GESHER IS ALL ABOUT BRINGING TOGETHER DIVERSE SECTORS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO EXPLORE, BUILDAND STRENGTHEN A COHESIVE SOCIETY, NOT ONLY INISRAEL BUT ACROSS THE WORLD.

A Haredi advisor to the mayor of Israel’s largest city, a secular actor, and a Religious Zionist journalist board a plane to Los Angeles…

Although this sounds like the beginning of a joke, this was the scene as I recently led a Gesher trip: a broad delegation of Israeli movers and shakers on their way to study the thriving kaleidoscope of rich Jewish life outside of Israel. This is what Gesher is about – bringing together diverse sectors of the Jewish people to explore, build and strengthen a cohesive society.

Gesher is an organization that has been recognized for decades as the leader in facilitating dialogue and shattering stereotypes between the often-conflicting sectors of Israeli Jewish society. Many leaders today in Israel cite their earlier participation in a Gesher seminar (often in high school) as one of the most nationalistically transformative, identity-forming moments of their lives.

Just a few years ago, we decided to expand our efforts in two crucial areas. First, we chose to evolve from a strictly educational organization to one focused on tangible social impact. The most dramatic operational change was initiating our work with Israeli society leaders soldiers representing the next generation. The second was our decision to expand our focus, from bridging the gaps only in Israeli society to also focusing on rifts between Israelis and world Jewry by increasing Israelis’ sense of connection to the global community.

Taking on these goals meant we needed to develop projects geared towards leaders in Israeli society becoming better educated and more aware of world Jewry, and to imbue within these leaders a sense of responsibility to those Jews around the world. The most prominent manifestation of this goal is a three-month intensive course for a cohort of about 20 senior civic leaders in Israel. With almost half of the Jewish people now residing in Israel, we are living through a paradigm shift: Israel and Israelis need to assume more responsibility for global Jewry and inject some tangible substance into the well-oiled idiom of the “state of the Jewish people.”