In 2018, The Jewish Agency launched The Institute for Global Jewish Voices (a.k.a. AmiUnity) in response to a crisis of connection between Israeli Jews and Jews around the world. The Institute for Global Jewish Voices works toward a vision in which every child and teen in Israel’s formal and informal education systems learns about the global Jewish world and feels a sense of belonging and commitment to the broader Jewish people.
The Institute for Global Jewish Voices (AmiUnity)
Fostering solidarity between Israeli Jews and world Jewry
Through a targeted educational initiative, young Israelis are encouraged to explore the vitality of Jewish life around the world and to help all Jews feel at home in Israel so the global community can continue to grow and flourish.
We do this through a “train the trainers” process, providing Israeli educators with profound encounters with the vitality of Jewish life around the globe. We build cross-sector partnerships with national educational organizations including the Ministry of Education, the Youth Movement Council, the Council of Pre-Army Academies, the Community Centers Council, and create a strategy for each one of them for mentoring, educational content development and implementation.
We believe:
1. The Jewish people exist beyond the borders of Israel, and every young Israeli Jew is a part of that.
2. The Jewish people are made up of a multitude of communities around the globe. These communities have significance, strength, impact, and legitimacy.
3. While Jews throughout the world have differing opinions and a plethora of identities, they are all part of one people—a unique, global family.
4. Like all families, the Jewish people include within it different voices, and recognizes the equal legitimacy of all these voices.
5. The State of Israel is the homeland of the entire Jewish people, and every member of the Jewish people must be able to feel at home in it.
6. The fact that every Jew must feel comfortable in Israel is a mutual obligation demanded of all of us.
Promoting solidarity among the global Jewish family is one of The Jewish Agency’s most important missions. Our approach was designed to engage Israeli young people ages 7 to 25 through existing educational programs in Israel. Here are the pillars of the program:
• Training the trainers: Empowering the senior educational leaders and field staff of various educational organizations to effectively reach Israeli youth on this topic.
• Building support materials: Helping partner organizations develop and improve the quality of Jewish peoplehood curriculum.
• Promoting face-to-face interaction: Coupling our target groups with peers from Jewish communities around the world.
Each year around 1,000 educators and officials participate directly in the Institute’s programs, and hundreds of thousands of Israeli children, teens and young adults engage in the resulting curricula.
