Category: Uncategorized

Orignial post can be found on the Huffington Post

By: Adam Milstein

The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation proudly supports Bizrael, which organizes professional business trips to connect people with Israel’s leading startups, international companies, academia, and other key players behind the Startup Nation. Below, Co-founder and Director Jason Weiss shares how Bizrael harnesses the power of Israeli entrepreneurship to change people’s perceptions. 

When we started Bizrael in 2012, we wanted to do something no one else had done in the Israel advocacy world — create a way for students to experience Israel’s thriving startup economy. Since then, thanks to the support of great organizations like the Milstein Family Foundation, more than 1,000 students and young professionals from 10 different countries have learned about the innovative business landscape in Israel through Bizrael programs. By doing so, we have created a new way to experience the Jewish State.

The nickname “Startup Nation,” now common, wasn’t so well-known when Bizrael was founded. In the summer of 2012 we recruited 30 students from across the U.S. for our first Bizrael Elite trip, and went on a two-week whirlwind tour, meeting over 25 startups, investors, corporations, government agencies, and more to learn what, how, and why Israel has become one of the most innovative countries on the planet. From the chief scientist at a medical company to the founder of Waze, and from water desalination technology to cyber security, we showed participants a side of Israel they had never seen before. We also learned how open, excited, and engaging the companies were to opening their doors and getting behind our mission.

After we held the Bizrael Elite trip four times, something interesting started to happen. After partnering with other Israel trips and programs, they started asking us if they could add a Bizrael day to their next trip or make a custom Bizrael trip for their students. Learning from the startups we surrounded ourselves with, in 2014 we decided to shift our focus to meet this new demand. Instead of working with students directly, we became a content provider for groups, offering Bizrael trips through other organizations bringing young adults to Israel. This enabled us to focus on what we do best — creating trips with our unique Startup Nation content — while enabling us to grow in new ways and reach thousands more people globally.

Through our experience and network, Bizrael brings student groups insider access that was previously only available to well-connected professionals. Over the past several years, Bizrael has become a valued partner to dozens of groups including the Israel Experience, J Internships, Tamid, the Union of Jewish Students, MBA trips, young entrepreneurs, leadership trips, and more.

What has been most inspiring is the feedback from students. From first timers to Israeli-born regulars, everyone is amazed and excited about Israel when they learn about its vibrant business landscape and culture of innovation. We have helped dozens of students return to Israel to study or intern, start clubs on their campus (Bizrael alumni started two Tamid clubs), and experience a newfound appreciation for and connection to the Jewish state.

Our vision is to change the way people perceive and experience Israel, especially the next generation of business leaders. It’s also my story — I came from an unaffiliated religious background and started getting involved through the business side of Israel. I know how powerful and important our message is because it’s what inspired me. Now, I have seen it inspire many others.

We have a new tool for engaging Jewish Youth and advancing the fight against the BDS movement: the magnetic power of the Startup Nation. We look forward to continue growing and partnering with more groups and students this year as we show the power of Israeli entrepreneurship and innovation.

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!

Original post: Jerusalem Post

As co-founder of the Israeli-American Council based in California, Adam Milstein’s mission has been to strengthen and support the State of Israel and the Jewish people, as well as the US-Israel relationship.

The IAC has been doing so by connecting American Jewry (about 5.5 million) and the Israeli-American community in the US (about half a million).
Under Milstein’s helm, the IAC has been called the fastest growing Jewish organization in the US.

Milstein was born in Haifa in 1952 and moved to California with his wife, Gila, in 1981, where he became a top real estate agent. Today, he is managing partner of Hager Pacific Properties, which specializes in industrial, retail, office and multi-family properties. He and his wife, who have three daughters, established the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation in 2000, which encourages young Jews to identify with their Jewish roots and connect with Israel.

In June 2015, Milstein brought together Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson for the first Campus Maccabbees Summit in Las Vegas, which convened more than 50 organizations to “harness the full might of the pro-Israel community to defeat hate groups spreading antisemitism and lies about the Jewish state on America’s college campuses.”

A prominent Jewish philanthropist, Milstein sits on the board of several key organizations, including StandWithUs, Israel on Campus Coalition and Hasbara Fellowships, as well as the Jewish Funders Network, Birthright Israel, Stand By Me and the AIPAC National Council.

