Category: Uncategorized

By Pastor Carlos Ortiz and Adam Milstein
Article originally posted on The Huffington Post

For the first time in 1,600 years, there are no Christians left in Mosul. This once-thriving Christian community in Iraq has been completely decimated by radical Islamists – like so many others across the Middle East – with thousands fleeing their families’ ancient homes when faced with death or brutal persecution at the hands of ISIS.

The emergence of ISIS has been a particularly grave turn of events for Christians. Just last month, Secretary of State John Kerry and the House of Representatives said that ISIS is committing genocide against Christians, after receiving evidence that the terrorist group has systematically slaughtered Christians “solely for their faith.” However, this represents just another sad chapter in a story of many decades of persecution, violence, and exile, which has left the population of Christians in the Middle East a small fraction of its former size, including in the Palestinian territories where the numbers of Christians are dwindling rapidly.

Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the Christian community is thriving and growing. It is the one place in the region where Christians can practice their religion freely and openly.

Why do Christians find a welcoming home in Israel? First and foremost, Israel is the one place in the Middle East where democracy is enshrined, where human rights are respected, and where all minorities are protected, including Christians, Druze, Baha’is, and Samaritans. Yet, beyond this, Jews and Christians share a common history, heritage, and set of values.

Indeed, Judeo-Christian principles form the basis for all of Western Civilization – and define the way that we live in America. Today these values are under assault, not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe and America.

The same hateful ideology that causes radical Islamists to massacre Christians in Iraq, to bar Christians from citizenship in Saudi Arabia, to burn Coptic churches Egypt and Christian churches in Syria, comes from a tradition that is now driving the demonization of the world’s one and only Jewish State.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction Movement (BDS) purports to levy economic and political pressure against Israel in order to seek alleged justice for the Palestinian people. In reality, BDS is a global crusade seeded in anti-Semitic and anti-Western hatred that not only blindly attacks Israel, but also attacks our country’s commitment to our core liberal values of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.

One of the most insidious features of the BDS movement is its smokescreen as a progressive, social justice movement. For that very reason, it has had great success steadily advancing its poisonous rhetoric of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate across our college campuses, labor unions, corporations, and academic institutions, and even our churches. But we must not be fooled: BDS was born from a radical Islamic ideology in the Middle East that not only hates Judaism, but also Christianity and America. In the same breath, those behind this wave of hate frequently chant Death to Israel and Death to America. For them, Israel is the small Satan. America is the great Satan.

The top-listed signatory on the foundational document for today’s BDS Movement – a declaration issued in 2005 – is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, which includes representatives of terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Many of the leaders of the BDS movement are linked to international terrorist groups that oppress Christians in the Middle East. Hatem Bazian – one of the chief architects of BDS and the founder of “Students for Justice in Palestine,” the largest on-campus BDS organization – has been connected to a range of groups shut down by the Justice Department for raising money on behalf of the Hamas terrorist organization and other radical Islamist groups. Bazian has called for a violent uprising, in his words “an Intifada,” not only in Israel but also in the United States, and vocalized support for attacks on American troops in Iraq.

Like Bazian, Purdue University professor Bill Mullen, one of the BDS leaders who lobbied the American Studies Association to adopt a boycott of Israel, also advocates for attacking American ‘imperialism,’ saying, “We can build a still-stronger BDS movement beginning in the name of Palestinian freedom and ending in a permanent blow against American empire.”

Bazian and others not only seek to destroy the Jewish State, but also the Judeo-Christian principles on which it is founded. We have a responsibility to stand up and speak out against this wave of hate, whether it erupts in the Middle East or in the middle of America. Christians and Jews must unite to battle against BDS for the sake of our values, our future, and our very way of life.

