38:30

They want native English speakers, you know, they they want to diversify, you know, their their employee base.

And if you're a mom or dad, right, then your question is OK, son, daughter, where are you going to live?

How are you going to get to work, you know, in a foreign country?

38:50

And and it's it's actually been a challenge because the companies there don't, they're really good about recruiting you.

They're not so good about taking care of your quality of life once you get there.

We're creating a campus where all of these smart young people can live together in this environment and then, you know, go off to work and come back and they've got there's great food and there's great places to sleep and there's enrichment programs and educational opportunities.

39:18

So JNF is doing that right now.

We're in the process of planning this campus in Beersheba, but This is why the colors are all the Startup Nation.

Sure.

Well, when I was originally hearing about the campus, I I was fascinated.

Bersha was one of my favorite places in Israel.

39:33

The last time I went, I I'm not a, like I said, not very formally religious at all.

But I had an incredible experience on Shabbat and it it just solidified the idea of making part of the week holy and separate and I got tremendous value from it.

39:50

So knowing how much energy and resources are being put into Bear Sheva makes me thrilled.

Talk to me a little bit more about that project and outside of the the gap year concept, what's specifically being built there and and what's, what's the bigger vision?

40:07

Thank you.

So that the seed of the project started with the need for a second home for our Alexander Muss High School in Israel.

So J&F operates in Israel, a campus just north of Tel Aviv, in a small town called Hodasharom.

40:25

It's a suburb of Tel Aviv.

It's a, it's a, it's a school for American kids to come and have a semester or or year abroad, right, Typically junior or senior year.

40:41

And we have, you know, they can either come as as little as six weeks, up to half a semester or full semester, very few, but some would stay for a whole year in their summer programs.

It's an incredible program.

We're maxed out on that campus.

40:56

We have about 1800 young people a year coming to Alexander Must high School in Israel from all across the United States.

And it and by the way it it it, it accelerates their their education and really puts them in the position to be able to go to highly competitive universities because it's a resume builder for them.

41:21

And they've got, they can show that they've had this opportunity to study abroad and and the maturity to be able to do that.

And while they're there they're following their same core curriculum that they are in their home school in addition to learning about Jewish history and on the land of Israel.

41:39

And what's kind of amazing is, rather than just reading it from a book, they go there.

So you know, when they're studying about, you know about the Roman siege, they're actually on Masado, studying the Roman siege.

It's got to be a lot more engaging and you actually the material gets in there. 100%, The school is going so well.

42:02

We want to significantly ramp up capacity and we just don't have the space to do it on the existing campus.

So the original ADAPT for this campus in Bersheva started with having a second campus for Alexander Musk.

From there we started brainstorming, especially with 20 acres of land, What can we do then?

42:20

The idea of this tech space that I mentioned this, this hub, this community for young people doing gap year and internships in the tech space.

OK, but then the vision even grew more.

We were talking earlier about Jews from around the globe, right?

42:38

White faces, brown faces, Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Central Europe, Mizrahi Jews, the Jews who came from Arab lands.

The truth of the matter is, even in our Jewish world, we don't know each other.

You know, today about half the Jewish population in the world lives in Israel, and about half live in the United States, and the rest are scattered.

43:06

In Australia and Canada and in other parts of Europe, we're scattered, but we don't talk to each other.

If we think about this from a more larger perspective, human beings don't talk to each other at all anymore, either.

We are so polarized.

43:23

Everything is polarized.

You can't have a civil conversation with anybody that you disagree with without turning into a fight, right?

This whatever happened to civil debate, civil discussion, people with opposing views, having a rational conversation and learning from one another, right?

43:41

That's the world we live in, but it's even within the Jewish community itself.

So this campus is also going to have in the centerpieces a, for lack of a more elegant term, a conferencing center where we are going to invite everybody in to learn to study together, to learn from one another.

44:04

There's going to be seminars and conferences and programs all on this campus.

And as I say, it's going to be a place where let's keep the 10 or 20% that we bicker about outside and let's focus on the 80% that we have in common.

44:21

A love of Israel, a love of Zion, a love of the Jewish people.

And it's not just going to be for the Jewish community.

This conferencing center is going to be a space for Christian groups to come in, churches for Jewish federations across the United States, for synagogues to come.

44:37

This is going to be a melting pot in a center where people are going to bump into each other in the hallway and strike up a conversation, right?

There's going to be a Christian group from Oklahoma City, OK?

At the same time that there's an Orthodox synagogue from Brooklyn, NY at the same time, right?

44:55

And maybe the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati is there at the same time, and they're going to bump into each other in a cafeteria or in the hallway and strike up conversations.

We don't know of any other place where that exists.

And.

We're going to create this in Beersheva.

45:12

And why Beersheva?

Because Beersheva is a center point of it all.

When we said at the beginning of this podcast, lethal go to the land that I will show you, right And Abraham came down, he landed, he came to Beersheba.

45:28

And if you're a Jew, a Muslim, a Christian, it's the center point for all this because all the Abrahamic faiths start there and this is going to be the center point to re engage one another in conversation.

Well, what I find fascinating about that, there's been a few few times in my life where I've been in places that have that.

45:49

Who are you going to run into?

Who you going to meet?

I think that's one of the things college is very underrated in.

I myself am a college dropout.

I ended up starting a business.

I like the way my life turned out.

I feel pretty good about my decision.

But when I think back on, what did I miss about college?

46:07

I miss the being able to run into a total stranger.

