Author: Hadas Sparfeld

This article was originally published in the The Daily Caller on October 30, 2018.

On Saturday, we witnessed the deadliest attack on American Jews in history. Eleven members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were murdered in cold blood because they were Jewish.

Like many, I was shocked by this horror, but I was not surprised.

The Jewish people have faced the lethal threat of Anti-Semitism for thousands of years — from the ancient struggle in Egypt to the Islamic conquest in the early middle ages to the Inquisition in Spain and the pogroms in Central Europe to the Holocaust.

We live with the ever-present fear that there are many people who want to eradicate Jews.

I saw this powerfully earlier this year, when I traveled to six European countries — the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Germany – with 100 leading American philanthropists and scholars, and together, we tried to wrap our heads around the scope of the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany and its European collaborators.

We saw the horrific conditions suffered by the Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which were built with a single purpose: to eradicate the Jewish and Roma peoples. We saw mass graves in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish families perished by firing squads because their gentile neighbors collaborated with or joined in when the German Killing Machine arrived.

At the Rumbula Forest Memorial, we paid our respects to some of the 2.4 million Jews who were killed in the Hidden Holocaust by bullets — some murdered by neighbors they had grown up alongside.

Far too many people view these places as simply historical sites, where you can learn something about the past, but nothing about the future. Up until now, many — including some within the Jewish community — couldn’t comprehend that the antisemitism that existed in Nazi Germany might happen again, especially in America. I wonder if the massacre in Pittsburgh will change their minds.

Facing these horrors up close focused our attention on the relevance of the Holocaust to our present day. How can we ensure that Never Again isn’t just a slogan, but a mindset and an action plan?

Three lessons from our journey stand out.

First, events like the Holocaust don’t happen overnight. They result from a process of systematic racism, intimidation and discrimination that lasts many years.

Antisemitism had long been present across Europe. Nazi Germany harnessed that hatred to humiliate, marginalize and weaken the Jewish people, as it prepared to unleash the largest genocide in history.

During the first six years of Hitler’s rule, more than 400 decrees and regulations boycotted, delegitimized and sanctioned (B.D.S.) all aspects of Jews’ public and private lives. Jews were dehumanized in the eyes of the public until gentiles believed genocide was a reasonable course of action.

The parallels to recent events should not be lost on us. In the last two decades, America and Europe, in particular, have seen a steady rise in antisemitism from the radical right, the radical Left and from radical Muslims. A growing alliance between radical leftists and radical Islamists has produced figures like Jeremy Corbyn, the head of the British Labour Party, who ignores and even espouses vile antisemitism.

This alliance has driven the rise of figures on the radical Right in Germany, Poland, Italy, Estonia and elsewhere, who are committed to denying the Holocaust, and trade in antisemitic stereotypes. The same alliance is definitely one of the reasons to the rise of the radical right in America.

It seems the only thing shared by all the radical movements is their hatred of the Jewish people. While European governments publicly express strong support for the importance of protecting their Jewish communities, history tells us that nothing lasts forever.

We witnessed this trend up close. In many of our meetings, European officials blamed the Holocaust solely on Germany – not the collaborationist leaders of their countries. None of these countries seemed to take ownership of their actions during the Holocaust. This denial has become public policy.

For instance, a law recently passed in Poland made it illegal to acknowledge the Polish people’s complicity in death camps, outlawing the phrase “Polish death camps.” At the same time, and some Germans — including the third largest party in the parliament — are now working to minimize the Holocaust, claiming it was a small spec of “bird poop” in their 1,000 years of glorious history.

This brings us to our second lesson: We must recognize and fight against antisemitism with all of our power whenever we encounter it.

When we don’t act, we legitimize antisemitism, allowing it to become mainstream. We become an accomplice to its growth and influence.

Before and during World War II, Jewish communities across Europe cried out for help. World powers were overwhelmingly silent. Jews trying to flee were turned away by countries across Europe and the Americas, with Britain blocking immigration to what is now Israel.

Unfortunately, some Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere now downplay or even ignore the dangers the Jewish people face. We found this in some of our conversations with European-Jewish leaders, who expressed their unwavering confidence in their local government’s willingness and ability to protect them.