Original post can be found on Ha’aretz by Gabe Friedman

JTA – Ten years ago this week, Twitter was born. Never ones to miss a good conversation, Jews quickly adopted the social network, and they haven’t stopped kibitzing since.
To celebrate the birth of this post-modern Talmud, we’ve updated JTA’s 2009 list of the “100 Most Influential Jewish Twitterers” (which helped a young woman escape her family’s cult-like church, as recounted in the New Yorker. No big deal.)
Our new list — pared down to just the top 25 Twitter mavens — reflects a changed Jewish Twitter world. Among the rabbis, officials, journalists and other machers who made the cut in ’09, the only carryovers are Esther Kustanowitz, a journalist who works with actress Mayim Bialik, and William Daroff, an American Jewish communal leader who now ranks No. 1.
But keep in mind, we changed our methodology.
Compared to 2009, we left more of the analysis to software and didn’t include entities (organizations, media outlets, etc.) on our list — just people. The data analysis was done by Little Bird, a Portland-based “influencer marketing platform” that helps firms reach the right tweeters in the right fields.
So how did we come up with the “Most Influential” list? Using the terms “Jewish” and “Israel,” Little Bird’s algorithm identified a network of 1,000 people who participate most in the Twitter discussion around Israel and Jewish issues. It then ranked those participants based on how many followers they have within the network.
As a bonus, we also generated a list of the 25 participants in the Jewish-Israel discussion who have the most followers overall — yielding some big Jewish names, like Lena Dunham, along with some surprising ones, among them ex-Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. Call them Guest Stars.
Without further ado, then, here are the biggest influencers in the Jewish Twitterverse.
Most Influential:
1.     William Daroff, The Jewish Federations of North America’s Washington office director, @Daroff
2.     Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, @netanyahu
3.     Avi Mayer, Jewish Agency spokesman, @AviMayer
4.     Danny Ayalon, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., @DannyAyalon
5.     Peter Lerner, Israel Defense Forces spokesman, @LTCPeterLerner
6.     Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic correspondent, @JeffreyGoldberg
7.     Ron Dermer, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., @AmbDermer
8.     Dan Shapiro, U.S. ambassador to Israel, @AmbShapiro
9.     Rabbi Jason Miller, rabbi, entrepreneur and writer, @RabbiJason
10. Barak Ravid, Haaretz diplomatic correspondent, @BarakRavid
11. Esther Kustanowitz, editorial director of Mayim Bialik’s Grok Nation, @EstherK
12. Avital Leibovich, American Jewish Committee in Israel director, @AvitalLeibovich
13. Lahav Harkov, The Jerusalem Post Knesset correspondent, @LahavHarkov
14. Michael Dickson, StandWithUs executive director, @michaeldickson
15. David Horovitz, The Times of Israel founding editor, @davidhorovitz
16. Arsen Ostrovsky, human rights lawyer and journalist, @Ostrov_A
17. Mark Regev, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, @MarkRegevPMO
18. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, rabbi, British lord and author, @rabbisacks
19. Shimon Peres, former Israeli president and prime minister, @PresidentPeres
20. Yair Rosenberg, Tablet magazine senior writer, @Yair_Rosenberg
21. Adam Milstein, Israeli real estate investor and philanthropist, @AdamMilstein
22. Reuven Rivlin, Israeli president, @PresidentRuvi
23. Khaled Abu Toameh, Arab-Israeli journalist, @KhaledAbuToameh
24. Peter Beinart, The Atlantic and National Journal contributor and Haaretz correspondent,@PeterBeinart
25. David Haivri, Israeli settler activist, @haivri
As for the top 5 most influential entities, which also happen to top the overall rankings, here they are in descending order: The Jerusalem Post, the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, Haaretz, the State of Israel and — wait for it — the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Guest Stars:
1.     Bill Clinton, former U.S. president, @billclinton
2.     Lena Dunham, actress, writer, producer and director, @lenadunham
3.     Seth Rogen, actor and comedian, @Sethrogen
4.     Matisyahu, musician, @matisyahu
5.     David Cameron, British prime minister, @David_Cameron
6.     Ben Carson, former Republican presidential candidate, @RealBenCarson
7.     Dmitry Medvedev, Russian prime minister, @MedvedevRussiaE
8.     Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, @netanyahu
9.     HAIM, rock band of three Jewish sisters, @HAIMtheband
10. Ezra Koenig, Vampire Weekend singer, @arzE
11. Ismail Haniyyeh, Hamas senior political leader, @IsmailHaniyyeh
12. Joseph Prince, Singapore’s New Creation Church senior pastor, @JosephPrince
13. Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., @AmbassadorPower
14. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, prominent rabbi and author, @RabbiShmuley
15. Ravi Zacharias, evangelical Christian author, @RaviZacharias
16. Jean-Luc Trachsel, Swiss entrepreneur, @jltrachsel
17. John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., @AmbJohnBolton
18. Ben Shapiro, journalist, @benshapiro
19. Anne Bayefsky, human rights scholar and activist, @AnneBayefsky
20. Tarek Fatah, author and activist, @TarekFatah
21. Alon Ben-David, Israeli journalist, @alonbd
22. Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor, @ericgarcetti
23. Judy Mozes, Israeli talk show host, @JudyMozes
24. Udi Segal, Israeli journalist, @usegal
25. Ayala Hasson, Israeli TV personality and journalist, @AyalaHasson

This post was originally on the Algemeiner

In honor of The Algemeiner’s 3rd annual JEWISH 100 Gala, we are delighted to unveil the third Algemeiner Jewish 100 list of the top one hundred individuals who have positively influenced Jewish life this past year. Before you work your way through this exciting list, we wanted to first share some of the thoughts that we discussed as we developed this endeavor. If we could group these ideas together, the first would be about creating lists, in general; then, what’s unique about lists and Judaism; some finer points differentiating our honorees from the organizations they lead; and some important reflections on all those every day and anonymous-to-us heroes we also want to celebrate without ever knowing their names. And, of course, to thank everyone involved with the creating of the list and who worked hard to put together our gala this year.