The total lack of, you know, time urgency like I have today, I I got to be efficient in my life today.

So do you.

But in college we weren't really thinking that way.

At least I wasn't the people from other cultures.

46:23

I remember I went to Clemson in South Carolina and I was fascinated how black and white South Carolina was and I had a lot of misconceptions about what living in the South was going to be.

And there were certainly some things that I had heard that you didn't really hear in back in Chicago.

46:41

But what I did see is I saw people living side by side.

Chicago is historically one of the most racially segregated cities in the entire US.

So while up here and sometimes in our ivory tower and then, you know, liberal N, we cast judgement on the South and move down South and like, oh, here's people living together side by side.

47:01

It's really not what it's projected.

But then in the summertime, all the kids who are from out of town went back home.

And then that, you would think South Carolina was located in Asia because all of the international students stayed and kept studying.

And so then I I was working at the Botanical Garden, riding the bus, seeing the mixture of people change throughout the year, thought it was fascinating.

47:23

To bring that element to the center I think is going to be really incredible.

When you think about what that dialogue is going to create.

What are some other conversations you think need to be had that aren't being have aren't happening right now?

47:39

Like, what are people afraid to talk about that if we could really sit down and dig deep on, might actually lead to some.

Progress, you know, there, you know, that's a great question.

There isn't honesty anymore.

I think people are afraid to be honest, right.

People.

People have to be safe, right?

47:56

Let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's be honest.

Yeah.

You know expanding thought you know you were.

I don't.

I think that you're being pollyonic, pollyonish about about college campuses today.

48:12

I don't think college campuses are even a place of of real free speech.

Oh.

Fair.

Fair, I don't think.

I don't think it exists anymore.

I think that people are set up in their in their tribes.

They don't want to listen to opposing views and so they stay in their tribes and they want to be having this group think and they're not expanding the boundaries of the possibilities.

48:32

You know we're such a 5050 you're either in this camp or you're in this camp and so therefore it's safe.

We don't talk about things that are challenging to us.

You know what what are what are the.

You know I don't know that's a great question.

What are the subjects that we're not really talking about.

48:51

Boy, I don't even, I don't.

I couldn't even venture to to guess, you know, what do you think?

What are some of the things that you think that we should be addressing as as a global population that we're afraid to?

You know, I think thank you for asking.

49:07

I think that there are, there are certain things that matter more regionally and more locally, right?

I listen to a lot of podcasts that they'll every now and then talk about Chicago.

And they'll say, you know, what can we do to help a community like Chicago where there's there's gang violence, there's parts of our city that are are totally, you know, dangerous and off limits to some people, right.

49:30

But because those conversations are happening from people in Texas and LA who aren't actually in Chicago, it lacks the context around like what's going on in our city.

So that's a conversation that I think could be had at a national level with more local experts and one of.

49:49

Fascinating.

You said that because, right, So we we read headlines, we don't read the story.

We read a tweet.

We don't read the story.

Life is nuanced, right?

Life is all about nuance.

That's what makes life interesting, right?

It's not this or that, and it's not, you know, whatever.

50:06

The characters are now allowed on Twitter.

If you're in Israel.

And I was in Israel again, I was in Israel last week.

People in Israel are like, oh, you're from Chicago.

Well, you guys are going through a tough time, right?

Like, you know, Chicago.

I heard about the shooting, shootings in Chicago.

50:23

Now I live in Chicago.

Chicago is going through some tough times, but it's a great city to live in.

It's a great city.

It's a beautiful city.

It's a gorgeous city.

Even with its challenging times.

Violence is on the rise in Chicago.

50:38

It's a it's a big issue, but you don't always feel it.

Every day you get on with your life and you enjoy the Parks and Recreation and the nightlife here and the wonderful restaurants and great schools.

Now when I'm here in Chicago, people say you're going to Israel.

50:58

Do you feel safe?

I said.

I feel I feel as safe in Israel as I feel in Chicago.

Well, so let's be honest about that.

There's two, I think there's two really important things there.

The first, a lot of people who are worried about the violence in Chicago don't even realize that, in all candor, that's not a problem for you and I.

51:18

We don't live in neighborhoods where violence is a huge problem.

It doesn't mean it doesn't spill into some of the neighborhoods we're in.

But when I think about the biggest problem with violence, I think about what conditions lead to violence.

Why does somebody react instead of respond?

51:35

Why does somebody think that the answer to my friend just got murdered is I'm going to go and get retribution.

Typically because you're living in a stressed condition that you're either not in the the best environment or you're not able to internally regulate, connect to your emotions.

51:52

You don't have that stable that grounding in that that footing.

That is a very complicated conversation that I think some people just don't want to address because of the the roots in it and.

Because we're polarized.

And because we're polarized and they and you know, so if you're conservative, right.

52:10

If you're conservative, then lock them up.

Right.

Lock them up.

You know, more money for prisons and police and lock them up.

And supposedly, if you're progressive, then, you know, let's look at job opportunities and job training and education and social welfare opportunities and all this kind of stuff and mental health, Right.

52:30

But sometimes the answer is it's both.

And both parties have to get together and work through it because it's not either or it's not lock them up.

And it's not just this because violence is going to be treated like violence.

At the same time.

What are the root causes of the violence?

And you know, and so if if if in the United States, Republicans and Democrats aren't getting together to really kind of hammer out comprehensive policies, you're never going to solve the problem.

52:55

Well, yes.

And I think that, like, here's a good example, I I live in Wheeling.

