From its inception, Global Jewry (GJ) has been laser-focused on its mission to strengthen the bonds that unite the Jewish people. We are committed to making sure that what all of us have in common supersedes our different passports, religious affiliations, political opinions, ages, and any other distinguishing features within our community. Each of us is a part of the Jewish family, a special connection we should embrace and nurture.

It is with this conviction firmly in place that I traveled to Israel on Wednesday to participate in the Jewish Funders Network conference. More than 600 people are attending, many of whom are or represent the leading Jewish philanthropists in the world. They are here because they share our commitment to securing a brighter future for the Jewish people, one built on a foundation of common values, mutual understanding, and respect.

Many of those attending the conference serve on the executive committee or advisory board of Global Jewry. It is wonderful and heartwarming to be here with all of them, and I am confident their presence will raise awareness of our initiative, help us recruit additional advisors, and enable us to attract new partner organizations.

And, whenever the subject of Global Jewry arises at the conference, I intend to do a lot of listening. I have already received some great advice from a variety of people – including Shaya Ben-Yehuda, Daniel Bonner, Shalom Elcott, Barry Finestone, Maxyne Finkelstein, Erica Lyons, Na’ama Ore, Arik Rosenblum, Kimberly Miller Rubenfeld, Simone Szalmuk-Singer, Andres Spokoiny and Yaniv Rivlin. It was great visiting with all of them, and I appreciate their sharing thoughts and insights on how to make our initiative as impactful as possible.

Particularly intriguing were the many suggestions concerning ways to start connecting the members of our Advisory Board and Executive Committee in new and more meaningful ways. There is clearly a desire among many of you to get to know each other better, learn from one another, engage in more conversations, exchange articles and opinions, explore collaborations, work together in small groups to raise the profile of Global Jewry, and otherwise help GJ achieve its vital mission.

Now that we know there is real interest among many of our advisors for a deeper engagement with each other, we will start working right away on ways to make that happen. And, as always, we welcome your ideas as to how we can cross-pollinate our network of advisors as effectively as possible.

I am looking forward to learning even more from the hundreds of other very smart, very experienced folks at the conference. And, when asked, I will be as clear and concise as possible about why our initiative is important:

• We are living at a moment in time when building the bridges necessary to connect Jews from every corner of the world to one another and to their global Jewish family has never been more important.
• The best way to make those connections is to focus on our shared values and common interests while also celebrating and uplifting our diversity as a people.
• Global Jewry is working with our partner organizations to forge those connections by helping them broaden their reach and amplify messages of unity, community, and strength.
• Our early success demonstrates Global Jewry is onto something big, and we hope they’ll help us continue to grow in size and influence.

As always, thank you for your support and please keep sharing our social media content as widely as possible. One key metric for Global Jewry’s success on social media is our number of followers, so anything you can do to help us improve that figure will be greatly appreciated.

Shabbat Shalom and may this be the week the hostages return home,

Sandy Cardin