Shlomi Ravid
Founding Director of the International School for Jewish Peoplehood at Beit Hatfutsot
A) What qualities make the nominee deserving of the Z3 Bridge Builder Award?
Shlomi Ravid is the personification of Bridge Building! He has dedicated his entire professional life to building bridges between Israel and World Jewry. He is not only committed to the cause but to developing creative initiatives and new architectures to advance the cause and bring them to fruition.
In his first role as a national Shaliach of the Kibbutz Movement in New York in 1985, Shlomi oversaw: a Teen Israel program from 12 communities throughout the US and Canada numbering 300 teens, and a progressive Zionist Student movement that operated on 40 North American college campuses providing a framework for alumni of multiple youth movements.
Upon his return to Israel, Shlomi took a leadership position in the Jewish Agency overseeing the connections and programs of young North American Jews. One of the projects he led was the creation of a joint task force of all Youth Movements (from Beitar to Hashomer Hatsair), that presented their cause at the Zionist Congress.
In 1996, Shlomi arrived in San Francisco to develop and launch its Israel Center. Interestingly enough, when he left, a full page add at the J labeled "a Bridge Builder" was dedicated to him and his achievements. Some of them were:
1. Transforming the place of Israeli culture in the Bay Area. Understanding the power of culture in bridging divides and fostering unity, Shlomi made it the flag ship of the Israel Center. Below are a few examples:
a. A music tour of the Idan Reichel Project brought, through music, the story of the Aliyah of the Ethiopian Jews to Bay Area college campuses and schools.
b. A tour of the Hip Hop group "HaDag Nachash" exposed the Bay Area to the famous Sticker Song by David Grossman, and the diversity of Israel.
c. The yearly Israeli Political Cartoon exhibit was imported to the Bay Area and shown at the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum.
d. A children show highlighting Jewish and Palestinian classic children stories, aired in the Bay Area and won Shlomi an award from City Hall.
2. Israel Education – Central to the work of the Center was a focus on Israel education. Through teacher training, program development and mentoring the Center worked to integrate Israel Education into the Jewish educational content of Bay Area schools, summer camps, ECE and experiential frameworks.
3. Israel in the Gardens – a community Israel Festival celebrating its independence – became the largest all-community event in the history of the community, gathering thousands ofJews of diverse perspectives, origins and religious orientation. Indeed, it was a powerful testament of unity.
4. The Scholar-in-Residence series – Beyond bringing performers every year the Center brought to the Bay Area excellent speakers sharing the diversity and richness of Israel.
5. The Diller Teen Fellows program – In collaboration with the Helen Diller Family Foundation ,Shlomi launched this Teen leadership program now operating in 32 communities in Israel and throughout the Jewish world. The program focused on Peoplehood and pluralism, and engaged teens of diverse religious and geographic orientations.
6. Developing a connection between the Bay Area Israeli and local Jewish community – Shlomi as a representative of the Federation developed and implemented programs and activities to bring Bay Area Israelis and local Jews together.
7. Initiating the first Bay Area Gay and Lesbian Mission to Israel .
Upon his return to Israel in 2008, Shlomi became the founding director of the International School for Jewish Peoplehood at Beit Hatfutsot (currently Anu) laying the foundation for Peoplehood education.
He then proceeded to launch the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education – the only center in the world solely dedicated to the teaching of Jewish Peoplehood. The work demanded the development of the language and core concepts as well as the pedagogy and educational materials.
Shlomi and his team developed the Peoplehood Education Toolkit which provides all of the above and more. To date over 50,000 people have visited the website many of them multiple times.
Throughout the last 15 years, tens of Peoplehood seminars were implemented. In 2018-19 Shlomi implemented with funds from the Jim Joseph Foundation a series of seminars focusing on Bay Area organizations and their challenges.
Over the last four years he has been teaching with Dr. Ezra Kopelowitz an introduction to Peoplehood course for MA students at Spertus (the only existing course of this kind in the world).
In the last three years he has been co-facilitating/teaching with Kopelowitz the Lab for JCC professionals at Z3.
In addition to the above, Shlomi started and is editing the publication the Peoplehood Papers now in its 16th year. This diverse publication has published over 400 articles in 34 editions providing the platform for Jews to discuss various dimensions of what connects and unites them. Every issue, addressing a different dimension or challenge of Peoplehood, is composed of 12-15 articles from different writers, also wrestling with the bigger challenge of creating a unity that is not uniformity.
B) In what ways has the nominee demonstrated exceptional leadership and commitment to their work in bridging divides?