My wife and I are here.

My wife's originally from the West Side and now her family.

Half of her family lives near Midway.

So we've experienced different neighborhoods.

At one point I lived in River North.

53:10

Different neighborhood, right?

I used to drop a friend off on 103rd different neighborhood.

There's way too many segments of Chicago to say that there is a problem with Chicago other than just like the world being fractured and people not having important conversations.

53:28

There's this sense of other I go to my grandparents for dinner.

We're talking about how we're going to the Bulls game the next night.

My grandma said, oh, be careful.

There's shootings happening.

They're shooting people.

They don't even know who they're shooting.

They're just shooting.

Well, my grandma hasn't been South of Morton Grove, and I don't know how long, so it's not like she's at any risk and she doesn't even know because she's not there.

53:51

The flip side, though, to all of that is when I have conversations with leaders about diversity, equity, and inclusion, conversations about how do we make meaningful change.

The only conversations I've ever had that have been useful or fruitful have been either this is a direct thing we're doing, providing economic opportunity.

54:11

This is a new education program we have.

This is a way where a community has funding happening.

If there's no action behind a conversation, it typically goes nowhere.

So when when we were chatting about, you know, what's what's happening in different neighborhoods, what really needs to happen is people that are leaders in each neighborhood need to come together.

54:34

When I was at AI was at a Democratic Representatives event in Northbrook and there was a mom there from Mothers Demand Action and like they want they're against gun violence.

And I asked this lady, I said why are you so passionate about gun violence if you live in Northbrook?

54:50

Like, I don't think there's a gun crime problem in Northbrook.

And she was almost like flabbergasted.

And she was just so against it conceptually because it was a party talking point.

It was like, have you ever been a victim of gun violence?

Does it spill into your neighborhood?

No.

55:05

OK, So what are we doing to help other neighborhoods where it is a problem?

And I didn't really get a good response.

So I think probably the answer to most problems is people need to get together.

That's that's probably why I'm, I'm the biggest fan of of that, that center you're talking about.

55:21

Yeah, I said you're you're absolutely right.

At the end of the day, we now we can talking about over and over this becoming a theme of this, of this talk.

We don't know each other, right.

We're tribal, we stay in our tribe.

We don't, we don't venture outside of our borders.

55:38

We don't get to learn about other people and their cultures and what they're experiencing.

So it's happening on a macro level and it's happening certainly on a micro level here too.

You're absolutely right.

You know how often I live on the North side of Chicago?

You know, to be perfectly fair and asked how often am I?

55:55

Am I on the South side of Chicago in the neighborhoods, right?

Or on the West Side?

You know, and it's and it's true.

And I think we all need to figure out ways to do this.

And look, thankfully there are great organizations and leaders who are trying to break down those barriers, right?

56:12

There are, there are there are great rabbis and pastors and churches who are bringing their congregations together.

And it happens a little, a little.

You know, I think it's an old historical problem.

This is not just a today problem.

You know, human beings have always kind of lived in their, in their in, you know, Jews did very well when we were living and we called the shtetl, right.

56:33

So you know, the, the, the shtetl.

For your listeners who don't know, it's another term for a ghetto, right?

And Jews lived in ghettos in Europe, you know, for generations.

And Jews thrived and the population went up.

We got outside the ghetto and there was assimilation.

56:50

But but it's always been the case that people have lived, you know, among their people and their tribe.

You would think that now in the 21st century, you know, we always thought we'd be more enlightened.

You know, I think back I, I grew up in, was born in the 60s, grew up in the 70s and 80s and we said wow.

57:10

And in the 21st century, you know, everybody is going to be, you know, so cool and equal, and you know, we're going to be, you know, harmonious, you know, fantasy, fantasy.

57:26

I was listening to a comedian the other day.

His name's Tim Dillon and I think he's hilarious because he's so he's so right for the times he's on.

And first look he's this large Chris Farley type character.

He's from Long Island.

57:43

He's conservative, but he's gay.

So he can get away with saying certain things you wouldn't expect from this guy to be able to say.

And one of the things he goes is like, I was raised by boomers and boomers are the worst generation ever come to this country is the reason why.

Which, you know, he's just ripping on his parents, but he goes, you know, they came out of the 60s and 70s time when there was drugs and there was spirituality and there was self reflection and improvement.

58:08

But then we kind of took away all of that spiritual side and it just became focus on self and people became much more, you know, thinking it's important how do I build myself up?

How do I get my career going?

How do I get my family the lifestyle, but we lost the community aspect and we lost the the bigger picture.

58:25

So as as we're thinking about how do we create this bigger picture in this community.

I think leaning on people who are doing a great job at specific things and inviting them into the conversation.

You had mentioned you got your start with the Federation.

One of the things I love about J&F is we don't have this culture of you either support J&F or you support the Federation, but you need to choose.

58:49

I I donate to both.

I go to events for both.

JUF is doing some great things here in Chicago where we do events on the West Side on a mitzvah day where we're at a church, but we're all multifaceted and have a lot of needs.

59:05

What are some of the the needs J&F is addressing that people would maybe be shocked to know about?

Like whether it's our our work with special needs or it's our our work on some of the lesser known projects?

Well, as I mentioned before, we want to make sure that Israel's a great place to live for all of its citizens, right.

59:22

So we have to enter into different kinds of spaces that allows us to do that.

You just mentioned special needs.

That was the evolving portfolio of ours.