Jews in America today have the power to stand up and fight back against the antisemites. We should use this power now — before it’s no longer available. Standing up in unity and fighting back are two different causes of action and we need both.

This brings us to our third lesson. We must support Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people and ultimate insurance policy for all Jews.

Israel did not exist during the time of the Holocaust. It has already saved millions of Jews fleeing antisemitism around the world. In its infancy, Israel accepted Holocaust survivors from displaced persons camps. It launched countless operations to save Jews facing existential threats across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe.

In the 90s, the Jewish homeland welcomed approximately 1.6 million Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, who had endured harsh antisemitism and hatred. More recently, rising antisemitism in Venezuela brought over half of the country’s Jews to Israel.

Israel has changed the game when it comes to the security of the Jewish people. This point was driven home for us during the trip by Maj. General Amir Eshel — the former commander of the Israel Air Force, who accompanied us to Auschwitz. In 2003, Eshel led a squadron of IAF F-15s in a flyover of Auschwitz, issuing an eternal promise from the cockpit that the IDF is “the shield of the Jewish people and its nation, Israel.”

Following the murder of helpless Jews in Pittsburgh, I was shocked and outraged to hear American Jewish leaders blaming Israel for the rise of antisemitsm in America and encourage Israeli public officials not to come to the memorial events.

How can Jewish leaders betray the only Jewish Country in world, which is the ultimate source of confidence and security for the Jewish future?

Remembering the Holocaust is not enough. We must turn the tragedies of the past into lessons for the future. Nothing less than the continuation of the Jewish people is at stake. It’s in our hands to ensure that Never Again really means Never Again.

Adam Milstein an Israeli-American philanthropist, the national chairman of the Israeli-American Council (IAC) and co-founder of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.

This article was originally published in The Jerusalem Post on August 20, 2018.

Misinformation matters because media outlets have great power. They shape the way we understand the world and, ultimately, drive our behavior.

This past May, the Los Angeles Times ran the headline “A Baby Girl Dies in the Haze of Gaza,” which told a story about eight-month-old Palestinian Layla Ghandour, who was allegedly killed by inhaling tear gas used by Israeli defense forces. This story was tragic and upsetting. It was also untrue. The New York Times and other major outlets published similar stories, framing Israel and Israeli soldiers as child-killing villains, amplifying Hamas’s false narrative about Layla’s death.

Following this wave of coverage, Layla’s cousin admitted that Hamas paid his relatives to lie to the media about Layla’s cause of death. In reality, Layla died from a preexisting blood condition. Of course, the family of a deceased baby deserves any rational person’s sympathy, but when the media falls prey to Hamas propaganda that uses the death of an innocent baby to degrade Israel, no one, except for Hamas, wins. Even today, this story continues to be available for a wide audience to read and reference, without any disclaimer that it is based on falsified information.

Then, amid this summer’s Great March of Return protests, each one a violent attempt to cross into Israel’s borders and kill civilians, the LA Times reported on June 18 that “about 130 protesters have been killed by Israeli troops.” In fact, the group of “protesters” consisted of a significant number of armed and active Hamas combatants. The Times ignored this fact and the intent of this march, as prior to this coverage, a senior Hamas official had admitted that most of the Gazans who died in the protests were Hamas members, terrorist operatives with the intention of killing innocent Israeli men, women, and children.

This misinformation matters because media outlets have great power. They shape the way we understand the world and, ultimately, drive our behavior. It is no exaggeration to say that their activity can have life-and-death implications. The pattern in coverage of the New York Times and LA Times is a case study that drives home a critical point for society.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the New York Times, Washington Post and other media outlets neglected their obligation to disseminate truth and remained virtually silent as Nazi Germany carried out the mass murder of Jews in Europe, relegating stories about Jewish genocide to short briefs on their back pages. While Jews starved in ghettos and concentration camps, watched their family members perish and were stripped of their humanity, they wondered where the world was. The press remained largely indifferent and the reluctance of editors of major outlets to report widely and consistently on these horrors contributed to consequences that the world will never forget. Newspapers and radio news broadcasts failed to fulfill their part in educating the American public about the horrific crimes committed by the Germans.

