Haviv Rettig Gur on the Jewish Agency in 2021

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Jewish Agency for Israel is the largest Jewish non-profit in the world. Founded in 1929, it incubated the state of Israel’s proto-government, and, upon the state’s declaration of independence, its officers became Israel’s ministers. Since then, it has brought thousands of Jews to the land of Israel, and it has invested in agriculture, housing, social services, and other programs crucial to Israel’s survival and prosperity. But that's all mostly in the past. Now that a state has been established, and that most diaspora communities are not in danger, what should the Jewish Agency do? What is its purpose?

Haviv Rettig Gur, senior analyst for the Times of Israel, was a former communications director of the Jewish Agency, and so he has a few ideas about what it should be doing today. That question is especially pertinent now, as later this month a new agency chairman will be elected. In conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, Gur tries to make sense of the history, governance, strategy, and future of the Jewish world’s biggest non-profit.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hassochnut, as the Jewish agency for Israel is called in Hebrew, is the largest Jewish
0:14.7	non-profit in the world. Founded in 1929, it incubated the state of Israel's proto-government, and its officers became
0:23.1	Israel's ministers upon the state's declaration of sovereign independence. The Jewish agency
0:28.6	has brought untold thousands of Jews to the land of Israel, where it has invested in agriculture,
0:35.3	building programs, social services, investments that have been crucial
0:39.6	to Israel's survival and its prosperity.
0:42.1	Of course, if it was founded in 1929, then that means that it's nearly 100 years old,
0:47.3	or constituted to midwife the institutions of statehood, and gather in the Jewish exile.
0:52.7	What should the future of the Jewish agency be? To which
0:55.8	contemporary Jewish problems should its vast holdings be directed? Well, those are questions that come to
1:01.8	the fore this month, October 2021, when new leadership will be designated. Welcome to the Tikva podcast.
1:07.9	I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. to help us make sense of the history,
1:11.7	the governance, the funding, the strategy, and the future of the Jewish agency. I'm joined by
1:16.6	Kaviv Reti Gore, senior analyst for the Times of Israel and Mosaic contributor.
1:21.7	Kaviv was formerly Director of Communications for the Jewish Agency. If you enjoy this conversation,
1:27.2	you can subscribe to the
1:28.3	Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you'll leave us a five-star
1:34.5	review to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other
1:39.8	podcast episodes at podcast at tikfa fund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more about our work
1:46.4	at Tikva, you can visit our website, tikfafund.org, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
1:51.7	Here now is my discussion with Kaviv Red Tigur.
1:55.1	Chaviv Gore, welcome back to the Tikva podcast.
	...

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