And you know we started just doing some stuff and we woke up when they said wow we're involved pretty deeply in the area of inclusion special needs.

59:39

You know whether it's you know one of our partners provides nature education programs for for kids with disabilities, both Jew and Arab alike.

We work with a partner who actually runs a residential village not far from Beersheba for people the most profound disabilities because after the age of 21, like in the United States, if.

1:00:02

You know you get warehoused if you need 24 hours 7 care.

It's an incredible place.

We're actually building a new fair, a new hospital on this campus right now rehabilitation hospital.

There isn't one in the South of Israel.

We have a a partner that does therapeutic horseback riding because we just they discovered that young people with autism do incredibly well in their therapy on horseback.

1:00:28

So we have a number of projects and programs like that.

How?

Do they do the camels?

Camels.

Yeah.

Is there any study about autism in camels?

Yeah, fast.

Yeah.

It's not good for the back or the neck.

I just figured, you know, you go to Israel.

Yeah.

1:00:44

Oh, it sucks.

I always Bang Bang my balls around and like why did I do this?

It sucks.

It, it sucks.

Yeah.

No, we don't do, we don't do, we don't do camels.

But you know we talked about the projects that show J enough to be a Israel to be a light unto the nations right.

1:01:01

And the things that we're doing that exports our our work around the world.

So I the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training.

It's a mouthful, but this is this is the the organization that brings the Africans and SE Asians to Israel to learn and study.

1:01:20

We just started a program called the Joint Institute where our partners in the RFI, When I say the RFI by the way, geographically it's the slice of Negev desert along the Jordanian border.

So it's called the Arava.

And there are a number of a number of partners that we have working in agriculture in that area who are doing this.

1:01:39

In this amazing work, we started a partnership between our partners in the Arava and the University of Arizona to export technology to Africa with University of Arizona's relationships, right?

So we're doing these kinds of projects.

1:01:55

We've got a partner way, way down in the South that brings together Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, international students, primarily Americans and Europeans and Palestinians to live together on a campus to learn environmental practices together, right.

1:02:17

So it's it's a it's a it's a school where you learn about environmental practice and the policies and but but that's like 50%.

The other 50% is about coexistence even at the worst of times there could be a conflict between Gaza and Hamas in Gaza and Israel.

1:02:37

But these Palestinian Arab Muslim kids are still sleeping in the same dorm room with Jews, and they've got to be able to get through it and resolve issues and talk about it.

So that's a piece of J&F that people don't think about understand.

1:02:52

We've got one partner that specifically works to uplift populations in communities that are underserved, whether it be the Ethiopian community or or Orthodox women, right, who sometimes are are are pushed out of economy and education and things like that are Arab women.

1:03:14

And we've got one partner who's actually working in a Bedouin town to provide microeconomic project opportunities to women, to Bedouin women.

This is also J&F, right.

So yeah, J&F is still doing land development projects.

1:03:30

We're still building communities and housing and and infrastructure and yes, trees, but JF is also doing a lot of projects to support its people and lift them up well.

That's it's quite a diverse set of focuses and objectives for one nonprofit.

1:03:53

Talk to me a little bit about the structure of J&F.

You know, where where's J&F located?

Who were some of the people that make up the team?

And for people who want to get more involved, you know what are for some of the leaders that we should be thinking about and following.

Sure.

So, so Jewish National Fund USA is headquartered in New York.

1:04:11

Our Chief Executive Officer is Russell Robinson.

Russell hired me.

So Russell's actually been with J&F for 24 years now.

There is a lot of long time leadership in the organization both professional leadership and and lay leadership.

1:04:28

We have we have staff and lay leadership in 35 cities around the United States.

J&F is part of a network of Jewish National Fund organizations globally and and so J&F USA is the largest of all of them.

1:04:45

We raise about $125 million a year.

We're we're on the precipice of completing our our our 10 year, $1 billion campaign.

We are going to complete that $1 billion in the next six months.

So we're raising a lot of money.

1:05:02

We have 400,000 donors across the United States.

So, so we we're we're a big operation so our headquarters is in New York.

I happen to sit in Chicago.

Our CEO, Russell doesn't believe in borders.

1:05:21

He doesn't, you know, now with modern technology things like, you know, you know, cell phones and computers and airplanes, you know, we don't all have to sit in the national headquarters.

And there's a number of members of the executive management team who live outside of New York.

There are tremendous number of opportunities for people to get involved with J&F.

1:05:41

We've got a great website, go to j&f.org, www.j&f.org.

Take a look at our website.

You'll see what's important, what we're working on the projects in Israel.

You'll also see upcoming events and programs.

You know, we learned a lot during COVID times.

1:05:58

You know, we started pushing out a lot of content on Zoom.

We actually have our own, our own YouTube channel, right?

So if you go to YouTube, go to the J&F channel on YouTube.

There's a tremendous amount of content there.

One of the projects we're really proud of is we started a program on our YouTube channel called Conversations on Zionism, and we want to reclaim the word Zionism to be what it always been, this beautiful bridge of gathering of people coming together with shared values in this place that we all love.

1:06:37

And so Conversations on Zionism brings together interesting people, speakers, newsmakers to have a conversation about what Zionism means to them.

One of the great programs we did was Can you Be a progressive and Zionists?

1:06:55

And because now, for some terrible reason, people think that Zionism is a conservative term.

Well, progressives are also Zionists.

Well, I think a lot of people have lost sight of what progressive and conservative refers to.

And to some extent, things change, right?