The New York Times and Washington Post, despite being Jewish-owned publications, included minimal coverage on the Holocaust. In essence, the media diminished the disturbing revelations about the extermination of Jews under Hitler’s Third Reich. If the extent of Hitler’s unspeakable crimes were exposed and understood earlier, more lives could have been saved. Surely more Americans would have been spurred into action if they had repeatedly read front-page coverage on the detestable conditions that Jews were forced to suffer.

The role of journalists is to shine a light where there is darkness, to tell the stories of the powerless and hold the powerful to account.
Decades later, in 1964, the media showed the world the power of fulfilling its duty to report the truth. When LIFE magazine shattered all misconceptions about smoking cigarettes, it demonstrated the life-saving potential of the media. Despite all the parties who had a stake in the triumph of cigarettes – farmers, politicians, advertisers, and the tobacco industry – LIFE conclusively revealed the deadly effects of cigarettes, featuring the US Surgeon General’s report announcing that cigarettes are a major cause of lung cancer and chronic bronchitis.

Imagine if this leadership in exposing the truth could be the model for how Israel is covered in the media. The LIFE story shows us that this reality is not out of reach. By reporting on confirmed facts and confronting their internal biases about the use of cigarettes, LIFE journalists saved and are saving millions of lives. They helped end the era of smoke-filled restaurants and classrooms, carefree smoking and glorifying cigarettes. For the first time in history, white and orange wrapping became synonymous with cancer and death.

The media outlets have that power, but they must be willing to fight for it.

We must hold the media accountable for honest reporting. We must reject and condemn stories that spread inaccurate information and newspapers that fail to broadcast corrections as dramatically as they broadcast untruths. If journalists fail to understand that antisemitism is a deeply embedded bigotry that persistently impacts their understanding of the world – and a hatred that is central to Hamas’ political actions – they cannot accurately report on actions at the Gaza-Israel border. A story pinning the death of an innocent Palestinian baby on Israeli soldiers should raise a red flag. Journalists must present facts and a careful understanding of the nuances that shade coverage of complex situations. A headline taken out of context should not be tolerated.

Media bias and misreporting are more than just a nuisance. They blur our vision for a better world. When we cannot see clearly, we risk our values, our democracy and ultimately, our humanity.

The writer is an Israeli-American philanthropist and co-founder of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. He is co-founder and national chairman of the Israeli-American Council.

This article was originally published in the Jerusalem Post on June 28, 2018.

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

This month, we had the privilege to learn more about the devastating and cruel truths of the Holocaust. We traveled to six countries – the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Germany – with 100 leading American philanthropists and scholars, and together, we tried to wrap our heads around the scope of the genocide carried out by Nazi Germany and its European collaborators.

We saw the horrific conditions suffered by the Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, which were built with a single purpose: to eradicate the Jewish and Gypsy peoples. We saw mass graves in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Poland, where hundreds of thousands of Jewish families perished by firing squads because their gentile neighbors collaborated with or joined in when the German Killing Machine arrived. At the Rumbula Forest Memorial, we paid our respects to some of the 2.4 million Jews who were killed in the Hidden Holocaust by bullets – some, murdered by neighbors they had grown up alongside.

Far too many people view these places as simply historical sites, where you can learn something about the past, but nothing about the future. Many – including some within the Jewish community – can’t comprehend that the antisemitism that existed in Nazi Germany might happen again, especially in America.

Facing these horrors up close focused our attention on the relevance of the Holocaust to our present day. How can we ensure that Never Again isn’t just a slogan, but a mindset and an action plan?

Three lessons from our journey stand out.

First, events like the Holocaust don’t happen overnight. They result from a process of systematic racism, intimidation, and discrimination that lasts many years.

Antisemitism had long been present across Europe. Nazi Germany harnessed that hatred to humiliate, marginalize, and weaken the Jewish people, as it prepared to unleash the largest genocide in history. During the first six years of Hitler’s rule, more than 400 decree’s and regulations that Boycotted, Delegitimized and Sanctioned (BDS) all aspects of Jews’ public and private lives. Jews were dehumanized in the eyes of the public until gentiles believed genocide was a reasonable course of a final solution.

