Blog

Trailblazers

13 April 2018

The story of Israel is made up of people from many different paths.

But not of all of their stories are well known. From Mizrahi Jews to Palestinian citizens, Ethiopian and Russians-speaking immigrants, women and LGBTQ people, these communities have fought to blaze trails for inclusion, for equality, and for social change.

NIF has been proud to stand with trailblazers from each of these communities as they pressed for a better Israel. This spring, we will be telling the stories of those trailblazers who acted on their values and came together to fight for their rights.

These stories include women in Israel, from every social stratum, who were chained to their husbands by Jewish law and who fought the Chief Rabbinate to win divorces.

They include educators who did not assume that only Ashkenazi Jews could be bankers and doctors and scientists, and thanks to whom a generation of Mizrahi professionals arose and succeeded.

They include AIDS activists who fought the government to keep their lifesaving drugs covered by insurance.

They include Palestinian-Israeli citizens who labored for years to get their ancestral villages recognized and rebuilt with modern infrastructure.

And they include peace activists — Palestinian and Israeli — who refuse to believe that the conflict is a zero-sum-game or that a brutal military occupation must be permanent.

The New Israel Fund is committed to an Israel in which everyone has a future. We will continue to support the trailblazers who can make the difference.

Stand for a better Israel. Support NIF.