Milstein has said he feels “lucky” to be a philanthropist and have the opportunity to make an impact on the Jewish community and the State of Israel. Since Milstein founded the Israeli-American Council, it has grown to 10 regional councils, with active volunteers in 27 US states and a range of innovative programs to engage Israeli-Americans nationwide of all ages, such as IAC Eitanim, which teaches practical leadership skills to groups of Jewish American and Israeli-American high school students.

“Before we founded the IAC, no one used the term ‘Israeli-Americans’ or ‘Americans of Israeli descent’,” Milstein wrote in a Jerusalem Post op-ed. “Now we proudly embrace our Israeli-American identity; we love our home in America, while remaining deeply connected to our Jewish homeland, which will always be in Israel. As that identity grows stronger, so does the entire Jewish American community.”

Original post: The Jerusalem Post

Ten years ago, I was both an Israeli and an American. Now, I’m an Israeli-American. Embracing this unique hybrid identity makes all the difference in the world for more than a million people living in America.

A decade ago, Israeli-Americans were, at best, afterthoughts within the Jewish American community. Even though we had US passports, built American businesses, lived in American homes, had English-speaking kids in schools and colleges, we lived “with our suitcases packed.” We assumed we would return to Israel one day and saw little need to cultivate a community.

We were disconnected from synagogues, Jewish education and Jewish community organizations, but deep in our hearts, we knew we were also disconnected from our Jewish homeland.

Over the past decade, all of this has changed dramatically. More and more, people like me – born in Israel, but residing in the US – along with our spouses, children and grandchildren, are proudly embracing an Israeli-American identity. This is largely a result of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), which has grown to 10 regional councils, with active volunteers in 27 states and a range of innovative programs that meaningfully engage Israeli-Americans nationwide at all stages of life.

Our new identity has provided a centerpiece for the IAC to build a united community. We have moved from isolation to integration within the Jewish American community, from irrelevant to a game changer. And we are using our unique identity to not only get involved in American Jewish life, but to strengthen the broader Jewish-American community in the process. The fact that we speak both “Israeli” and “American” has positioned us to become a living bridge between Israel and US, and to inject what we call “Israeliness” into the broader mix of American Jewish communal institutions.

Later this month, at the IAC National Kenes in Washington, DC, will mark a major milestone in the Israeli-American community’s emergence as a significant and fast-growing player within the broader Jewish Diaspora. It will be the largest gathering of Israeli-Americans in history – and represent a meeting of many of the most important figures in Jewish life today from both the US and Israel.

This three-day conference will bring together community and political leaders, academics, editors, journalists, authors and artists from both Israel and the United States. Leaders of major organizations, such as the Jewish Federations, the Jewish Community Centers of America, Jewish National Fund and AIPAC will explore how Israeli-Americans can strengthen the American Jewish community and its connection to Israel, joining many of the world’s most visionary philanthropists, including Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson.

Together, we will examine how Israeli-Americans can be unleashed to strengthen the three pillars critical for the Jewish future: the next generation, the American Jewish community and the friendship between the American people and Israeli people, as well as the relationship between their governments.

Over the past year, the IAC has already shown significant progress in building these three pillars for both Israeli-Americans and the broader Jewish community. We have been able to strengthen the next generation through programs like IAC Eitanim – which teaches practical leadership skills to groups of Jewish American and Israeli-American high school students, and we have been instrumental in the overwhelmingly passage of an anti-boycott bill in both the California Senate and Assembly.

At the conference, we will explore how to engage and support the next generation in conversation with thought leaders like Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark and Gidi Grinstein, the president of the Reut Institute and the author of Flexigidity.

We will explore how “Israeliness” – the Hebrew language, Israeli culture and entrepreneurship, our unique sense of family, and our connection to and love for Israel – can strengthen the Jewish identity of Americans, young and old, and not just those with Israeli parents, but those throughout the broader Jewish community.

And we will look for ways to leverage Israeli-Americans as a strategic asset to strengthen the relationship between the US and Israel.

Israeli-Americans are knowledgeable and passionate about this subject.

They can speak from personal experience – it’s much easier to explain Israel’s security challenges when your family lives in Jerusalem or you have served in the Israel Defense Forces.

Israeli-Americans – instilled with our culture’s characteristic boldness – can form an army of activists who are unafraid to stand up and speak out against the lies about the Jewish state and the Israeli people.

This month’s conference marks just how far the Israeli-Americans have come: we are not on the fringes of the Jewish American community, but a core pillar of its strength.

Before we founded the IAC, no one used the term “Israeli-Americans” or “Americans of Israeli descent.” Now we proudly embrace our Israeli-American identity: we love our home in America, while remaining deeply connected to our Jewish homeland, which will always be in Israel.