On Lists

There are lists, and there are lists. From the Forbes 400 to the TIME 100, we are witness today to a proliferation of many lists in various magazines and newspapers. The New Yorker even made a list of The Hundred Best Lists of All Time! Lists have begun spreading in the Jewish media as well. It seems that in the feeding frenzy of our information overloaded society, categorizations and listings get our attention by presumably helping us make sense of the data flooding our psyches. Lists also carry an element of sensationalism — who made the list, who didn’t — feeding the hunger for competition — yet another staple of our superficial times. No wonder we don’t find such popularity contests waged in earlier centuries; living as desert nomads or inside of a shtetl, where everyone knew virtually no one else but their neighbors by name (for good or for bad), did not exactly lend itself to creating a top ten list of favorites. This is an exclusive product of the communication revolution and the global village it created.

Jewish Lists

Jewish sages, in particular, did not create such lists. Indeed, some actually dismissed the categorization of lists (even of the 13 Principles of Faith of Maimonides, let alone of a list of the “best” one thing or another…) It begs the uneasy question of how one can even attempt to measure the value of a person? Isn’t everyone a hero in some way? On what grounds can we presume to judge who is more valuable then the next? With the J100 list we tried to create something more meaningful, a list aligned with our core mission: the 100 people who have the most positive impact on Jewish life and Israel, men and women, Jew or non- Jew, who have lifted the quality of Jewish life in the past year. Think of it this way: Without these J100 – either the individuals or the organizations they represent – Jewish life would not be at the caliber it is today. Despite the artificial, superficial and sensational nature of any list, we sought to transform the information deluge of our times by using the list to shine a spotlight on those gems in our midst, those people who are making a real difference in other’s lives.

We also seek to inspire and motivate our young and the next generation, our future emerging leaders, in rising to the occasion and perpetuating the highest standards of our proud tradition and legacy – in serving and championing the cause of Jews and Israel. Because, as we know, when the quality of Jewish life is raised, the quality of all lives is raised. However, the most exciting part of our work in choosing the J100, frankly, was sifting through hundreds of candidates and nominees to discover some surprising finalists. It was a joy to see the breadth of all those who merited a mention, to understand some of the great work being performed around the world on behalf of the Jewish people, and to celebrate their victories by bringing this great work to renewed public attention via this endeavor.

Individual vs. Organization

Inevitably, any list recognizing those that have positively influenced Jewish life, will include the “usual suspects,” well known leaders and officials of governments, organizations and institutions. Like it or not, bureaucracy is part of the fabric of our society, feeding and supporting Jewish life around the globe, and it is that fabric that provides strength and cohesion to our disparate Jewish population.

Not all the names on the J100 were included for the same reason. Some are being honored for their personal contributions, other for their work at the organizations or nations they head. Some on the J100 are long established stars, others newcomers, whom are up and coming, people to watch.

Like in any dynamic entity and living organism, we included both stalwart leaders with deep roots holding the foundation, while also introducing new branches that will lead us into the future. This type of list — “The top 100 people who have positively influenced Jewish life” — has its inherent challenges. Firstly, what defines “positive”? What some consider positive, others consider destructive. Jews notoriously disagree on what positive impact means. Fully cognizant of the inherent controversy such a list could stir, we approached the creation of this list with a particular strategy, infused with a sense of humility and respect, to be as all-inclusive as possible. This list should not be seen as an endorsement of anyone or any entity and way of thinking; rather the people on this list are a reflection of the rich and broad spectrum of Jewish life – those who have positively contributed and helped shape the Jewish future.

We want this list to not be a definitive one, but as a type of snapshot and perspective of the Jewish world today. The J100 is far from perfect — but which list of this type would not be? Rather, we want it to serve as a provocateur, challenging us all to think about what we value and consider precious; what we honor as being a positive influence on Jewish life and on Israel.

