It is now March and, sadly, the news emanating from the Middle East continues to be devastating and demoralizing. Fighting continues, casualties mount, hostages remain in captivity and Israel is still considered the villain by much of the world. So much time has passed since October 7th that it is hard to remember what life was like before the attack, and even harder to reconcile things will never be the same again. Here’s to hoping what comes next is not a worsening of the situation, but rather a change for the better.

With that dream in mind, we are working hard to position Global Jewry in such a way that it can offer people a sense of connection today and be prepared to build an even greater sense of community in the future.

Here’s what is happening right now:

1. Our already large and impressive advisory board continues to grow every day. We greatly appreciate the support of everyone who is lending their good name to our cause, and we look forward to increasing the number of people on our team. We are intent on making sure our advisory board is as diverse as possible, so please share the names of anyone living outside of Israel and the US to whom you think we should reach out. We are also very focused on recruiting leaders outside of the Ashkenazi world who may be interested in joining us.
2. Over 120 members of our advisory board have joined our WhatsApp group and are introducing themselves to each other. These exchanges are exactly the kind of connections and cross-pollinations we had in mind when we started Global Jewry. To that end, we are exploring transforming our group into a WhatsApp community so we can help facilitate even greater communication between and among our advisors and executive committee members.
3. Speaking of our executive committee, it is now a group of 16 very influential people from 12 different countries. We are honored by their commitment to Global Jewry and thankful they will be skillfully chaired by Richard Levin. It is awesome to have one of the foremost executive coaches in the world leading our executive committee.
4. We are also adding organizational partners daily, and are humbled to have more than 160 on our team. As a way of helping them amplify their messages and reach larger audiences, we are preparing to update our website with a new navigation bar that we hope will help visitors to our site find a link to our partners as easily as possible.
5. Thanks to the help of Ian Kandel, an advisory board member from the USA, we were able to have a presence at the BBYO International Convention in Orlando last month. It was an inspiring and energizing conference with more than 4,000 teens from all over the world in attendance. It also had a huge number of international participants, both teens and adults, and is a great model for what a gathering of Global Jewry could become in the years ahead.
6. Last week, advisory board member Dr. Shalhavit-Simcha Cohen from Israel became the first of what we hope will be many of you who send us an article or video for publication in our weekly GJ Connections. Her message of positivity was uplifting, and we hope you follow her lead. We deeply appreciate Shalhavit-Simcha volunteering to be our Nachshon.

Shabbat shalom and may this be the week the hostages are returned,