The parallels to recent events should not be lost on us. In the last two decades, America and, in particular, Europe have seen a steady rise in antisemitism from the radical Right, the radical Left and from radical Muslims. A growing alliance between radical leftists and radical Islamists has produced figures like Jeremy Corbyn, the head of the British Labour Party, who ignores and even espouses vile antisemitism.

This alliance has driven the rise of figures on the radical Right in Germany, Poland, Italy, Estonia and elsewhere, who are committed to denying the Holocaust, and trade in antisemitic stereotypes.

It seems the only thing shared by all the radical movements is their hatred of the Jewish people. While European governments publicly express strong support for the importance of protecting their Jewish communities, history tells us that nothing lasts forever.
We witnessed this trend up close. In many of our meetings, European officials blamed the Holocaust solely on Germany – not the collaborationist leaders of their countries. None of these countries seemed to take ownership of their actions during the Holocaust. This denial has become public policy. For instance, a law recently passed in Poland made it illegal to acknowledge the Polish people’s complicity in death camps, outlawing the phrase “Polish death camps.” At the same time, and some Germans – including the third largest party in the parliament – are now working to minimize the Holocaust, claiming it was a small spec of “bird poop” in their 1,000 years of glorious history.

This brings us to our second lesson: we must recognize and fight against antisemitism with all of our power whenever we encounter it.

When we don’t act, we legitimize antisemitism, allowing it to become mainstream. We become an accomplice to its growth and influence.

Before and during World War II, Jewish communities across Europe cried out for help. World powers were overwhelmingly silent. Jews trying to flee were turned away by countries across Europe and the Americas, with Britain blocking immigration to what is now Israel.

Unfortunately, some Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere now downplay or even ignore the dangers the Jewish people face. We found this in some of our conversations with European-Jewish leaders, who expressed their unwavering confidence in their local government’s willingness and ability to protect them.

Jews in America today have the power to stand up, speak out, and fight back against the antisemites. We should use this power now – before it’s no longer available.

This brings us to our third lesson. We must support Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people and ultimate insurance policy for all Jews.

Israel did not exist during the time of the Holocaust. It has already saved millions of Jews fleeing antisemitism around the world. In its infancy, Israel accepted Holocaust survivors from displaced persons camps. It launched countless operations to save Jews facing existential threats across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and Europe. In the 90s, the Jewish homeland welcomed approximately 1.6 million Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, who had endured harsh antisemitism and hatred. More recently, rising antisemitism in Venezuela brought over half of the country’s Jews to Israel.

Israel has changed the game when it comes to the security of the Jewish people. This point was driven home for us during the trip, by Maj. General Amir Eshel – the former commander of the Israel Air Force, who accompanied us to Auschwitz. In 2003, Eshel led a squadron of IAF F-15s in a flyover of Auschwitz, issuing an eternal promise from the cockpit that the IDF is “the shield of the Jewish people and its nation, Israel.”

Remembering the Holocaust is not enough. We must turn the tragedies of the past into lessons for the future. Nothing less than the continuation of the Jewish people is at stake. It’s in our hands to ensure that Never Again really means Never Again.

The writers are Israeli-American philanthropists and co-founders of the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. Gila is the president of Stand By Me and Adam is the national chairman of the Israeli-American Council.

This article was originally published in The Jerusalem Post on May 9, 2018.

Both the US and Israel have withstood existential threats through courage and patriotism of their people.

Israel’s 70th birthday on May 14th has brought a surge of pride across America, as we #Celebrate70.

From the halls of Congress to hundreds of college campuses, to more than 16 Celebrate Israel Festivals in major cities from coast to coast, people across the country are sharing videos, images, words and melodies to rejoice in the miracle of the modern Jewish state and marvel at its unbelievable accomplishments.

The events this month have put on display the deep well of support that Israel enjoys in America, a sentiment that goes back throughout our country’s history. America’s second president, John Adams, once wrote, “The Jews are the most glorious Nation that ever inhabited this Earth” and “I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” On May 14, 1948, a few hours after Israel announced its independence, president Harry Truman ignored strategic advice from the secretary of state because of his moral imperative to recognize the new Israeli government led by David Ben-Gurion.