Anonymous Heroes

Jewish life, now and throughout history, is fraught with innumerable heroes – mostly unsung. A mother unceremoniously bringing up a beautiful family. A quiet nurse attending to the ill. An anonymous philanthropist sending food packages to the needy. The unobtrusive kindergarten teacher lovingly attending to and shaping young lives. Positive influences abound, yet few are called out.

Moreover, the Jewish community is decentralized. A leader in one city or town having major impact on his community may be completely irrelevant in another city. No list – not of 100, not of 1,000 – could capture and do justice to the countless daily acts of heroism and nobility impacting Jews and Israel. There are hundreds of Jewish communities with Rabbis, lay leaders, educators and administrators that are beloved and are transforming their communities. As important as these individuals may be – and they certainly deserve their own list – the J100 does not list these heroes. Instead it focuses on individuals that have global and international impact, and that come from diverse groups – writers, teachers, government officials, organizations. In some ways the J100 should be looked at not as a bunch of disjointed individuals, but as a mosaic – a confluence of many different colors and hues, that create a diverse painting.

Thank You

In the spirit of The Algemeiner, we want this list to lift the quality of our discourse and our standards in seeking out the best within and amongst us. We hope you enjoy reviewing and studying this list, and we welcome all your feedback, critique and suggestions to be included next year, in what has become our annual tradition at our gala event. Thank you for supporting this great institution and, ultimately, our readers, the Jewish people and friends of the Jewish people whom we serve.

To see the full list, click here.

Disclosure: Algemeiner staff and their immediate families were disqualified for inclusion on the list. Some of the Jewish 100 finalists are friends and associates of the Algemeiner and some are members of the GJCF Tribute Committee. As a media entity with many relationships, the Algemeiner inevitably has many friends and supporters; yet we didn’t feel it fair to disqualify highly qualified candidates simply due to their connection with us. Instead, fully cognizant of that reality, we placed special emphasis on impartiality and objectivity to choose only those that fit the criteria.

Adam Milstein

Chair of Israeli-American Council

Philanthropist Adam Milstein is chair of theIsraeli-American Council, which encourages cooperation between the United States and Israel, and whose stated mission is “to build an active and giving Israeli-American community throughout the United States in order to strengthen the State of Israel, our next generation, and to provide a bridge to the Jewish-American community.”

Some 750,000 people count themselves as Israeli-Americans.

In early 2016, the group announced theformation of a new partner organization — the Israeli-American Nexus (IANexus) — that will focus on advocating to legislative policymakers on behalf of Israelis living in the United States.

For its first major effort, the IANexus plans to muster communal support for the Combating BDS Act of 2016, which was recently introduced in Congress and supports states’ rights to cut ties with companies that boycott Israel.

The original article can be found on The Huffington Post

In recent years, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement has steadily advanced a poisonous culture of hate and anti-Semitism in our country. Across college campuses and in churches, in labor unions, academic institutions and in shareholder meetings of American Corporations, they have sought to demonize the State of Israel, with the eventual goal of destroying it.

Yet, what many do not realize is that the BDS agenda threatens not only the Middle East’s one democratic state; it threatens the entire democratic world, and the U.S. is in the eye of its storm. The tie that binds together the radical leftists and radical Islamists driving forward the BDS Movement is a common hatred for the U.S. and for the Western values and freedoms that America, Europe and Israel share. Indeed, BDS leaders publically call for the destruction of the very society that protects their right to free speech.

Don’t believe me? Let’s look at exactly what the most senior BDS leaders have to say about the United States.

BDS leaders hate America’s leadership role around the world. In an op-ed for the International Socialist Review titled “Palestine, BDS, and the battle against US imperialism,” Purdue University professor Bill Mullen, one of the BDS leaders who lobbied the American Studies Association to adopt a boycott of Israel, writes, “We can build a still-stronger BDS movement beginning in the name of Palestinian freedom and ending in a permanent blow against American empire.”

BDS leaders hate America’s democracy – and have even called for violent attacks to overturn our democratic system. During a rally against the Iraq War in San Francisco, Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian – one of the primary BDS leaders in the U.S. and the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine – issued a call to action that was nothing short of inciting violence against the American people, saying: “Are you angry? Well, we’ve been watching intifada in Palestine, we’ve been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don’t have an intifada [armed struggle] in this country? …and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here…They’re going to say [that] some Palestinian are being too radical; well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”

BDS leaders despise our military, and support attacks on our troops. At that same rally, Bazian explicitly stated his support for attacks on American troops in Iraq saying, “The occupation is a source of tremendous violence against Iraqis. I think we’ve got to support the resistance; we’ve got to say that we support attacks against the occupying forces.” Bazian went on to call for an all-out assault on America: “[W]e in this movement [should] support the resistance against American imperialism by any means necessary.”