As that identity grows stronger, so does the entire Jewish American community.

The author is an entrepreneur, Israeli- American philanthropist and the chairman of the Israeli-American Council

By: Hadas Sella, Executive Director of The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation. Originally on Times of Israel

When you read this, you might realize this story is about you. Please forgive me. I have the utmost respect for you and your work. However, this lesson is just too valuable not to share.

Last month, I was approached by a group of professionals who had a simple yet brilliant idea: They needed $150,000 in order to create a high-quality program that would be taught to three million high school students every year. They told me that their team had the professional skills to build this incredible program. They also had connections to networks that would help the program actually reach three million high school students every year.

“How do you know that the teachers will want to teach this program?” I asked.

“It’s easy,” they responded. “We have connections that will make this possible.”

“Do you have any letter, agreement, or proof that this will work?”

“No.”

“Have you asked your networks if they will do it?”

“No.”

“Has anyone else pledged to fund this program already?”

“No.”

There are many things we look for in projects. But, I didn’t see a reason to continue the conversation until I saw a letter confirming that the program would indeed be taught to three million high school students, as they claimed. What else can I do? The best program in the world is completely worthless if it cannot be implemented on the ground.

It’s been over a month and a half, and I haven’t heard back from them.

Here’s the thing: This is a group of very intelligent people, but I don’t know them. I’ve never worked with them and I don’t know other people who know them. I don’t have the expertise to assess the quality of their program. I like the subject, but how do I know for sure if the program is good? Professionals in high schools should make that call. All I need is a letter. But they called me before they made the phone call that would get them that letter—an easy task, according to them. They jumped to fundraising before they collected the low-hanging fruit.

Now, let’s step outside of the nonprofit sphere and into the business world. You have a product. You think it’s an amazing product. You want to manufacture large quantities of it, but you need to fundraise in order to be able to manufacture that first batch. Under what circumstances do you think it would be easier to fundraise—with or without a purchase order of three million units?

The answer is clear. Your company’s valuation will be much higher if you have a letter from someone who wants to buy three million units. As the founder, if you know that you are one easy-to-get letter away from increasing your valuation, you go and get that letter before you pitch to venture capital firms.

The situation I described happens again, and again, and again.

Recently we were approached by two young men with an amazing, out-of-the-box idea that has the potential to have a tremendous impact. I mean unprecedentedly big—at least in our sphere, in my humble opinion. The problem is that there are a few operational elements that have not been figured out yet. I offered my advice and said that we would try to help with the fundraising if they improved their operational plan. They said it would be a few days. Four weeks later they emailed to apologize for the delay. I had to respond that unfortunately, due to the long delay, we can no longer consider supporting the project. It doesn’t matter why there was a four-week delay, all that matters is that the project is not a high priority, and if it’s not a high priority for the people running it, we cannot spend the foundation’s money on it. No disrespect—these really are unusual circumstances—but whatever the circumstances may be, what matters is that we cannot be rest assured that the project is managed properly.

It’s frustrating because these are good ideas, coming from smart, capable people. These projects are not going to make them rich, but they would further our cause. They are passionate about their projects and they are reaching out to foundations that can help make their ideas possible. But by reaching out too soon, they are shooting themselves in the foot because they come across as unprepared, which raises the worst kinds of questions in a donor’s mind.

I know that feeling, the feeling of having an amazing idea, an idea so good it would make me a millionaire or change the world. But you can’t go asking strangers for money—even if they are called a foundation and even if you share the same mission—before you have taken the idea as far as you can by yourself, as a token of thoroughness, seriousness, and dedication. For more on this see my blog about the difference between foundations and bank accounts.

Another extremely talented young man I know, highly respected in our community, told me once, “Man, if only someone gave me, person B, and person C a million dollars, we would change things around.” I had to wake him up. Buddy, no one is giving you a million dollars. You need to come up with a plan, budget it, try it out, prove that it works, and then go raise the money.

If you go back to my older posts, you will see an overarching theme:frustration. There is so much wisdom out there, so many great ideas and capable people. But many of those great ideas get lost when people fail to raise funds for their unproven concepts and incoherently presented plans, and those small mistakes have a big cost.

If you have an idea that you are serious about, if you can prove that it would make an impact, and if you have done everything in your power to get the idea as far as possible, I welcome you to reach out to me so that I can potentially help you bring it to the next phase.

