The remarks below were prepared for delivery at the Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ (Federation) Major Donor recognition event held on April 23, 2018, with over 200 supporters present. The remarks followed Alon Ben-Gurion, the grandson of Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Alon was introduced by former Federation Board Chair, Bob Millstone, whose own grandfather, I.E. Millstone, dramatically shaped the St. Louis Jewish community and, at the urging of the first Prime Minister, built housing projects for new immigrants in Israel during the 1950s.

Welcome and thank you so much for joining us this evening. I am Andrew Rehfeld, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. I am so glad you could join us tonight so that we could say thank you for your support.

Our event tonight is held right between the Hebrew and English dates of Israel’s Independence. And before I tell you just how much your support matters to the work we do, I want to situate that support in some historical and generational context as befits tonight’s discussion. For tonight we are doing more than saying “thank you” to each of you. We are joining together to reaffirm the unity of the Jewish People and our commitment to a strong and secure Israel as we celebrate its 70th Anniversary.

It is indeed miraculous that we are celebrating 70 years of the modern state, given the many challenges it has faced. If we consider this in generational terms, in the terms framed by Alon and Bob’s remarks, grandchildren of two great men, we can think about looking back and looking forward.

So let us begin on Israeli Independence day in May of 1948 and gaze backward 70 years from that day to May of 1878, or even the birth year of Alon’s grandfather, David Ben-Gurion in 1886. There we would see that the idea of a State of Israel was little more than a dream held by a few visionaries, opposed by most of our people, and greeted with skepticism by a very suspicious world.

But the Jewish State did emerge thanks to men and women like David Ben-Gurion, who sacrificed their own welfare for the protection and sustenance of our people.

The names of these individuals are etched into our people’s history: Names like Hess, Pinsker, Ben-Yehuda and Weitzman, Ahad Ha-am, Jabotinsky, Rav Kook and Hannah Senesh. And along with David Ben-Gurion stands perhaps his rival for the top of that list, the father of modern Zionism, Theodore Herzl, who in August of 1897 declared, “At Basel [site of the first World Zionist Congress that Herzl had organized], I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. If not in five years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.” Remarkably, Herzl’s vision came true—and he was off by only a few months!

Israel’s in a different place today. And I think it is sometimes easy to forget just how necessary its creation was. Jumping from the 1880s to its founding day in 1948, we must remember what the Jewish People were facing as we consider why Israel was necessary.

Persecuted in Russia, France, Ukraine, Poland and Germany, denied the right of entry into our people’s historical homeland by the British, in the aftermath of the slaughter of the Shoah—an event whose details a significant portion of American Jews are now woefully unaware of—and in the face of immediate attack by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the Jewish People and the Jewish State prevailed.

And beyond that, the mere existence of Israel makes it an outlier in world history. For there are thousands of recognized “peoples” in the world, and the Jewish People are one of the very few who have had the privilege and responsibility of enjoying self-determination in the form of a nation-state.

There is indeed a reason its national anthem is entitled, “The Hope!”

From a nation forged out of persecution and despair, and in the face of continuing threats to its security and legitimacy, it has used that rare opportunity of sovereignty to become a global leader. Israel stands now a leader in innovation, technology, agriculture, communication and health care—innovations that are serving and saving millions of lives around the world. Its achievements in education and research are unparalleled. And it has become a major economic power—the “start-up nation!”—even as its military has become the regional superpower in the Middle East.

As important, Israel uses that power to advance humanitarian aid beyond its borders, whether to the victims of natural disasters around the world, or to delivering lifesaving health care to Syrians and Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza.

These achievements testify to Israel’s continued tenacity and decency, its vision and optimism. They express the eternal longing of the Jewish People to be a light for all nations. And we should be very proud to be Jews today and to have had a role, however small, in making it a reality and supporting its people even to today.

As Bob’s story of his grandfather illustrated, our own community’s support for Israel and the Jewish People has been unwavering from the founding of our Federation in 1901, to just yesterday when hundreds of people marched together in celebration and to say, “Israel, we stand with you!” Israel of 2018 is not, however, the Israel of 1948. As those achievements indicate, Israel is not on the precipice that it once was. And with success and stability come the challenges and responsibility of modern democracy.

As a vibrant democracy, we must recognize what each of us know here in the United States: that there are and should be divergent views about what direction any nation, including Israel, should take to address the most pressing problems it faces. And these divergent views are not evidence of disloyalty. Rather they are evidence of our community’s felt connection to making a stronger and safer homeland for the Jewish People.

We are now seeing a continued division between older and younger members of our community. We can frame this in generational themes of this evening’s program: a division between grandparents and their grandchildren. For an older generation—roughly my age and older—Israel must be supported no matter what.

