These are particularly tough and trying times. Iran’s attack on Israel this past Saturday was a stark reminder that, when it comes to Israel, it feels as though we are witnessing a slow-moving earthquake. The ground beneath our feet is shifting. We do not yet know what the landscape will look like when the quaking finally stops, and the only certainty of these times is uncertainty. But as I have said  before, these are also the times that the New Israel Fund was built for.

As Passover rapidly approaches, I keep thinking about words of wisdom from two of my favorite rabbis. The first, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, said that his definition of a truly religious person was one “who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.”

This wisdom certainly applies to the NIF community. We know that despair is a luxury we simply cannot afford.

The second is that great rabbinic sage, Mr. Rogers (who, among other things, actually was a Presbyterian minister). He famously said that “when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’.” And so, throughout the challenges of the past year and half I have followed his advice. I looked for the helpers. And time-and-again I have found them among the activists pushing for change through the organizations supported by NIF.

It can be hard to remember now, but 2023 was a year of dual crises for Israel and for those of us who care about it. The first of these was the attempt by the ferociously rightwing government of Benjamin Netanyahu to hamstring Israel’s judicial branch and do away with Israeli democracy as we know it. It would have turned Israel into the next Hungary or Turkey; the next former democracy.

And while that was a moment of terrible concern for those worried about Israel’s character and future, it was also an essential moment for NIF. We were not taken by surprise–we’d been warning about the attack on democracy for over a decade. We had built up a set of organizations that were designed to protect liberal democracy. And when the populists, the Jewish supremacists, and the annexationist settlers came together to attack liberal democracy in earnest last January, we were ready.

It was therefore not surprising that it was NIF-funded NGOs who organized the first protests against the judicial coup, planting seeds that quickly blossomed into a massive movement, and smoothing the way for hundreds of thousands of Israelis to push back. Now, even in the midst of war, that protest movement is squarely situated in Israel’s mainstream, and millions of Israelis are involved in the fight for democracy. 

And then, of course, came October 7. In addition to providing humanitarian relief for those most affected by the attacks–including residents of the kibbutzim, cities, and Bedouin communities near Gaza as well as the families of the hostages–NIF’s Emergency Safety Net plan ensured that tensions between Israeli Arabs and Jews did not spill over into intercommunal violence, as happened when Israel and Hamas fought in May 2021. We provided support to enable Israel’s civil rights organizations to defend freedom of expression at a time when authorities were cracking down on those expressing compassion for the suffering in Gaza or protesting the war. And we supported those human rights organizations shining a light on what was happening in the West Bank under cover of the fog of war, as extremist settlers–with the approval of some of Israel’s ultra right wing leaders–deployed violence to terrify Palestinian villagers into fleeing their homes.

Much of what our grantees did was deeply unpopular in Israel today. In so many ways, Israelis still feel threatened; for many, it is still October 7th. Israelis remain traumatized, and a government set on dismantling liberal democracy remains in power.

But we are not out to win a popularity contest. Everything we do is in service of our vision of a democratic Israel living at peace with its neighbors and also itself; an Israel that reflects the best of its–and our–values.

And that is why we are undertaking a campaign to support trusted and internationally renowned aid agencies in their efforts to get food and humanitarian relief to civilians suffering in Gaza as a result of this war. I hope you will all consider supporting this effort in addition to your support for the ongoing core work of NIF.

Here’s what my dear friend and our associate director in Israel Shira Ben Sasson has to say about this campaign:

Sending aid and food to people in Gaza is not just our moral obligation, but our Jewish and halachic responsibility. Our hostages are also relying on this food to reach Gaza, including a hostage who is very dear to me. 

Both of my grandmothers, one in Hebron and one during the Holocaust, were saved by people from another nation, who risked themselves in saving my grandmothers’ lives. For me, this is personal. I feel obligated to try to save the lives of my neighbors.

Shira is an Orthodox woman with kids serving in the army. She is also a spokesperson for a family with a son captive in Gaza. She is one of those helpers Mr. Rogers was talking about. She gives me courage, and she gives me hope. 

Hope is something we desperately need right now. And that’s where we’re in luck. Because those who get to know what NIF is doing right now will find many reasons for hope.

And while hope alone is not a recipe for social change or conflict resolution, it is a necessary ingredient of both. And the world has never needed the reasons for hope the New Israel Fund provides more than it does right now.

I want to end with a Passover thought from Princeton’s Michael Walzer, a member of the New Israel Fund’s International Council. In his classic book, Exodus and Revolution, Walzer writes: 

We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus first taught… about the meaning and possibility of politics: first, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt; second, that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land; and third, that the way to the land is through the wilderness. There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and marching.