Planning a Congregational Trip to Israel
This section aims to provide you with information about planning congregational trips to Israel, with a specific focus on peace and social justice.
I. Day Visits with Non-Profits
II. Host a Panel
III. Interfaith Meetings
I. Day Visits with Non-Profits
Organize one or two days for the participants to visit with non-governmental organizations in Israel working on peace and social justice issues in Israel.
Have a day dedicated to social justice issues where all participants visit peace and social justice groups. Contact the New Israel Fund and its partner Shatil to help organize these meetings. The Leo Baeck Center in Haifa can also help you out. Leo Baeck is associated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
New Israel Fund
The New Israel Fund is a philanthropy that promotes equality, fairness and justice for all of Israel's citizens. It raises money in North America and in Europe to donate to grassroots organizations in Israel working for social change.
Tel: 011-972-2-672-3095
Email: nif@nif.org.il
Web: http://www.nif.org
Shatil
Shatil is a partner of the New Israel Fund. It provides non-profit organizations with the skills and resources needed to develop effective management and implementation strategies. Shatil also helps find volunteers for the non-profits they help.
Tel: 011-972-2-672-3597
Email: info@shatil.org.il
Web: http://www.nif.org
Leo Baeck Education Center
The Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa, associated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism, is a helpful resource. It consists of a senior and junior high school, a community center offering social outreach programs, a sports center, a progressive synagogue, and the Lokey International Academy of Jewish Studies, which does programming for visitors from around the world.
Tel: 011-972-4-833-1080
Email: Leobek21@inter.net.il
Web: http://www.lokeyacademy.org
Here are some suggestions of groups to meet:
Jewish-Arab Equality & Coexistence
ACRI: Association for Civil Rights in Israel
ACRI protects the rights of all individuals in Israel and in the occupied territories through legal action, education and public outreach.
Tel: 011-972-2-652-1218
Email: acri@actcom.co.il
Web: http://www.nif.org
Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel
Adalah means "justice" in Arabic. It is an Arab-run legal center in Israel that serves the Arab community on legal issues.
Tel: 011-972-4-950-1610
Email: adalahorg@hotmail.com
Web: http://www.adalah.org
Ahali Center for Community Development
The Ahali Center is a community-based group promoting grassroots activism among the Palestinian minority in Israel on issues of equality and the fair distribution of national resources.
Tel: 011-972-4-608-1401
Email: ahali_center@hotmail.com
Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development
CJAED helps to provide resources and support for organizations engaged in economic development between Arabs and Jews.
Tel: 011-972-9-954-1378
Email: information@cjaed.org.il
Web: http://www.cjaed.org.il
Givat Haviva Educational Center
Givat Haviva is an education and research center based in the Galilee that works on coexistence projects between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.
Tel: 011-972-4-630-9289
Email: givat_il@inter.net.il
Ittijah: The Union of Arab Community-Based Organizations
Ittijah works to strengthen Palestinian citizens of Israel in its struggle for equality. It is helping to create a Palestinian civil society through community-based organizations.
Tel: 011-972-4-862-1713
Email: ittijah@ittijah.org
Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam
Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is a village in Israel established jointly by Jews and Palestinian Arabs of Israeli citizenship and engaged in educational work for peace, equality and understanding between the two peoples.
Tel: 011-972-2-991-5621
Email: pr@nswas.com
Web: http://www.nswas.com/
Peres Center for Peace
The Peres Center for Peace is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of peace in the Middle East. It implements joint projects with regional and international partners that advance socio-economic cooperation and people-to-people relations.
Tel: 011-972-3-568-0680
Email: info@peres-center.org
Web: http://www.peres-center.org
Sikkuy: The Association for the Advancement of Equal Opportunity
Sikkuy, the Association for the Advancement of Equal Opportunities, is a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote civil society in Israel and improve the status of its Arab citizens.
Tel: 011-972-2-654-1225
Email: sikkuy@inter.net.il
Web: http://www.sikkuy.org.il
Women's Issues
Israel Women's Network (IWN)
IWN is a network of women from all walks of Israeli life that work together against discrimination in the household and the workplace to improve the status of women in Israel.