The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, called for the relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This year Jews around the world celebrated President Donald Trump’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the opening of the US Embassy there.

These decisions have been rooted in our common values and common experience. Both America and Israel were established by people in search of religious freedom and tolerance. Both were founded on the Western values of democracy, Judeo-Christian values, free speech and freedom of the press.

The American Dream is much like the Zionist Dream, rooted in the principle that everyone should have the right to self-determination and the opportunity to achieve success through hard work and determination.

Somehow, thousands of miles away and surrounded by enemies and with no natural resources, Israel has achieved just that.

Both the US and Israel have withstood existential threats through courage and patriotism of their people.

When I was born, Israel was less than four years old. My parents immigrated to Israel in 1948 from Latin America and joined a long line of Zionists who fought for the right of Jewish self-determination. My father fought in the 1948 War of Independence and in the 1956 war. When I was serving in the army in 1973, I fought in the Yom Kippur War that changed the history of the Jewish people – and strengthened Israel’s reputation as a country that would not back down.

America also fought a war for its independence, and it was not until Andrew Jackson’s decisive victory in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, that foreign nations recognized that America was an independent power with the right to exist. Now America is the strongest country in the world and Israel is a powerful nation standing strong against all odds.

The US and Israel are both deeply committed to helping the world. The US government works to spread democracy. American businesses bring life-changing inventions to countries who need it most and US-based charities aid people and support causes around the world. Israel follows America’s lead in helping make the world a better place. Israel established the first stable and successful democracy in the Middle East. After 70 years of growth, it has developed into the start-up nation – bringing innovations to the world – and is a light unto nations, providing aid to people in countries such as Nepal, Sierra Leone, Syria, Mexico, and Haiti.

Cultural diversity is at the center of both of our thriving democracies. America is of course, the original melting pot, bringing together immigrants from virtually every other country on earth, and Israel does the same. Over millennia, the Jewish people spread to every corner of the planet – Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, the USSR, Morocco, Brazil, the US and more – and the dispersion collectively became known as the Diaspora.

Israel is where we have come together again. Israeli Jews have taken their traditions from Austria and Zimbabwe, from Berlin and from Bangalore and brought them together in the Jewish homeland, creating a rich melting pot of cultures.

Israeli society takes the “melting pot” phenomenon a step further with its mandatory army conscription, which gives citizens of all backgrounds the opportunity to succeed and develop national pride. I witnessed it first-hand during my mandatory IDF service. People from different countries, who practice different religions, who have different skin colors, who were born to different family circumstances, all start at the same humbling place. And all – Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Druze, Bedouin, Coptic, Arab Muslim, Assyrian and more – can be part of the Israeli army.

When we #Celebrate70, we don’t honor only Israel’s incredible accomplishments, but Israel’s shared values and strong alliance with America. From partnerships in business, innovation, technology, and academia to celebrating history and culture, Israel and America are great allies. Our shared dreams, our shared values, and our shared commitment mean that this year, Americans across the country are proud to say, “Happy Birthday Israel, and many more.”

The author 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.

This article was originally published in the Times of Israel by Jacob Maslow on May 8, 2018.

A new anthology of Jewish thought called The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, and Tomorrow was recently published. It is being hailed by many as the most comprehensive Zionist collection ever published because it includes over 170 different Jewish visionaries. This book, written by Gil Troy, includes a forward by Natan Sharansky and recognizes Adam Milstein as a torchbearer of cultural Zionism.

The Zionist Ideas builds on a classic Jewish book, The Zionist Idea by Arthur Hertzberg. Troy’s new book includes visionaries from the 1800s and includes women, mizrahim, and others who were left out in The Zionist Idea. This comprehensive book on Zionist thought traces the works of Jewish pioneers, builders of the modern day Zionist blueprint, and torchbearers who are carrying on cultural traditions and beliefs.

Adam Milstein is featured as a torchbearer along with other influential Zionists such as A.B. Yehoshua, Saul Singer, Sharon Shalom, and Rachel Sharansky Danziger.

