By Rachael Sondak, NIF Communications Associate

How do New Israel Fund's American staffers stay on top of our constantly-evolving work in Israel? When we can, we spend a jam-packed week in Israel, visiting grantees, talking to our Israeli colleagues and learning about NIF's latest projects.  Last week, nine staff members returned from an NIF study tour in which we traveled throughout the country getting a first-hand account of our work on the ground. 

The trip began with a series of meetings with grantees at the NIF office in Jerusalem.  Participants learned more about NIF's campaigns on religious pluralism, work with immigrants from the FSU and met with flagship NIF grantee Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). 

The second day, emotions ran high as staff was escorted by a former solider from Breaking the Silence around Hebron.  Although we arrived in the morning, a time that should have been bustling, the city more resembled a ghost town.  Soldiers, stationed at a ratio of about 1:1 per settler, guarded the desolate streets.  Arab residents of the city are banned from most public streets, and graffiti reading "revenge" and racist slogans against Arabs covered empty storefronts.  After Hebron, staff toured the pot-holed streets of East Jerusalem with Ir Amim, learning about the difficult issues that threaten the city's social and political fabric.

The following days were more cheerful.  On our trip north, staff met with Amiad Lapidot of Eretz Carmel – Promoting Sustainability.  With infectious enthusiasm, Amiad described his journey of starting up an environmental organization, with the help of NIF and SHATIL, dedicated to reducing the amount of waste that ends up in Israel's garbage dumps every year.  He proudly showed off a bag of nutrient rich fertilizer – the result of a local effort to encourage community composting.  We later visited some Northern Exposure sites – "clients" of a SHATIL project promoting micro-businesses -- where staff met local business owners and heard them recount their experiences during the second Lebanon War last year.   

Amiad Lapidot of Eretz Carmel – Promoting Sustainability

Later, staff met with grantee Tzofen, which works to promote Arab employment in the hi-tech sector and ate lunch at Café Yafa, recent recipient of NIF's Israela Goldbum Prize for their contributions to Jewish-Arab co-existence.  On our day in the Negev, we visited the inspiring and diverse staff of SHATIL Be'er Sheva – leaders of the various communities in the region. Next was Sidreh – Negev Bedouin Weaving Project, located in a recognized Bedouin village. Staff sat in a colorful Bedouin tent and heard how the weaving has empowered the Bedouin women of the village and also helped the community economy.  In Gedera, a predominately Ethiopian development town, staff met with Friends by Nature, an organization working with Ethiopian immigrants to strengthen their communities through strengthening their sense of identity, family units and fostering greater appreciation for their unique cultural background.  On our last day, staff had the opportunity to meet with Sigal Yaniv, director of the Green Environment Fund - the umbrella group funding environmental justice organizations in Israel -- and Hotline for Migrant Workers, one of Israel's pre-eminent human rights organizations, working on issues of refugees, foreign workers and human trafficking.

Although we all were exhausted from our rigorous schedule, we ended the trip with a renewed sense of passion for our work.  Staff came away with a more profound and personal understanding of NIF’s work on the ground.  The trip created a sense of urgency for certain issues areas, of hope for others and overall a reassuring sense of the importance of the work that we do and the lives that we touch.