Tel: 011-972-2-671-8885
Email: legal@iwn.org
Nisan Young Women Leaders
Nisan Young Women Leaders develops the leadership potential of Jewish and Arab Israeli young women and fosters communication and cooperative partnership among them.
Tel: 011-972-4-851-0388
Email: nisan@netvision.net.il
Web: http://www.nisan.org
Peace Groups
Bat Shalom
Bat Shalom is a feminist peace organization of Israeli women who work towards a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors that includes recognition of a Palestinian state in the territories.
Tel: 011-972-2-563-2622
Email: batshalo@netvision.net.il
Web: http://www.coalitionofwomen.org
Oz V'shalom — Netivot Shalom
Orthodox peace movement
Tel: 011-972-2-673-0196
Email: ozshalom@netvision.net.il
Web: http://www.netivot-shalom.org.il/
Parent's Circle
The Parent's Circle is an organization of parents who have lost children to violence, both on the Israeli and Palestinian sides. This organization advocates for a return to peace negotiations to end this circle of violence.
Tel: 011-972-8-928-5628
Email: frankent@netvision.net.il
Shalom Achshav — Peace Now
Peace Now is a grassroots movement in Israel, founded in 1978, that urges the Israeli government to seek peace—through negotiations and mutual compromise—with Israel's Arab neighbors.
Tel: 011-972-3-566-3291
Email: didi@peacenow.org.il
II. Panel
Host a panel with leading Israeli and Arab peace activists. Work with the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) in putting this together.
Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC)
RAC is the public and legal advocacy arm for the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. The Center's mission is to advance religious freedom and pluralism, tolerance, social justice and civil liberties in Israel, based on the belief that these values are intrinsic to Judaism.
Tel: 011-972-2-625-6261
Email: webmaster@irac.org
III. Interfaith Meetings
Meet with leaders from the Christian and Muslim communities in Israel to address cooperation and coexistence between the three faiths in Israel and in North America. Team up with IRAC (see above) and the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel to do this.
Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI)
ICCI is an umbrella group of Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations promoting interreligious and intercultural understanding.
Tel: 011-972-2-561-1899
Email: iccijeru@icci.co.il
Web: http://www.icci.co.il/
IV. Visits to Arab Villages
To gain a different perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tour areas of Israel not usually visited on typical trips to Israel.
Examples:
Take a tour of Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. This will give a better understanding of how Jerusalem is divided and how the Arab population lives in Jerusalem.
Visit Arab villages in Israel. Meet with leaders and families from the villages to learn more about the situation of Israeli Arabs.
Organizations that could help arrange these trips:
Ahali Center for Community Development
The Ahali Center is a community-based group promoting grassroots activism among the Palestinian minority in Israel on issues of equality and the fair distribution of national resources.
Tel: 011-972-4-608-1401
Email: Ahali_center@hotmail.com
Association of Forty
The Association is a grassroots organization working to establish recognition for unrecognized Arab villages and the promotion of social justice for Arabs in Israel.
Tel: 011-972-4-836-2381
Email: Assoc40@assoc40.org
Galilee Society
The Galilee Society works towards the achievement of equitable health, environmental, and socio-economic conditions and development opportunities for Arab citizens of Israel.
Tel: 011-972-4-986-1171
Email: admin@gal.soc.org
Web: http://www.gal-soc.org
Givat Haviva
Givat Haviva is an education and research center based in the Galilee that works on coexistence projects between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.
Tel: 011-972-4-630-9289
Email: givat_il@inter.net.il
Interns for Peace (IFP)
IFP trains community development peace workers, in Israel and in the West Bank/Gaza, Jordan and Egypt who initiate joint projects between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
Tel: 011-972-3-517-6525
Email: ifpus@mindspring.com
V. Meet with Rabbinic Leaders
Meet with leaders from rabbinic organizations in Israel working on peace and justice issues. Have them address the special role rabbinic leaders can play in this area and what rabbinic leaders in North America can do.
Examples of such groups include:
World Union for Progressive Judaism
Tel: 011-972-2-620-3347
Email: wupjis@wupj.org.il
Web: http://www.wupj.org
Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbis for Human Rights is a group of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis working on behalf of human rights issues in Israel and in the territories.
Tel: 011-972-2-563-7731
Email: info@rhr.israel.net
Web: http://www.rhr.israel.net/overview.shtml