BDS leaders hate our justice system and disparage the work of our police officers. During the racially charged Ferguson, Missouri, riots, BDS leaders eagerly breached their alleged Israel-focused mandate and reveled in the opportunity to attack the US justice system and police security forces. Brazenly exploiting the tragedy, the BDS Movement released an official statement accusing the US justice system of “racism, racial discrimination and disenfranchisement.” They also condemned police forces for “unbridled violence,” “militarized attack[s],” and “dehumanization” of the Ferguson community.

They hate our capitalist system and seek to dismantle the global economy. Among BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti’s most egregious edicts, is a call to overthrow the American economic system. “Opposing the imperial militarization and savage capitalism in this country,” Barghouti said, “directly benefits the peoples of the world, including the Palestinians.”

How do we respond? We must no longer limit our perspective and debate on BDS to its repercussions for Israel alone. BDS is not Israel’s problem, or a Jewish problem; it is a problem for every American who values democratic freedoms.

History shows that what starts with the Jewish people never ends with the Jewish people. Radical Islam and the radical left are targeting Israel now, but —evidenced by their own statements — their bigger target is the Europe and the United States.

Today, this hate movement is after Israel. But tomorrow, they’re coming for the entire Western world and our way of life. Today, Brussels, Paris and Europe may have reached a point of no return, but in America we must stop them before it is too late.

Follow Adam Milstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AdamMilstein

 

This article was originally posted on The Jerusalem Post

On Sunday, the Israeli-American Council will host the IAC Los Angeles Gala 2016, marking a moment of new public prominence for our organization – and its rapid growth across the US.

In the past three years, we have expanded from a single office and a few hundred members in Los Angeles, into a national movement with 10 regional offices – 250,000 members and growing – and a range of groundbreaking national programs.
Yet, we are not just building America’s fastest-growing Jewish organization, we are creating a new identity.
Before we founded the IAC, no one used the term “Israeli-American.”
For years, Israelis lived in America with their suitcases packed, claiming that they were only in the US temporarily and were ready to go back at any moment.

You were forced to label yourself as either American, or as an Israeli who was living in the US. Today we can proudly embrace an Israeli- American identity – centered on that the idea that while our home is in America, our Jewish homeland will always be Israel.

We are engaged as a community as never before in American life, but our thoughts, prayers and conversations are often focused on Israel. In recent months, watching our Israeli brothers and sisters live under constant danger of terrorism and existential dangers, we have felt a deep sense of responsibility to make it clear that they do not face these threats alone.

Through constant text messages, WhatsApp group communications, and phone calls to relatives, we check in with our friends and family back in Israel to ensure that all are safe and sound. With each attack, we feel a deep sense of pain. At IAC events and in conversations with our friends, neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances, we work persistently to explain to the American people what it means to live – day after day – under the specter of terrorism.

We look out at Israel’s difficult neighborhood and recognize the grave dangers facing our Jewish homeland – the potential of a nuclear Iran on the horizon; Hamas tunnels and Hezbollah rockets, ISIS on our southern and eastern borders, and radical Islamist groups in Gaza.

We watch the presidential election closely, paying keen attention as to how the next administration will continue to build the US-Israel partnership. Our organization believes Israeli-Americans’ fluent understanding of both cultures uniquely positions us to serve as a bridge between the Israeli people and the American people.

In particular, the IAC is now engaging Israeli-Americans as a strategic asset for our brothers and sisters in Israel in the fight against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, whose mission is to eradicate the State of Israel by nonmilitary means.

We recently hosted the first-ever meeting at the Cybertech conference in Tel Aviv to tap into Israel’s most brilliant tech minds for the fight against BDS. This month, IAC members launched a partner advocacy organization called the Israeli-American Nexus, which will advocate with policy-makers on behalf of the Israeli-American community and work to advance legislation to ensure that US state and local governments boycott Israel’s boycotters.

With all of these exciting developments, I’m confident that the IAC is just getting started. Rooted in our emerging Israeli-American identity, we will continue to expand across America to strengthen the Jewish people, the Jewish state and the US-Israel alliance.

ADAM MILSTEIN IS AN ISRAELI-AMERICAN PHILANTHROPIST, NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE ISRAELI-AMERICAN COUNCIL, REAL ESTATE ENTREPRENEUR AND PRESIDENT OF THE ADAM AND GILA MILSTEIN FAMILY FOUNDATION.

Follow him on Twitter @AdamMilstein and @AdamMilsteinIAC.

