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After warmly welcoming the group the President spoke movingly of “the tragedy we are living with our neighbors.” He emphatically stated that “we are not at war with Islam”. However, he said, in the context of growing violent anti-Semitic incidents, when Jews are attacked in the world, they are being attacked because Israel is a Jewish state. We need to explain to the world that Judaism in not only a religion, it is the idea of the Jewish people as a nation in its homeland. Out of a populations of 9 million people in Israel, 1.5 million are Muslim Arabs. It is our responsibility that Israel remains Jewish and democratic. The demographic and geographic situation won’t change between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. It is our destiny to live together in prosperity and our Muslim neighbors need to understand that the Jewish people have returned to their homeland.”
On Israel’s foreign relations, the President stated that the first second and third important principles are relations with America.
President Rivlin invited Israeli Arabs and Orthodox Jews to present projects that work to build bridge in Israeli society. The participants included Mr. Adel Badir, Adv., Mayor of Kfar Kassem; Dr Samir Kassem, Head of the Department of Medicine in Carmel Hospital, Haifa, and Co-Founder of the Collective Impact Initiative; Yitzhak Crombie and Racheli Ginat, Co-Founders, Ultra-Orthodox High Tech Forum.
Mayor Badir described his hill-top Israeli Arab city located about 12 miles east of Tel Aviv, near the Green Line, on the southern portion of the “Little Triangle” of Arab-Israeli towns and villages. The town became notorious for the Kafr Qasim massacre, in which the Israel Border Police killed 49 civilians on October 29, 1956. On October 26th 2014 President Rivlin, attended the Memorial Ceremony to mark the 58th anniversary of the killings and Badir said he hoped this would mark a turning point for better relations. The Mayor spoke of the need for better education in his city and the resources needed.
Dr. Kessem began the Collective Impact Initiative to help advance Arab employment in higher paying positions. This initiative brought, for the first time ever, the leading Israeli private sector’s companies, to participate in a unique cross edging research that explain the market failure and the opportunities for change. Based on the research, an analysis and data based-planned interventions were created, and will be used practically during 2015.
Yitzhak Crombie and Racheli Ginat founded the Ultra-Orthodox High-Tech Forum to help encourage ultra-Orthodox integration in the high-tech industry.
The recognized and effective voice of organized American Jewry for six decades, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, representing 50 national Jewish agencies, advances the interests of the American Jewish community, promotes broad-based support for Israel and addresses the critical concerns facing Israel and world Jewry.
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