About The Zionist Ideas by Gil Troy

Troy’s comprehensive look at Jewish visionaries looks at three different time periods, starting in the 1800s. He then breaks it down further into six different schools of Zionist thought:

•         Political
•         Revisionist
•         Labor
•         Religious
•         Cultural
•         Diaspora

The first part of this book explores the legacies and backstories of the pioneers who founded the Jewish state. This section includes people like Theodor Herzl, A.D. Gordon, and Abraham Isaac. Each of the pioneers in this section is from the pre-1948 era.

The next section covers the builders and influencers of Zionism between 1949 and 2000. These are the leaders and visionaries who implemented and modernized the Jewish state and blueprint. Zionists featured in this era include David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Leon Uris, and Mordecai Kaplan. The third section, where Adam Milstein is featured, is about today’s Jewish “torch leaders.” These are the people currently making an impact on the Jewish culture by reinvigorating the state and reassessing it where needed.

Adam Milstein’s Work Included in The Zionist Ideas

Israeliness is the Answer (2016) by Adam Milstein was included under the category of Cultural Zionism in part three of the book on Torchbearers. The focus of Cultural Zionism is the revitalization of the Jewish heritage and culture.

In Adam Milstein’s 2016 article in The Jerusalem Post, titled Israeliness Is the Answer, he discusses how many American Jews have become disconnected with their faith, particularly millennials. Milstein writes about the value of engaging younger generations with the State of Israel. He argues that even though many people claim that Israel is a source of conflict that drives these young adults away from their heritage, it is actually what connects them to it. Adam Milstein is a big supporter of programs such as the Birthright, which sends young people to Israel on a 10-day trip. Milstein believes that this exposure to their heritage and culture gives them a new sense of identity and connection to where they came from, leaving them in a state of “Israeliness”, which is a good thing.

This “Israeliness” reminds them of where they came from and where the Jewish people are going. They see the contributions that their people have made to the world and that being Jewish extends far beyond attending synagogue. By visiting Israel, Jewish Americans can gain a new sense of their own identity.

Adam Milstein strongly believes that Israeli-Americans are an untapped resource in maintaining the culture and traditions of the Jewish people. He is on a mission to bring “Israeliness” to America. The Israel American Council (IAC), an organization that Adam Milstein co-founded and serves on as the Chairman of the Board, is now the fastest growing American Jewish organization in the nation.

The IAC has started numerous programs to connect people to Israeliness and Jewish culture and traditions. Some of these programs include Sifriyat Pijama B’America, which sends children’s books written in Hebrew and about Jewish values to families to read, or IAC Michelanu, which is a Hebrew-language Jewish program that is on college campuses.

Adam Milstein’s Background

Adam Milstein is a philanthropist, activist, and co-founder of the IAC. He is also a real estate developer and managing partner at Hager Pacific. Adam Milstein was born in Haifa. During the Yom Kippur War he served in the IDF. Milstein graduated from the Technion in 1978 and moved to the United States in 1981 to pursue his MBA at the University of Southern California (USC). After graduating from USC, he found success in commercial real estate and continues to work in this industry. However, he dedicates much of his time to charitable causes that promote the Jewish culture and Israel.

In addition to his role as Chairman of the Board for the IAC, Adam Milstein and his wife, Gila founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Foundation, where they support numerous pro-Israel organizations. Milstein is also the co-founder of Sifriyat Pijama B’America. He also serves on the boards of many other pro-Israel organizations including Stand With Us, Hasbara Fellowships and Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC). Milstein is also a National Council member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

With his lifetime dedication to furthering the causes and values of the Jewish people, it comes as no surprise that Adam Milstein would be considered an important figure in carrying on the traditions and values of the Jewish people here in America and in Israel. Or, that he would be included in the most comprehensive collection to date of visionaries and influencers in the Zionist movement.

According to a recent interview in the Jewish Journal, Adam Milstein states that “there is nobody better than an Israeli American to be an advocate for the state of Israel.” He wants people to understand that being Jewish is more than just being a part of a synagogue. It includes the culture, the food, the dancing, and so much more. ‘Israeliness” is a heritage that he works tirelessly to preserve – unconditionally and unapologetically.