This grandparent’s generation (if you will) sees Israel through our own personal experience that saw conflicts that imperiled the new State of Israel that they witnessed firsthand. The War of Independence, the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. And even for those of us who were too young to remember these events clearly (I was not yet born in 1948, was 18 months old during the Six Day War, and have but faint memories of the Yom Kippur War when I was seven), we were close enough that these conflicts shaped our worldview of the risks that Israel faces.

These wars were truly existential wars. In each, Israel and the Jewish People had reason to fear—not only for the lives of its citizens but for the very sustaining of a Jewish State that was supposed to protect it from a second Holocaust.

Existential crises like these, traumatic crises like these, shape perception and personal identity in a manner that is extremely hard to shake even when reality changes. They become the view through which all experience is understood. And so understandably, this generation of grandparents tends to view Israel’s current challenges through those same eyes. It views any economic threat or boycott as potentially cataclysmic, whether or not it really is. And while we may still hope for a two-state solution with the Palestinians, we are more likely to be skeptical of any resolution with a people whose leadership continues to call for, or even condones, violent action against civilians. While we recognize that no government is perfect, this generation tends to view disagreement with Israel as something to be done privately, if at all, lest it create a show of disunity for the rest of the world.

And at the same time…

For a younger generation, again, my age and younger this time, Israel is viewed with different eyes. This grandchildren’s generation does not really remember what it felt like for Israel to face catastrophic destruction.

We see Israel through the eyes of all the achievements and strength that I mentioned just a moment ago. We see a stable and vibrant democracy, a regional military superpower with an economy so strong that the global economic downturn of the last decade barely registered!

This generation sees a government able to mobilize in support of humanitarian crises around the world, even as it rules over two million or more people who are not given political rights and live in trying conditions. And where our grandparents may see walls of protection, this generation sees walls of division and exclusion that facilitates persecution or worse.

This younger generation also discounts anti-Semitism in the world, minimizes the danger of the neighborhood in which Israel operates geographically, and views the vows of Israel’s enemies to wipe it off the planet as political rhetoric. In short, this younger generation thinks of Israel as they think of America—where threats are manageable, not existential, but manageable. And where disagreement with government, party or leadership can be the very expression of love of country, not a repudiation of it.

And you know what? We…you…all of us, as leaders of our community, as shapers of its future…we have a responsibility to make room to see Israel through both sets of eyes.

We have to teach our children and grandchildren about the persistence of anti-Semitism and the threats that Israel as a nation still faces together with the opportunities that exist.

And we have to recognize the validity of their criticism of Israel’s government and leadership—not because we agree (or disagree) with the critique. But because the ideals that drive many of us, our children and grandchildren to protest, are the very ideals on which Israel itself was founded, and towards which I believe she still must aim.

If we create institutions or even a culture of exclusion, in which we say, “you are not welcome here,” simply because we disagree with them, we will drive them from Israel, we will drive them from our communities and we will divide the Jewish People in a way that I believe will be seen as historic, in the very worst sense of that word.

And indeed, I believe that is what we are heading to right now because so far there has been no voice to lead clearly on these issues, on the urgency of having broad shoulders and creating room in our communities for dissension and disagreement.

No voice with the standing and authority, the scope and breadth of a community, to say that we recognize the validity of these two views, that we must have compassion enough for our entire people to step into the shoes of our grandparents and grandchildren, to see the world through their eyes. And we must recognize that those who fear Jewish persecution everywhere are not necessarily extremists, just as those who criticize Israel are not necessary anti-Semites even when they do it in public ways.

In my own view, the only organization that has the scope and breadth to address these challenges is the system of the Jewish Federations across North America. Each of our Federations has the ability to create open and inclusive spaces for all views. Indeed, I believe that is our responsibility, even as we invest in the critical work of inspiring a new generation to recognize the promise and the hope of what Israel is and could be.

In fact, that is what Federation is doing right here in St. Louis, thanks to your support—finding a place to deliver on our collective responsibility to care for our people, to combat anti-Semitism, to educate about Israel and our core values, and inspire a new generation. And we do that by creating a space for a new generation to take its place in leadership without setting preconditions of what it means to love Israel.

Think about just some of the projects that your support continues to fund.

Our partnership with the Atlanta Federation in Yokne’am and Megiddo has for about 25 years supported critical projects for individuals in need. There, we have changed the lives of Ethiopian immigrants where, thanks to the work of those on the ground, have produced much better than average outcomes for a population that continues to struggle 30 years after their immigration started. We serve women who have suffered domestic abuse and those with extreme physical disabilities.