1:07:11

Like what was considered conservative in the 1880s versus what's conservative in 2020.

There's different conversations, right?

Democrats and Republicans were opposite at the time of the Civil War.

And I'm I'm really blessed that I get to live largely outside of that whole red and blue bullshit.

1:07:29

Excuse my language, but if we're talking about being honest, you know I I don't have a political home in the United States.

I vote across the ticket when I even choose to vote if I feel so compelled.

And one of the things that I I find fascinating is when people just want to talk about ideas and values and get outside of party lines.

1:07:50

When you.

I find it incredibly asinine that I have Jewish friends in America who are anti Israel and I understand being critical.

I can I can create a list of things.

I I don't always think that Israel has been fair to people from other countries who want to come in.

1:08:08

I don't always think people get treated equally.

I know people who've gone to Israel and had examples of being profiled.

But guess what?

I was profiled at the airport.

My dad forgot to shave and we went through so many rounds of interrogations it was crazy.

So like I'll, I'll be the first to admit there's flaws.

1:08:24

But the people who just want to outright throw the baby out with the bathwater doesn't make any sense to me.

But the very fact that they can scream and yell and protest shows the greatness of Israel, right?

In fact, what they're condemning, the fact that they're condemning, they're allowed to condemn, shows the greatness of Israel.

1:08:44

Israel is an is an imperfect society.

There's no such thing as perfect.

But we you know if you if you rank or it or places where you would choose to live, right?

And if Israel is not in your top five, that you're not being objective with all of its flaws, we're pretty effed up in this country right now.

1:09:03

And this is a great country.

I'm a patriot.

I served our country proudly for nine years.

We're going through some really deep shit right now right this.

We've got a lot of problems.

We're talking about some of the issues right now.

So, but to stand here in the United States with all the problems we have, you know we saw January 6th and what January 6th was all about as a nation.

1:09:25

The yelling that we're doing, we can't even discuss with each other anymore, right?

And to say and to say that somehow Israel is different.

The fact that we can protest and yell and we can throw the bomb out of office, we don't like how the bomb is, is, is governing.

1:09:42

That's the greatness.

The fact that we can scream and shout and write letters to the to the editor and stand outside the prime Minister's residence holding a card saying you're a bomb is the greatness of Israel.

Because Israel's open to the critique.

1:09:59

Israel welcomes the critique.

You touched on something I think is super critical, this idea that you can be a staunch supporter of Israel and still be a tremendous patriot here in America.

You served our country.

And on top of that, there's this beautiful thing that happens between the two countries and how we share intelligence, how we share opportunity and how we we help each other.

1:10:24

Taking the focus back to you a little bit, what has that been like for you to go from serving the country to then getting involved in the nonprofit world and now being a part of a pretty big international operation?

I mean how, how has that affected your own internal compass and and personal values?

1:10:41

It's been a blessing and as I said to you early on if I, if I objectively look at my life you know from who I was you know way back when I get you know after the after Navy school back in 1991 this was never the plan and and and there has been a guiding truly I mean there has been a guiding hand in my life and and actually it's been this beautiful blending of me, right.

1:11:11

And it's not been, it's more than not been a contradiction, it's been an enhancement because Israel and the United States and look sometimes there are a lot of you know, strong disagreements on both sides.

1:11:28

But I think that there are no two greater friends.

And the synergy, the synergy in business, the synergy we talked about in tech, right.

The synergy in in, in diplomacy, the synergy in military allowance.

You know, I think about from a military point of view how much it saves the United States that they have Israel in that part of the world, right?

1:11:50

And they have Israel who's doing The Dirty work in that part of the world?

Look, 1983, Hezbollah bombs the United States Marine Barracks in Beirut, Germany.

In Beirut, journey in Beirut, Lebanon, right.

1:12:07

In Beirut, 1983, a couple of hundred U.S.

Marines are killed.

Lebanese citizens are killed.

And it wasn't about Israel.

Hezbollah was going after they called back then the Great Satan.

It was the United States and the little Satan, Israel.

1:12:30

What they were destroying, they want to destroy, were Western values.

And there's no greater symbol of Western values and democracy than in Israel, Even though Israel's democracy looks different than the United States.

1:12:51

It's more based on the British system.

It's this flag, right?

Great universities, great culture, and we have so much in common.

1:13:07

For me, it's like, it's like my second home.

I'm an American.

I feel strongly rooted and identify as an American.

But there's this other half of me when I can go to Israel and I say this feels like a second home and it's not a country.

1:13:22

And by the way, I don't speak Hebrew.

I like, I like to joke that I know 36 words of Hebrew.

Sometimes I can put two together.

If I share routine that's like my.

I know where the bathroom you see, not the bathroom exactly.

I I grew up where my dad taught me Hebrew and then I got to school and I started speaking Spanish and then I got to high school and I started getting stoned.

1:13:44

And then my brain capacity to just learn different languages just kind of went out the window and get.

Older as well.

Yeah, well, and I I've been sober for quite some time now.

But the idea of I I know coding now and I know this and I know a little bit of that.

And so sometimes it's like I can kind of put my finger on some things I hear.

1:14:03

But I digress.

One of the things you said, though, was you feel at home in Israel.

I don't know why it is, but I remember getting off the plane the second time I was there.

I was there for Birthright and just walking around and being like, yeah, this, this feels right.

Like nothing.

1:14:18

It doesn't feel like I'm in a foreign country.

It feels like things are different, but it doesn't feel foreign to me.