This article was originally published in the Jewish Journal by RYAN TOROK on April 11, 2018.

Adam Milstein has been dedicated in a few pages in this new book called: The Zionist Ideas, Vision for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, Tomorrow.

It was written by Gil Troy, a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University.

The book received a forward by Natan Sharansky. 

The most comprehensive Zionist collection ever published, The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow sheds light on the surprisingly diverse and shared visions for realizing Israel as a democratic Jewish state. Building on Arthur Hertzberg’s classic, The Zionist Idea, Gil Troy explores the backstories, dreams, and legacies of more than 170 passionate Jewish visionaries—quadruple Hertzberg’s original number and now including women, mizrachim, and others—from the 1800s to today.

Troy divides the thinkers into six Zionist schools of thought—Political, Revisionist, Labor, Religious, Cultural, and Diaspora Zionism—and reveals the breadth of the debate and surprising syntheses. He also presents the visionaries within three major stages of Zionist development, demonstrating the length and evolution of the conversation. Part 1 (pre-1948) introduces the pioneers who founded the Jewish state, such as Herzl, Gordon, Jabotinsky, Kook, Ha’am, and Szold. Part 2 (1948 to 2000) features builders who actualized and modernized the Zionist blueprints, such as Ben-Gurion, Berlin, Meir, Begin, Soloveitchik, Uris, and Kaplan. Part 3 showcases today’s torchbearers, including Barak, Grossman, Shaked, Lau, Yehoshua, and Sacks.

This mosaic of voices will engage equally diverse readers in reinvigorating the Zionist conversation—weighing and developing the moral, social, and political character of the Jewish state of today and tomorrow.

https://jps.org/wp-cont…/…/2018/02/Zionist-Ideas-excerpt.pdf

This article was originally published in the Times of Israel on April 5, 2018.

Jewish history teaches us that it takes great leaders to overcome major challenges.

At the turn of the century, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, founder of Revisionist Zionism Ze’ev Jabotinsky, World Zionist Organization president Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first female prime minister Golda Meir, and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold saw growing antisemitism and acted to lay the foundations for an independent Jewish state.

During World War II, Mordechai Anielewicz led Jews to fight Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, at the same time that Peter Bergson (a disciple of Jabotinsky) managed a heroic campaign to form a Jewish army to fight for the allies, while raising awareness about the destruction of European Jewry.

A few years later, Col. Mickey Marcus, a tough Brooklyn street kid who built a strong reputation as an American military leader in WWII, left his home in America to help save Israel in 1948 and become its first modern general.

Today, the Jewish people face a new set of challenges.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to eradicate the State of Israel, is being waged around the world. It is working to divide the State of Israel from the Jewish family around the world, transforming from the glue that unites the Jewish American community into a wedge that separates it.

These extreme challenges demand action. They demand great leadership from us the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

The Jewish American community needs to identify, encourage and support heroes of our time: our Mordechai Anielewicz, our Ben-Gurion, our Henrietta Szold, our Mickey Marcus and our Golda Meir. We need leaders who will ensure the Jewish future in America by engaging and inspiring the next generation to be courageous Zionist leaders, fight antisemitism and support the Jewish people in America and the Jewish homeland, which will always be in Israel.

I have great hope and optimism that these high-caliber leaders will emerge. This is because I meet them every day.

In my work as a pro-Israel philanthropist and activist, I meet with the next generation of pro-Israel activists – passionate, innovative and incredibly hard-working leaders – who are rising to meet the challenges of our time.

I see these leaders in the young people who return home from Birthright, energized by their new connection to Israel, with a new understanding about the necessity of instilling a strong Jewish identity in their children.

I see them in Israeli-American Council, where young Israeli-Americans are being activated as a living bridge between America and Israel, as they work to strengthen our American Jewish community.

I see them in the teenagers participating in the Tzofim and B’nei Akiva youth groups – many of whom eventually make aliya and serve in the IDF.

I see them around the U.S. and around the world, fighting against antisemitism and for the global Jewish community.

These are the people who will shape the Jewish future.