This was originally posted on the Times of Israel Blog

The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation proudly supports AIPAC’s Campus Allies Mission, which brings non-Jewish, pro-Israel political activists to Israel for the first time. The on-the-ground experiences in the Holy Land teach participants about the importance of the United States-Israel relationship and gives them a deeper understanding of Israel’s strategic, social, and security issues, right in the heart of the Holy Land. Stephen Fiehler, an alumnus of our Campus Allies, has shared how the Campus Allies Mission has impacted his life and view of Israel. You can read his story below.

My AIPAC Campus Allies trip to Israel in May 2010 was enlightening and inspirational. Seeing what Israelis have created in less than a century, despite being surrounded by enemies, demonstrates what humans are capable of accomplishing.

Most media outlets portray Palestinians as innocent victims in the hands of the intransigent, aggressive Israelis. This trip helped me reconsider and recreate the image of Israel that the news had offered. Standing on the Golan Heights, observing the locations of the security barriers and learning more about the history of the conflict, gave me a new understanding, respect and sympathy for Israel’s predicament. The American-Israel relationship has become personally important to me, and the trip has made me much better at educating people about Israel and the issues it faces.

The religious experience, for me, was overwhelming as well. Standing in Capernaum where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, and visiting the location of the Last Supper, strengthened my faith and increased my love for Christ. For this reason, among many others, I’m so grateful for AIPAC and the Milstein Family Foundation.

Today, Stephen Fiehler lives and works in New York City as a healthcare IT consultant specializing in cardiology. Despite his nonpolitical career path, he will always have a passion for politics and foreign policy, and will always do his best to educate people on the true history of the conflict and the resilience of the Israeli people.

…………………………………………………………….

To learn more about the philanthropic work of Adam Milstein and the Milstein Family Foundation, visit http://milsteinff.org. Also – check out Adam Milstein and the Milstein Family Foundation on Facebook!

This post was originally on the Times of Israel Blog

I am a nonprofit executive at the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation and an Israeli-American — and I’m also a former Ernst & Young tax attorney who obtained an MBA from UCLA Anderson. I think, and mean, business. Pretty much everything I do is aimed at serving the foundation’s overall mission to strengthen the Jewish people and the State of Israel. So, I get frustrated whenever I see how the limited resources we have in the pro-Israel nonprofit world are being spent, or rather wasted. I am not talking about private jets and fancy offices — that’s not the case, and that is not the problem. I am talking about inefficiency and duplication. I am talking about numerous organizations that share a mission to help Israel, but will not share resources, know-how, contacts, or even just…merge?

In the for-profit world, collaboration happens when it makes sense — when both companies can benefit, and when they can find a way to split the upside fairly. For example, you will find many links between BuzzFeed, Bleacher Report, and CBS Sports. Why? Because it makes sense to use other websites’ content and swap traffic for certain topics. Wouldn’t it be great to see the same thing with pro-Israel organizations? See them share each other’s content on Facebook or re-tweet each other? I’m not saying it doesn’t happen at all, but I would love to see more of that.

What about some mergers and acquisitions? There are so many organizations that do the exact same thing, and even compete in the same markets, cities, and colleges, and for the same donors. What’s the point? The result is a tangled mess of organizations spending time, money and energy just to figure out what everyone else is doing. Every week I get emails and phone calls from people who are starting yet new organizations.

If you really care about Israel, next time you have an idea for something new — whether from within a nonprofit you work for or as an independent activist – first stop and think. Has it been tried in the past? What can you learn from someone else’s success or failure? It is a little tough to think about these things when you need to show your donors that you are the best, the first, and the only one doing a specific thing. But what is best for Israel?

What about better SEO? SMO? CRM systems? Crowdfunding campaigns? Many nonprofits don’t have those. Why? Because they need to keep their overhead low — funders like seeing that 90%-100% of their donation money goes towards activity. But wouldn’t it be great if some of that money also went towards systems that would make the organization’s activities more impactful and more visible? Or went towards bringing in experts who are expensive, but are amazingly professional and effective? These are things that Dan Pallotta talks about a lot — I recommend following his website and watching his TED Talks.

I know it’s tough. But if pro-Israel nonprofits can adopt more concepts from the for-profit world…the ultimate entity profiting will be Israel.

—

This post was written by Hadas Sella.

Hadas Sella is the Executive Director at the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. Born and raised in Israel, Hadas has a dual degree in Law and Economics from the Tel Aviv University, and is a certified attorney in Israel. After working for a top-5 law firm in Jerusalem and then as a Tax Attorney at Ernst & Young in Tel Aviv, she moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and in June 2014 graduated from the UCLA Anderson MBA program. After graduation, Hadas was recruited to the Milstein Family Foundation as a Program Director. In her role, Hadas oversees the foundation’s activities, donations, grants and operations.