“Put your money where your mouth is,” they say. I’ll make it easier on you: Put your time where your idea is.

Original Post: The Huffington Post

Seventy years ago, in the wake of the Holocaust, the Jewish people took a vow: Never Again!

After the Nazis murdered six million Jews, we came to recognize that we only have ourselves to rely upon for our defense. In today’s tumultuous world, the sole guarantor of Jewish safety is a strong Israeli military. Jews around the world facing mortal danger can count on the State of Israel to protect them.

This year commemorates the 40th anniversary of the July 1976 Raid on Entebbe, when Israel demonstrated what Never Again really means. After an Air France plane with about 300 passengers traveling from Israel to France was hijacked by terrorists and brought to Uganda, the Israeli and Jewish passengers went through a Nazi-like selection process and were kept as hostages while the non-Jews were set free to return to Paris.

The terrorists declared that they would kill all the hostages if their demand for the release of 53 international terrorists, held in Israel and other countries, was not met. Yet it was only the State of Israel that chose to take action and save the Jewish captives. Israel refused to accept the execution of Jews by the terrorists, and in a daring and carefully planned mission, Israeli forces used four American Hercules C-130 cargo planes, travelled 2,400 miles and rescued the hostages. One IDF officer, Lieutenant Colonel Yoni Netanyahu, brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and three hostages were killed. More than 100 were saved.

But this is not the only time in recent history that only the people of Israel were willing to put their own lives in harm’s way to protect their brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. After a lethal pogrom in Yemen in 1947 after the U.N. vote to partition the British Mandate of Palestine, Israel secretly airlifted 45,000 Yemenite Jews to safety in Israel with Operation Magic Carpet. And again with Operation Solomon in 1991, the IDF airlifted 14,500 Ethiopian Jews out of harm’s way in Africa to Israel. With these incredible rescue missions, Israel has made it clear that it will do whatever it takes to protect global Jewry.

Again and again, the Jewish people have been targeted. Yet now, the State of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, is here to step in and stand by those in danger. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Israel resettled more than 1 million Soviet Jews in Israel. Jews around the world, wherever they are, can rest assured that their brothers and sisters in Israel are there to protect them. The IDF is there to ensure that the Right of Return of the Jewish people in any corner of the world is protected, from Ethiopia, to Russia, to Yemen. In addition to serving as the homeland for the Jewish people, Israel is here to extend its arms and ensure that Never Again remains a reality.

Before Israel’s founding in 1948, Jews were easy prey to the world’s terrorists. They could run but they were never completely safe. Not anymore, Never Again! Thanks to its strength, the Israel Defense Force is fulfilling its true purpose—to serve as the ultimate insurance policy for the Jewish people against our enemies.

We saw this powerfully displayed again in 2003, when three Israel Air Force (IAF) F-15 Eagle fighter jets, piloted by descendants of Holocaust survivors, took to the skies, soaring over the 40 square kilometers of Auschwitz where Nazis slaughtered more than one million Jewish men, and women, and children only 70 years ago. Below the IAF jets—on the very ground where so many Jews lost their lives—stood hundreds of IAF commanders singing the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikva.” (You can watch the powerful video of the Israel Air Force flyover at Auschwitz here.)

If history has taught us anything, it is that others will try to annihilate the Jews again in the future. But whenever the next time comes, we will not be helpless. Israel, with all its might and determination, is not going anywhere. It will do whatever is necessary to eliminate threats posed by those who seek the Jewish people’s destruction.

In the early 1930s, people across the world—including many of the most successful and assimilated Jews in Europe—wrote off Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitism, believing that he would never actually act on his words. Little could they imagine the disaster that would be brought upon the entire world by Hitler’s madness just a few years later, leading to the death of tens of millions and the destruction of half the world.

If Hitler’s intentions had been taken more seriously early on, he could have been stopped. The Holocaust is further evidence that Jews are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When Jews are persecuted, slandered or unfairly singled out, it does not bode well for others. While Jews are often the first to be targeted by tyrants and bigots, it almost never ends with the Jews.

Remember that the next time you hear the news about an IDF military operation. When Israel goes to war, it is not doing so just for its citizens or Jews around world. When Israel fights, it does so on behalf of Western civilization as a whole. Israel is the floodgate—it sits on a strategic fault line between enlightenment and tyranny.

We will soon be without any Holocaust survivors who can provide us with direct personal accounts of the horrors they suffered. But the lessons of the Holocaust are more relevant than ever and they must be passed on to future generations.

