At the end of June, the New Israel Fund Board of Directors met in New York and welcomed a new Board Member, Menachem Lorberbaum.

Born in New York to Israeli parents, Menachem moved to Israel at the age of 11. He is currently a professor of Jewish philosophy at Tel Aviv University, where also he founded the department of Hebrew Culture Studies. In addition to his teaching job and NIF board commitment, Menachem is a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Menachem has a long-history of political and social activism. In the early 80’s he became active in the religious peace movement following the first Lebanon War. Since then he has continued to engage with Israeli political life and political activism on many levels. “Political thinking is a big part of my career,” he said. “How to think politically; how to think about our political lives; how to understand the project of the State of Israel and its prospects.”

He has written extensively on Jewish political tradition and served as the academic secretary of a committee exploring the renewal of the constitutional process in Israel.

With a slight New York accent and flawless Hebrew, Menachem spoke passionately about enacting social change via an Israeli-Diaspora partnership. “I think that the State of Israel needs a strong Diaspora for both security and sanity. The question of partnership between the land of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora is integral to our character as a people,” he said. He noted that this idea has strong historical roots from ancient Palestine and Babylonia to the present. “The Jewish people have a long tradition of multi-centered life. These centers are not mutually exclusive, but the partnership between them is what fortifies Judaism and gives it depth.”

Against this background, he notes that a deep mutual dialogue is imperative, and that the Israel-Diaspora relationship calls for complexity, a respect for boundaries, and an understanding of differences.

Like many in the New Israel Fund community, Menachem is highly alarmed by the erosion of democratic values in Israel. “A growing portion of Israelis are not democratically committed, which goes along with deep-seated issues of racism. These two combined signal a very bleak period in civil society,” he commented.

When asked what gives him hope for the future, Menachem’s voice lifted. “I’ll tell you what it is,” he said. “When I see the quality of my students, the conscientiousness of my children, I see the future. I see a new generation growing here in Israel that sees this country as their own and wants to take responsibility for it. My duty, the duty of my generation is to do best we can to present a society that is worthy of them.”