To learn more about the philanthropic work of Adam Milstein and the Milstein Family Foundation, visit http://milsteinff.org. Also – check out Adam Milstein and the Milstein Family Foundation on Facebook!

This article was originally posted on the Times of Israel Blog

Both Israel and California are centers of innovation, filled with brilliant minds and bold ideas. In so many spheres, Israelis and Californians have worked together to do extraordinary things – from building high-tech companies like WAZE, to advancing cutting-edge medical research, to pioneering revolutionary solutions in fields like agriculture and clean-tech.

In 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and California Governor Jerry Brown signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to accelerate this collaborative innovation. Under the leadership of Israel’s Consul General in the Southwest David Siegel – and a range of partners, including the Israeli American Council (IAC) – this MOU is being leveraged on the ground to strengthen the California-Israel partnership in unprecedented ways.

U.S. policymakers are taking note of the extraordinary opportunities to work with Israel. West Hollywood and Israel have formed an HIV/AIDS Task Force. Beverly Hills and Israel signed an agreement to collaborate in a range of areas – from water conservation, cyber security, and public safety, to education and culture. From the central valley to downtown Los Angeles, Californians are looking to Israel –often described as a water superpower – for guidance on how to manage the state’s draught crisis.

This month, the IAC – working with Consul General Siegel and his team at the Los Angeles Consulate – helped to facilitate a historic collaborative agreement between the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and Israel’s Ministry of Science, which will foster university-to-university partnerships and joint funding opportunities in stem cell research.

The agreement will provide a new framework for advancing this cutting-edge research, with CIRM and Israel’s Ministry of Science providing funding for institutions from California and Israel, respectively. The benefits to both states – and all of humanity – are unmistakable. Soon researchers at Stanford, UCLA and Berkeley will have access to a significant stream of funding to work with their counterparts at the Technion and Tel Aviv University to tackle the deadliest diseases on the face of the earth – from cancer and diabetes, to Alzheimer’s and HIV-AIDS.

Jonathan Thomas, Chair of the CIRM Board was enthusiastic about the potential of tapping into the great reservoir of brainpower in Israel. Signing the agreement on behalf of CIRM, he said, “We want to attract the best science and most promising projects from everywhere in the world to California, and we are hopeful this agreement with the Ministry of Science will be an important step in creating strong and lasting collaborations with Israeli scientists.”

Israel’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Space Ofer Akunis flew to Los Angeles to sign the agreement, highlighting during his remarks at the signing ceremony the importance of Israeli innovation as a tool for the Jewish state to build bridges and fight the threat of BDS.

This work is just getting started. This week, we announced the launch of the Israeli-American Nexus (IANexus) – a new partner advocacy organization of the IAC that will work to make the voices of Israeli-Americans heard to policymakers across the country. The IANexus will work with other advocacy organizations, visionary leaders like Consul General Siegel, and American policymakers to help to facilitate agreements between U.S. State and Local agencies and their Israeli counterparts all across America.

We firmly believe the successful creation of partnerships in California should be a model for the rest of the country because Israel has somuch to offer to communities in all 50 states. The possibilities for collaboration are endless – from introducing Israeli water innovation to the communities of America’s Southwest, to bringing world-renowned Israeli researchers to great medical institutions, to facilitating new relationships in arts, culture, clean-tech, and high-tech.

In his farewell speech as Israel’s President Shimon Peres said, “Israel was born on the foundations of its principles. Today it grows on the shoulders of science.” Standing on the shoulders of the dynamic innovators of the Jewish state, we can help Israel to continue on its path of rapid growth, building bridges at the top levels of America’s government, business, and academia to improve the lives of our fellow citizens and benefit all of humanity.

See the original post on Times of Israel

This piece was co-written by Adam Milstein and Marc A. Greendorfer. A version of it previously appeared in the Huffington Post.

The Israeli people and the global pro-Israel community are waking up to the seriousness of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which has gained increasing traction at universities, academic associations, municipalities, churches, unions, pension funds, and investment portfolios in America and around the globe. Many are realizing that this Movement poses a serious threat to the Jewish state, the Jewish people, the American people and Western Civilization.

