Jewish Agency for Israel

February 16, 2021

• 248 Community Action Network, a partnership program with the Jewish Agency for Israel, aims to develop a network of overseas Jewish and Israeli professionals who will learn about each other’s realities, explore issues that Jewish and Israeli communities are wrestling with, and devise community-based initiatives that will address some of these challenges. The program’s name reflects the 248 positive commandments in the Torah and expresses the result of meaningful engagement which increases and multiplies.
• The Returning Shlichim Network
  In light of the growing challenges between global Jewry and Israel, The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ruderman Family Foundation launched an initiative that trained former Jewish Agency shlichim (Israeli emissaries), after returning from Jewish communities around the world, to connect Israelis to the Diaspora.

  On college campuses, some twenty returning shlichim received professional guidance and financial assistance to promote projects that deal with strengthening connections and deepening Israelis’ understanding of Diaspora Jews in general, and the American Jewish community overall. Others, who are no longer students, had the opportunity to receive micro-grants to advance projects connecting their surroundings with the American Jewish community. The United States is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, with around eight million members.