Shlomi's 40 years of devotion and dedication to bridging divides among Jews and strengthening their commitment to Jewish Peoplehood is unparalleled. His exceptional leadership is demonstrated not just through his lifelong commitment but also through approaching the field systemically and creatively.
Embracing an entrepreneurial approach, Shlomi analyzed the specific challenges, developed systemic responses, provided the architecture and workplan and went on to implement. His partnership and engagement with communal lay and professional leadership have been a cornerstone to all these achievements.
It should be noted that without Shlomi's persistence, personal commitment and a deep love for the Jewish people, this work could not possibly be achieved. To colleagues and lay leaders Shlomi exemplified the Israeli who cares about world Jews and Israel, and sees them as part of one people sharing both a history and a destiny – a large family. While having his own political views, he exemplified a true pluralistic approach and is always working for consensus.
Below are a few examples that highlight his leadership:
• Shlomi arrived in the Bay Area in 1996 with the mandate of building an Israel Center. He began by developing our community, with both lay and professional leaders, a vision for the Israel Center that was not solely about Israel, but rather about the place of Israel in the Jewish Community of the Bay. He then proceeded to build the core pillars of the Center. In three years, it became the largest Israel Center in the world. Or as the Federation's CEO told Shlomi: "We brought you here to design and plan a Center and you went ahead and built one."
• Israel in the Gardens dramatically increased the public profile or the Jewish and pro-Israel community in the Bay Area. Convening the community at Yerba Buena Gardens to celebrate Israel and hear one of its musical headliners brought out the community in the thousands. It was not only an opportunity to build bridges but also for the entire community and all organizations (across religious, political and demographic spectrum) to participate. It provided children, teens, adults and seniors a real sense of community and its connection to Israel. Furthermore, the program brought together for the first time the Bay Area Israeli community and the local Jewish community.
• One of the core features of the Diller Teen Fellows program is that before building bridges between Israeli and world Jewry teens (its essence), it builds bridges between religious and secular Israeli teens and multi denominational diaspora teens. This "secret sauce" of the program in addition to the focus on pluralism is what made it a prime leadership development program in the field.
• Creating and building in 2010 the only Jewish Peoplehood Center in the world as a non-for-profit organization, required not only vision and resolve but also some risk taking. There was no guarantee that there will be a demand for such a Center and that its work would receive funding. 14 years later, the Center is established, growing and known throughout the Jewish world as a successful leadership initiative.
• Most of the work of Z3 until four years ago, centered around the one day conference. Initiating the Leadership Lab, Shlomi in collaboration with the Z3 team expanded the horizons of Z3 and opened new options for strategic impact on American Jewry.
• Finally, in addition to the above, Shlomi published over 40 articles and papers focusing on both conceptual and practical issues facing Peoplehood. His work has focused on the need to build bridges among Jews and Jewish communities as its foundation. His optimistic and passionate voice as a believer in the Jewish people has contributed to the conversation on the Jewish future.
C) How has the nominee's work impacted the Jewish community and beyond?
As we review Shlomi's initiatives and work described above the following impact on the Jewish community can be noted:
• While the Israel Center in San Francisco does not exist anymore its impact on the community is still very much there. There is no doubt that it transformed the place of Israel in the Bay Area Jewish community. The focus on Israeli culture changed the community's eco system and Israeli culture became a standard commodity for Bay Area Jews. Nowadays, Bay Area organizations import current Israeli culture directly to a sophisticated audience that is both knowledgeable and continues learning.
• The same can be said for the educational work initiated by the Center. Israel education is very much at the center focus of the work of schools, camps and youth organizations.
• The work that began at the Center's days with the Israeli community was followed up by Ronit Jacobs (past director of Israel in the Gardens) and Orli Rinat (past chair of the Israel Center) in the creation of the ICC at the Palo Alto JCC.
• The Diller Teen Fellows program that began with a 20 member cohort in the Bay Area in 1998, is now operating in 32 communities in Israel and throughout the Jewish world (including the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Latin America and Europe). The program has over 7,000 alumni who are young leaders in their communities.
• As noted above the Peoplehood Toolkit initiated by Shlomi in 2014 has had 50,000 website visits from throughout the Jewish world. The 34 issues of the Peoplehood Papers averaging 3,000 hits each, has reached a significant number of Jews and enriched the Peoplehood conversation globally. One can assume that the above as well as the articles published by Shlomi in other publications contributed to making the concept of Peoplehood which was hardly known when he began his work to a core concept of current Judaism. The various articles and publications can be viewed on the website of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education. They leave little doubt as to Shlomi's 40 years of active contribution to building and strengthening the bridges that connect Jews to their collective identity as a people.