If anything, it it feels more natural and and when I came home it felt a little foreign to be here.

My wife works for an international company and occasionally we're bringing up topics like, oh, maybe they need me in Italy, maybe they need me in Germany.

1:14:37

And I start to think, well, oh, maybe maybe they need us in Israel.

And then it could be easier for you to go visit those places for work.

How?

What has it been like to stay committed to being in the United States?

And have you ever even considered making aliyah and going home as more of a permanent routing?

1:14:54

You know, it's interesting when I, when I first went to Israel that my, my first trip was in, was actually in 1992.

And I had lived and I told you I was like not rooted as a Jew.

And I came from a very assimilated family.

1:15:12

My first trip, when I got there, they said, you know, when you get there, the magic's going to happen.

The magic's going to happen.

And I landed and I didn't have magic.

And I remember we got there on a Friday afternoon.

The first thing we did was we went to the hotel, to the Western Wall.

And I didn't feel I belonged.

1:15:31

I did not feel I belonged.

I felt foreign.

I felt very uncomfortable.

I mean, I think that I was around more Jews and that in that moment that I had been in my entire life and I was very uncomfortable.

I I was so uncomfortable.

I didn't even do what every, you know, Jew does.

1:15:49

When you go to the hotel, you go up to the wall, you touch the wall and you put a note in it.

I felt too uncomfortable to go up to the wall.

I didn't feel like I belonged until.

And I mentioned at the top of your show on Saturday night, downtown Jerusalem and Ben Yehuda St.

1:16:09

And, like, the masses just kind of come out and I'm seeing all kinds of different faces.

And I'm seeing young people that look like me and young people that look like my neighbors and young people that I just.

I just start feeling that all of a sudden I'm part of this mass of people.

1:16:30

Because among this mass of people, there are people like me, you know, when I grew up, you know, and I was in the Navy, people so like, you know, what's a nice Jewish boy doing in the military?

That was really, it's always off putting to me.

You know, Jews serve, you know, now we've got a very or less than 2% of the American population, but Jews are serving in the military.

1:16:52

I knew other Jews.

I know Jews who serve in the military.

But the fact that people would ask the question, what?

So other people should serve, other people should fight our wars.

Other people should protect your freedom, but not for us.

That was always off putting for me.

Yeah, I have two cousins who were Marines and and not because they they needed that to get through college or it was like some ulterior motive.

1:17:14

They just wanted to serve.

Yeah, well, the thing about that, the thing about that, you know that my parents, my parents friends would say, whoa, you're going to the military, Why would you?

Because all the others should serve.

Until I went to Israel and I felt so comfortable at home there because that's what you do, that's what you do to protect your country.

1:17:35

So, so I connected this way, and actually there's a piece of me even today that I connect more with Israelis on many levels because I understand that idea of service to take care of, you know that I am my brother's keeper.

1:17:52

I I do need to look out for my brothers and my sisters, that mentality.

And you know, sometimes I'm a little naive.

I want to.

I I'm always wishing for the best.

That's OK.

I'd rather live in my little world of always wishing for the best and expecting the best.

But I do see more so in Israel and a lot of other places and in some of the communities in which we're working.

1:18:14

The idea of such a focus, a deep focus on sense of community, sense of community, I take care of you.

You take care of me.

You're not going to find that in Tel Aviv or in Jerusalem so much, or I'm in the big cities.

But outside of the big cities, there is this sense of spirit collectivism that I so connect to.

1:18:35

The truth of the matter is, did I ever see myself making aliyah moving to Israel?

You know, when I was young, there were moments, flashes.

But then you get married, and then you have a kid, and then you have your second, and you're more deeply rooted here, and it gets harder and harder.

1:18:53

And then as we were talking, the language passes you by.

So I'm an American.

I'm an American Jew and I'm a huge supporter of my other homeland.

That's State of Israel.

And so I can do both and I'm and I guess I'm incredibly blessed doing what I do to be able to live that every day.

1:19:16

Well, we talk about service and we kind of glossed over this number earlier because you were in the middle of just a great flow.

But you talked about a 10 year billion dollar campaign bringing in 125 million annually.

What on earth is that like to be the the Chief Development Officer for such an undertaking and and what what kind of strategies have you employed or how do you lean down the community to to achieve this goal?

1:19:43

You really want this to be We're up to like a six hour podcast now.

Hey, I'm just.

I'm blessed that you're you're even willing to to dive into this with me.

I'm learning.

I mean, I hope other people get a lot out of this, but this is a master class for me.

I appreciate it.

Listen, we have a big team, right?

1:19:59

So.

You know, 125 million, you know, sounds like a lot and it's a lot.

I don't want to minimize it, but we've got a huge team.

We have a staff of 225 people around the United States.

1:20:16

We have 1400 volunteers, 1400 lay people serving on boards and committees around the United States, everything from our national Board of Directors to our young leadership order, Jana Future Board in Chicago, 1400 people, that's a pretty big army of of folks who are out there pounding the pavement, telling the J&F story over a cup of coffee, right.

1:20:44

Asking people to join us and support our mission like you're doing right.

And so you know, look, we didn't wake up with a campaign like this.

It took a while, but I think what's happened is over the years our story is resonating with more and more people.

1:21:02

We've invested very heavily in next generation, in your generation, and we're starting now to see the benefits of that as millennials are joining our boards as millennials who grew up connected to J&F, some of whom start off going to that Alexander Musk High School in Israel I mentioned, who then went on to colleges and in college were involved with our college activist program, who then after college got great jobs and then got involved with J&F future and they're giving power and capacity to be impact philanthropists have grown, right.