Yet, as we mobilize our effective response, it’s important to recognize that BDS is nothing new. Arab boycotts of Jewish interests in the British Mandate of Palestine started as early as 1922, more than twenty years before the establishment of a Jewish state in 1948. Restrictions were added in 1933, 1934 and 1936. An official, organized boycott of the Jewish community in Palestine, adopted by the Arab League in December 1945, persisted against Israel after it was founded, with the goal of isolating the Jewish state from the international community. Through the years, this boycott spread like a virus across the globe, resulting in institutionalized discrimination against Israeli goods and businesses. It is clear that those behind the BDS Movement have simply put old wine in a new bottle.

Furthermore, Arab anti-Israel and anti-American boycotts have been a part of life in the U.S. since the early 1970s – and past experience in fighting these anti-Semitic movements can, and should, guide our response in the present.

The effects of the Arab League Boycott in America were disruptive and outrageous, causing energy shortages, gas lines, rationing, economic stagflation and discrimination against Jewish Americans. The 1973 oil boycott alone cost the American economy billions of dollars, and turned American businesses and consumers into unwilling participants in an anti-Semitic campaign against Israel and the Jewish people.

In 1977, U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly to approve legislation to protect American interests, making it a criminal offense to comply with the Arab League Boycott and imposing fines on American companies that did so. The U.S. Department of Commerce opened an office to oversee and implement the law, and many states followed the federal legislation with their own anti-boycott laws, which did help reduce the effects of the Arab League Boycott in the United States.

However, those behind the Arab League Boycott continued to search for opportunities to circumvent the law. In 2001, at the U.N.’s “Conference on Racism” held in Durban, South Africa, they found one, hijacking the conference’s agenda to force through a series of racist declarations attacking Israel. As the conference drew to a close, the Arab League met to formally call for a resumption of its boycott, which became the framework for what we know as the BDS Movement.

In truth, the latest boycott is even more dangerous than the original, as those behind BDS have learned from previous failures. BDS has effectively branded itself as a human rights movement, hiding its true intentions from the public –  the destruction of Israel, the demonization of the Jewish people and the erosion of the values essential to our Western Civilization –  and obscuring the role of the extremists, terrorists, and radicals behind the Movement.

The BDS Movement has effectively moved around the general language of existing American anti-boycott laws, claiming that these laws only apply to activities directly connected to the “Arab League Boycott” name. The pro-Israel community must reject this false dichotomy and vigilantly watch to make sure that federal, state, and local agencies are enforcing existing anti-boycott laws.

We must also enact new laws that specifically close any purported loopholes that BDS’ supporters exploit. This was recently accomplished at the U.S. federal level, when Representative Peter Roskam’s anti-BDS language was included in the Trade Promotion Authority passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama. The American Congress may also consider anti-discrimination measures to combat the BDS Movement, as it promotes hatred and discrimination against Jewish Americans and other pro-Israel supporters, especially on college campuses.

BDS threatens a return to the same kind of economic and social turmoil that the Arab League Boycott created within the United States in the 1970s. We, as Americans, have to stop BDS in its tracks before the Movement gains any more traction. The future of Israel, America, Europe – and indeed, all of Western Civilization – is at stake.

Adam Milstein is an Israeli-American philanthropist, National Chairman of the Israeli-American Council, real estate entrepreneur, and President of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. Follow Adam on Twitter @AdamMilstein and @AdamMilsteinIAC.

Follow Adam Milstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AdamMilstein

Original Article on JNS can be found here. Posted on February 10, 2016 by JNS.org.

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis on Tuesday signed the first agreement of its kind between his ministry and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in the field of biotechnology, with an emphasis on stem cell research.

The agreement was facilitated by the Israeli-American Council (IAC), which encourages cooperation between the United States and Israel, and whose stated mission is “to build an active and giving Israeli-American community throughout the United States in order to strengthen the State of Israel, our next generation, and to provide a bridge to the Jewish-American community.”

The biotechnology deal is the “sharpest response to all the foolish initiatives to make academics boycott Israel, including here in California,” Akunis said at the signing ceremony, adding that “anyone who boycotts Israel—the loss is all his.”

Akunis continued, “This agreement will deepen the partnership between Israel and California, bringing together our most talented scientists to push the boundaries of stem cell research and advance medical breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases ranging from cancer and diabetes, to Alzheimer’s and HIV-AIDS.”

IAC Chairman Adam Milstein said at the event that the organization is “excited by the opportunity to promote one of the most pressing issues facing humanity, and strengthen the bond between the people of Israel and the American people.”

Dr. Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the CIRM Board, praised Israel’s scientific achievements.

“Israel has become an important center for stem cell research. As part of our new CIRM 2.0 approach to funding stem cell research, we want to attract the best science and most promising projects from everywhere in the world to California,” Thomas said.