This month, we lost one of the great bearers of those lessons, Elie Wiesel, who said of this cause, “without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.”

As Elie Wiesel often shared, one of the most important ways to safeguard the memory of the Holocaust is to strengthen and support Israel. The Jewish state stands as a vivid rejection of everything the Nazis believed in. As long as the Jewish people can defend ourselves by ourselves, we will flourish and prosper for generations to come. And so will the world.

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

Original Post can be found in The Jerusalem Post

Never again. That was the sacred vow made by the Jewish people over the past 70 years in the wake of the Holocaust.

Following the murder of six million of our brethren by the Nazis, the Jewish people have come to recognize that we have only ourselves to rely on for our defense.

When the going gets tough, no one else will come to fight for us.

And in today’s tumultuous world, the sole guarantor of Jewish safety is a strong Israeli military. Jews facing mortal danger in any corner of the globe can count on Israel to protect them.

No event in recent years symbolized this more than the Israel Air Force flyover of the Auschwitz death camps, in what is now Poland, in September 2003. After being invited to take a part in an air show marking the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Air Force, three IAF F-15 Eagle fighter jets, all piloted by descendants of Holocaust survivors, flew to Auschwitz and thundered through the skies above the camp where nearly one million Jews were slaughtered between 1940 and 1945 while the world stood by and did nothing.

The message of the flyover mission was clear: unlike the Allied forces during World War II, who patrolled the skies above the death camps but refrained from bombing Auschwitz and its rail roads for “lack of resources,” Israel will never leave Jews to their fate.

Never again means never again.

Israel will see to that, no matter the consequences.

As the IAF’s F-15s were soaring over the camps, hundreds of IDF commanders on the ground proudly sang “Hatikva,” the Israeli national anthem, the title of which means “the hope” in English.

One of the Israeli pilots was Amir Eshel, now the commander of the IAF. In a radio message broadcast to a delegation of IDF soldiers gathered down below at Auschwitz, Eshel declared, “We pilots of the Israel Air Force, flying in the skies above the camp of horrors, arose from the ashes of the millions of victims and shoulder their silent cries, salute their courage, and promise to be the shield of the Jewish people and its nation Israel.”

His words succinctly capture the story of the State of Israel. Our homeland was established with blood, sweat and grit by a battered, but brave and defiant Jewish people. We overcame all odds and built a thriving democracy in our ancient homeland in the heart of the Middle East.

Before Israel’s founding in 1948, Jews were easy prey. They could run but they were not safe. Not anymore, never again! Thanks to its strength, the Israel Defense Force is fulfilling its true purpose – to serve as the ultimate insurance policy for the Jewish people against our enemies.

If history has taught us anything, it is that others will try to annihilate the Jews again and again in the future. But whenever the next time comes, we will not be helpless. Israel, with all its might and determination, is not going anywhere. It will do whatever is necessary to eliminate threats posed by those who seek the Jewish people’s destruction.

In the early 1930s, people across the world – including many of the most successful and assimilated Jews in Europe – wrote off Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitism, believing that he would never actually act on his words. Little could they imagine the disaster that would be brought upon the entire world by Hitler’s madness just a few years later, leading to the death of tens of millions and the destruction of half the world.

If Hitler’s intentions had been taken seriously early on, he could have been stopped. The Holocaust was further evidence that Jews are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. When Jews are persecuted, slandered or unfairly singled out, this does not bode well for others.

While Jews are often the first to be targeted by tyrants and bigots, it almost never ends with the Jews.

Remember that the next time you hear the news about an IDF operation. When Israel goes to war, it is not doing so just for its citizens or Jews around world.

When Israel fights, it does so on behalf of Western civilization as a whole. Israel is the floodgate – it sits on a strategic fault line between enlightenment and tyranny.

In the not-too-distant future, we will be without any Holocaust survivors who can provide us with direct personal accounts of the horrors they suffered. But the lessons of the Holocaust are more relevant than ever and they must be passed on to future generations.

This month, we lost one of the great bearers of these lessons, Elie Wiesel, who said of this cause, “Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.”

As Wiesel often shared, one of the most important ways to safeguard the memory of the Holocaust is to strengthen and support Israel. The Jewish state stands as a vivid rejection of everything the Nazis believed in. As long as the Jewish people can defend ourselves by ourselves, we will flourish and prosper for generations to come. And so will the world.

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.

Original Post on The Huffington Post by Adam Milstein