Last month, on my way home from Israel, I stopped for a few days in Berlin. I was there to participate in the official launch of the latest New Israel Fund affiliate: NIF-Germany. There, just a few kilometers from the site of the Reichstag, a group of German Jews – young and old, native-born and immigrant – committed themselves to joining all of us working to build an Israel we can believe in, an Israel that lives up to its founding values. It was profoundly powerful to witness the beginning of an endeavor dedicated to Israel’s future in the epicenter of the worst chapter of Jewish history. And it was moving to feel the optimism of our German brothers and sisters, their deep dedication to the work of securing a democratic and liberal future for Israel, especially during these difficult and challenging times. Like other NIF affiliates worldwide, the leaders of NIF-Germany see their task not only as raising funds for grantees and projects in Israel, but also as building the progressive, pro-Israel community in Germany. I’m very proud to welcome them to the NIF family.

At around the same time I was with NIF-Germany, Berlin was in the Israeli papers for other reasons. Because even as a group of German Jews took on the task of supporting Israelis building progressive civil society in Israel, a debate was raging in Israeli social media and newspapers about Israeli Jews moving to Berlin. The so-called “Milky controversy” erupted when an anonymous Israeli expat in Berlin posted a receipt from a local market showing that, in Germany, the cost of groceries- in particular, Israel’s favorite “Milky” pudding – was much cheaper than in Tel Aviv. The idea was that Israelis who felt they could no longer afford to live in their homeland should consider moving to Berlin- an exciting, vibrant city with an affordable quality of life. Within days, tens of thousands had joined the debate. Soon, non-Israeli papers (including the NY Times) were covering the controversy. After all, who could resist a story about Israelis leaving the Jewish homeland for Germany, the country that ultimately convinced the world that a Jewish homeland was needed.

On the one hand, the whole brouhaha was a little silly, something of a manufactured controversy for a slow news week. Potent symbolism notwithstanding, the issue wasn’t really about the Holocaust; Berlin of 2014 is not the capital of a vast and monstrous anti-Semitic empire. And while there are plenty of Israelis living there (as seems to be the case in most hip Western cities), young Israelis are hardly flocking to Germany these days in numbers that threaten the state.

On the other hand, though, the Milky debate hinted at more serious issues, and in some ways is just the latest chapter in the ongoing Israeli conversation about “social justice” that took to the national stage with the mass protests of summer 2011. This debate – about income inequality, the cost of living, and the kind of society Israelis want to be a part of – is important, and one that NIF has been involved in for many years as we work for an Israel that provides equality and opportunity for all of its citizens.

But all of this had a particular resonance for me because it a came at the same time as another public conversation, one more serious (and also more entertaining) than the Milky debate. In recent months, Israeli-Palestinian writer Sayed Kashua has devoted his column in Haaretz to chronicling his family’s experiences on sabbatical in the US, and to his musings about whether or not, after last summer’s war and atmosphere of anti-Arab incitement, he could even bring his children back home to Israel at the end of the year. A recent issue of the New Yorker features an exchange of letters between Kashua and another Israeli writer, his friend Etger Keret. The exchange between the two writers- one Jewish and one Arab- is entitled, “Tell Me a Story With a Happy Ending.” It is sweet, funny and heartbreaking. And it reminded me, once again, why we do what we do. Because, in the end, what NIF is all about is working for an Israeli future in which all Israelis – Jews and Arabs, secular and religious, veteran and immigrant – are equal stakeholders in their country and its future. Kashua and Keret’s piece is a reminder of how much work there is left to be done. The launch of NIF-Germany is a reminder of how many people, around the world, are devoted to rolling up their sleeves and doing it.