Our job is to give them the platform to develop and the tools to succeed. All of us must support and empower the next generation of leaders with pride, courage, and resources. Why? If you are proud of your Jewish identity and heritage, you will be willing to fight and defend it. When you understand the history of your people, then you understand why it is so important for us to defend your community.

The task of being a great leader is not easy: leaders face isolation, ridicule and tough decisions. For instance, Jabotinsky was often condemned for his efforts to create a separate Jewish nation. But great leaders are necessary. We must invest in them, cultivate them and support them. This is how we support the next Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Henrietta Szold. This is how the next generation will be stronger than the last. And this is how the Jewish future will be secured.

This article was originally published in The Jerusalem Post on February 27, 2018.

Jewish history teaches us that it takes great leaders to overcome major challenges.

At the turn of the century, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, founder of Revisionist Zionism Ze’ev Jabotinsky, World Zionist Organization president Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first female prime minister Golda Meir, and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold saw growing antisemitism and acted to lay the foundations for an independent Jewish state.

During World War II, Mordechai Anielewicz led Jews to fight Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, at the same time that Peter Bergson (a disciple of Jabotinsky) managed a heroic campaign to form a Jewish army to fight for the allies while raising awareness about the destruction of European Jewry.

A few years later, Col. Mickey Marcus, a tough Brooklyn street kid who built a strong reputation as an American military leader in WWII, left his home in America to help save Israel in 1948 and become its first modern general.
Today, the Jewish people face a new set of challenges.

Antisemitism is on the rise on the Right and on the Left. In the US alone, antisemitic incidents rose 67% in 2017 compared to 2016 – and in Europe, increases in antisemitic messages in media and social media has fostered a reality in which only half of Jews feel safe wearing visible signs of their Jewishness. A poll released in February 2017 by the Jewish Federation of San Francisco found that only 21% of millennials in their community are very emotionally attached to Israel, and only 26% think it is very important to be Jewish, reflecting disturbing trends we saw in the 2013 Pew Survey of Jewish Americans and other research studies.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to eradicate the State of Israel, is being waged around the world. It is working to divide the State of Israel from the Jewish family around the world, transforming from the glue that unites the Jewish American community into a wedge that separates it.

These extreme challenges demand action. They demand great leadership from us the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

The Jewish American community needs to identify, encourage and support heroes of our time: our Mordechai Anielewicz, our Ben-Gurion, our Henrietta Szold, our Mickey Marcus and our Golda Meir. We need leaders who will ensure the Jewish future in America by engaging and inspiring the next generation to be courageous Zionist leaders, fight antisemitism and support the Jewish people in America and the Jewish homeland, which will always be in Israel.

I have great hope and optimism that these high-caliber leaders will emerge. This is because I meet them every day.
In my work as a pro-Israel philanthropist and activist, I meet with the next generation of pro-Israel activists – passionate, innovative and incredibly hard-working leaders – who are rising to meet the challenges of our time.

I see these leaders in the young people who return home from Birthright, energized by their new connection to Israel, with a new understanding about the necessity of instilling a strong Jewish identity in their children.

I see them in Israeli-American Council, where young Israeli-Americans are being activated as a living bridge between America and Israel, as they work to strengthen our American Jewish community.

I see them in the teenagers participating in the Tzofim and B’nei Akiva youth groups – many of whom eventually make aliya and serve in the IDF.

This month, I will see them in Washington among the hundreds of college students that the Milstein Family Foundation brings to the AIPAC Policy Conference.

These are the people who will shape the Jewish future.

Our job is to give them the platform to develop and the tools to succeed. All of us must support and empower the next generation of leaders with pride, courage, and resources. Why? If you are proud of your Jewish identity and heritage, you will be willing to fight and defend it. When you understand the history of your people, then you understand why it is so important for us to defend your community.

The task of being a great leader is not easy: leaders face isolation, ridicule and tough decisions. For instance, Jabotinsky was often condemned for his efforts to create a separate Jewish nation. But great leaders are necessary. We must invest in them, cultivate them and support them. This is how we support the next Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and Henrietta Szold. This is how the next generation will be stronger than the last. And this is how the Jewish future will be secured.

The author 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.