1:21:40

So this didn't happen overnight.

This is this is 2 decades of hard work of reestablishing J and FS footprints here in the United States and and cultivating relationships over a long period of time.

1:21:59

You know we have $1,000,000 donors today whose first gift was planting a tree in Israel for $18.00.

And it starts with that.

To a thank you note to a conversation with somebody, to maybe coming to an event and learning more, to a private coffee or lunch, to more involvement, to more learning.

1:22:24

To going to Israel and seeing our projects on the ground.

To coming to our national conference.

By the way, a shameless plug this year national conference in November is in Boston.

If you know the best way to learn about J&F is go to Israel.

1:22:40

Second best way is to go to National Conference.

When you go to the J&F website, j&f.org/travel will take you to our travel page and you can register for one of our great missions to Israel.

If you go to j&f.org/NC like National Conference, it'll take you to our National Conference page.

1:23:02

It's an incredibly powerful experience.

Sitting in a room with 1000 people with shared values is a very powerful, powerful experience.

So to touch on both of those things, Becky recently nominated me for a leadership trip to Israel.

1:23:18

So I I hope that the process of, you know, getting accepted happens sooner than later so I can book my ticket.

This is a great platform for you to advertise your candidacy.

Oh, he I'm, I'm announcing I'd love to be on the trip.

I'd love to be involved.

And the second thing is, she said Part of that means also going to the national Conference in Boston.

1:23:38

So I really hope to be taking you up on both of those ways personally to get involved.

Amazing.

And I'm going to challenge you that if you're blessed to go on the Jalen trip, that's the, you know, the Leadership Institute mission in Israel.

You know what you are.

You embrace social media.

1:23:54

You know how to do social media the right way with the right kind of content.

Use it as a platform to to push out to your listeners, to your to your viewers what you're seeing and feeling while you're there.

Absolutely.

I I could definitely make that commitment.

1:24:10

I know one of the one of the things that I found really impactful about the tools we have.

I was able to create a campaign for the special needs and disability month in February.

And I was able to post it on LinkedIn, post it on Facebook, send it out to my e-mail list, tell clients, tell other advisors.

1:24:32

And I got back maybe 10 or 15 donations that wouldn't have been made possible unless we made the investment in meeting people where they're at.

When we had our board retreat last week, you talked about the importance of meeting people where they're at.

1:24:48

Talk a little bit about how have you guys been proactive to loop in this next generation and what kind of success strategies are you seeing there?

Well, so first of all, and I, and we're smart enough to know we don't know everything.

And each generational cohort, right Baby Boomers, Gen.

1:25:11

X, Millennials, Gen.

Y.

Every generational cohort hears information differently, processes information differently, wants to consume information differently.

So we have to be sensitive enough to learn from our volunteers and our donors and to communicate with them in a way that they'll process it.

1:25:34

Because we could have a donor who gives us, you know, $50,000 a year who's in his or her 80s, they want something from JF and communicate with us in a certain way that you don't, you just won't connect in the same way.

1:25:51

So we have to be open to learning.

That's going to be our staying power.

And so look, we're very late LED organization and we really mean that we empower our volunteers.

We provide lots of opportunities for our volunteers to participate in in shaping our agenda to in shaping what how we how we meet our strategic vision in Israel.

1:26:18

We've got various committees they could sit on.

There are task forces that are involved in our various action areas in Israel where they can sit in those and go to Israel and have meetings at the planning table and learn and study and put their ideas on the table and then come home.

1:26:35

Why?

Because then they become our strongest advocates.

Sure you, you already just shared the secret to our success.

Your involvement hasn't just stayed within you.

As you've learned and got more enthusiastic, you become an evangelist for us.

1:26:55

You're out there talking to your friends, sharing what's exciting you about all of this.

So you become more than just you.

You become your whole influence of network.

And that's the power of J&F is that we want to constantly bring more people in, but then empower you to be a great spokesman for us and we push people out.

1:27:20

You know, I I say this all the time.

I do a lot of training in the organization and you know, many, many of our, even our, our greatest volunteers, our greatest lay leaders are often uncomfortable, you know, talking about how impactful their work with J&F has been, their relationship with Israel.

1:27:43

And I said, listen, there's not a person if I'm talking to a room of 50 people.

There's not a person in the room who, you know, doesn't call a friend or send a text.

Hey, we just ate it.

Blah blah blah blah blah, restaurant Oh my God, you got to go.

The food was this right?

The way the the, the the service was amazing.

1:28:00

Blah, blah blah, what do we what do we all do that now about?

What are we binge watching?

Right, all of us.

Oh, I need a nephew's recommendation.

Right.

What are you binging?

What are you binging?

People put on Facebook.

Hey, I just finished season four of whatever, which, right?

We talk like that or the book you couldn't put down.

1:28:16

Everybody's got to read.

We talk like that.

Casual conversations with our friends and family, right.

That's how we communicate.

And I say, then why don't you share with the same enthusiasm something that's become such a big part of your life?

1:28:32

Our volunteers, you know, are almost highly affiliated lay leaders.

We call them lay leaders for reason.

They they are leaders who are giving us a lot of money in many respects.

And we've got layers giving us hours and hours of time and work a week.

1:28:53

But you're keeping it to yourself.

And then I'll say, you know, if you think about psychology one O 1 from College, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right?

You know that there's the triangle and basic needs, right?

1:29:08

Food, shelter, right.

Water, sex, love.

Up toward the top, like just before enlightenment.

We're not JF is not going to give you enlightenment.

OK?

What we don't do talk to the Dalai Lama.

JF doesn't do enlightenment at the top of the pyramid, but but we do do self fulfillment, right?

1:29:30

You do get the sense of community, You get the sense of being fulfilled.

And the more you get involved with us, this community that surrounds you and I talk about going to the National conference and being a room with 1000 people, shared values.

1:29:48

The power that you feel right, I say to our lay leaders, it's selfish.

It's selfish not to share that.

It's selfish not to bring others in to experience that sense of community, that sense of engagement, that sense of empowerment that you get when you're at this level of participation.

1:30:13

You must bring others in.

Well, I think one of the things that is a detriment to that is that it's about money in some people's eyes.

And what I've noticed just in a year of financial planning is how strange some people behave around the idea of money.

1:30:33

Very similar to politics, right?

I think that most people get into political disagreements because they get stuck in their lens and they think what somebody's saying is their view when they're missing what somebody's actually saying.

Most people can really only afford to have three to five top values.

1:30:52

So while personally I I despised Trump as an individual and as his character, what he stood for when it came to my values, the economy, when it came to supporting Israel, when it came to lowering taxes, I personally benefited a lot from his presidency and it was a complex thing to grapple with.

1:31:16

I didn't vote to have him re elected, even though it would have been a better life for me.

So I think when you talk to people about charity, you talk to people about nonprofits.

I would like you to give your time, your talent, your treasure to this thing I'm passionate about.

It's about how do I get in front of them and stay top of mind and connect to everything else but the money part.

1:31:37

What is in it for you to help us with our mission where you're going to feel really good about your impact and then the money part is kind of secondary or tertiary?

Listen, I say to our volunteers, if you feel uncomfortable talking about money, don't.

1:31:53

Yeah.

All you got to do is show them a path to involvement, invite them to come to a program, invite them to listen in on our next virtual event, right?

That's all you got to do.

1:32:10

I believe monies are an expression of one's values, right?

So, you know, when I, when I do training for the J&F future group, right, our young leadership group, I use the Starbucks example, right?

1:32:25

You know, for me, I pour a black cup of black coffee in the morning.

That's my coffee, Right, Keurig?

Right.

OK, that's not environmentally correct.

I apologize because the plastic cups, but that's my coffee.

I spend $0.25 on my cup of coffee in the morning.

1:32:43

I know people, including my kids, you know, who are going to go to a Starbucks and order the mocha hookah, double whip, no foam latte.

It takes them longer to order it than it does for me to drink my coffee, and they're slamming down $4.50 or more once or twice a day.

1:33:02

OK, let's so do the math.

They may spend 1200, fifteen, $100 a year.

Think about it.

Just do the math.

Twelve, $1500 a year on Starbucks coffee.

Cool.

1:33:19

That's cool.

They might go out and spend, you know, money on a 400 pair of $400.00 pair of jeans.

Cool, right?

I'm not.

It's not for me to count anybody's.

What's anybody's wallet?

You know, there are people who are hugely wealthy who never buy a new car.

1:33:36

They don't think there's good value in buying a new car.

They're not going to buy a car unless it's three years old because they wanted, you know, not, you know, the depreciation of a car.

Sure.

All I'm saying is that when a person gets involved, if they connect, they know what their resources are for charity, sadaka, philanthropy, they're going to give.

1:34:04

If I show them the way and I get them excited and I turn them on, I'm just kind of guiding them.

They're going to make decisions for themselves about what their values are and financially right.

How they're how they're what they spend is an expression of their values.

1:34:25

Absolutely.

I know we're coming up on time and I want to be respectful.

I have one question I asked all my guests and I wanted to extend the same to you.

Knowing you have such a big, impactful goal and that we're hoping to reach an audience of interesting people who's somebody you haven't connected with yet, whether it's a person or an organization that you'd love to meet, you'd love to get in front of.

1:34:46

And if people can help you make that introduction, what would be meaningful for you?

That's really cool.

Done.

Bill Gates.

OK, I'm here to hear guys.

We need to get Rick connected with Bill Gates.

I'm not asking Bill Gates for my first of all, I want to get in front of Bill.

1:35:02

I like actually, he's got a good podcast I like to listen to.

I like his book, right?

Listen, he's a brilliant guy.

And what he and Melinda created with the foundation and his thinking about philanthropy and how to put philanthropy to work to change the world, what they did in terms of looking at malaria, for example.

1:35:24

Firstly, he's a brilliant mind.

If I got 10 minutes with him, I would be changed forever.

So Bill Gates is my guy.

Anybody any of your Listen, get me in front of Bill Gates and get me 10 minutes with Bill Gates.

I'd be a very, very happy man.

Well, from your mouth to God's ears, hopefully to somebody's heart.

1:35:42

And we create this intro.

I will make it happen.

Rick, you've been extremely generous with your time.

I'm going to make sure to include some links on how people can get involved.

And as always, I'll continue to share my journey.

But thank you for being here and and much love thanks for being on the Much Love Podcast.

1:35:59

Nate, thank you so much.

This has been a real treat.

And and thank you for everything you're doing for Jewish National Fund, but also thank you for this great service you're providing for the community.

Absolutely.

It's been my pleasure everybody.

Thanks for tuning in.

Have a great day.