The Jewish Federation does not support the government (no matter what party) as a matter of policy. But we do support efforts to strengthen Israel’s civil society. Key initiatives promote Jewish pluralism to make sure Israel maintains its role as the homeland for all Jews, no matter what their religious ideology or practice. And we support innovative programs like the Hand in Hand network of private schools, in which Arab and Jewish children learn together to promote coexistence with the roughly 20 percent of Arab citizens of Israel.

As Bob said in his introduction, quoting Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory, Israel has not been “our poor cousin” for some time. And over the last five years your support has enabled us to dramatically expand our efforts to find mutually beneficial economic and cultural partnerships between the state of Missouri, the St. Louis region and Israel.

Since 2012, we have taken four missions from the Missouri State Legislature to Israel, helping them recognize the economic opportunity for the State of Missouri, and also exposing them to the complexity of what it means to see Israel through two generational views. We led the successful effort to create a Missouri Trade Desk in Israel—one of only 11 in the world—to actively promote trade.

I was honored to be included in Governor Nixon’s delegation in March of 2016 to open the trade desk, meeting with the Prime Minister and attending a celebratory dinner hosted by the US Ambassador to Israel. We continue to provide secondary support for the outstanding work of BioSTL and the Danforth Plant Science Center that has successfully recruited entrepreneurs from Israel to open up their North American offices in St. Louis to enrich our community.

In fact, we are fortunate to have Donn and Vijay here, along with a number of others here tonight.

Along with the positive work of strengthening economic ties and supporting a significant expansion of educational opportunities about Israel through our vital Sh’ma: Listen! Speakers Series and adult education in Federation’s Center for Jewish Learning, we are also sensitive to the challenges of the Boycott movement against Israel. To that end we have put our resources—thanks again to your support—behind a community effort led by Jenny and Rich Wolkowitz to create what I call “sane” anti-BDS legislation that sends a message to businesses that boycott Israel that they are not welcome in Missouri, in a manner that preserves the free speech rights of every individual to take action as they believe is appropriate.

There is no better way to tell the story of Israel for a new generation than to put them face to face with Israelis.

Thanks to your support, this past year Federation has significantly expanded our investments to bring ambassadors from Israel here to our community, and I want to recognize many of the teenagers and young adults who have given their time to work with our young adults to create a new generation of personal stories that will inspire and build connections to the Jewish People.

Finally, we must again remember our responsibility to tell the story of our people’s history in a manner that inspires and deepens understanding. Israel’s existence was made necessary because of the historic persecution of the Jewish people. And while we may now live in the most remarkable times in our history, it has come after a long shadow of destruction.

As recent studies have shown, the state of knowledge about the Holocaust is declining. And as the centennial of the rise of Hitler’s Germany approaches in the not too distant future, we must remember our obligation to tell our story for our future.

To this, we have to single out an individual in the room this evening to thank Gloria Feldman.

As many of you know, Federation’s Kopolow Building has served for over 35 years as our home and the home of the Holocaust Museum since 1995. Thanks to Gloria’s lead philanthropic gift, along with the investments, vision and leadership of Michael Staenberg and the Staenberg Family Foundation, our building is being renewed for another 35 years. As part of Gloria’s lead gift, she has made a catalytic investment to renovate Federation’s Holocaust Museum & Learning Center. The renovation will help us deliver on our mission of telling that story again. We must ensure that the memories of those who perished will never be forgotten and their lives continue to inspire a new generation to apply our lessons for the betterment of all.

I could go on, but we all need to get to dessert! So let me end by telling you just how important your support is to our mission and the community.

Federation’s mission is to strengthen our Jewish Community by supporting the Jewish Public Sphere: the network of public institutions that make a community what it is—schools, museums, community centers, clinics, security, congregations and newspapers. Through community planning and needs assessment, and evaluation programs to ensure impact, the Federation works to strategically invest in projects that strengthen the Jewish Public Sphere to make it more than just a sum of its individual institutions. The Jewish Public Sphere helps every individual connect with their community, on the basis of shared Jewish values, expressed in all of their diversity. It secures the welfare of the most vulnerable, mobilizes our community in times of need, and connects individuals to the Jewish People and Israel.

In short, our mission is to provide strategic direction and support to the Jewish Public Sphere that helps individuals live lives with dignity, meaning and purpose, where connection to Jewish values and our tradition is part of a life well lived.

Federation is thus not a fundraising organization. But like any non-profit, we require significant philanthropic support to ensure our ability to secure our mission. And the work of those of you here tonight has been tremendous.

Your gifts accounted for over 70% of the 2017 Jewish Federation of St. Louis Annual Campaign of 10.1 million dollars, including the historic gift of our community’s first $1 million gift to the Annual Campaign from Michael and Carol Staenberg. Your collective support helped us achieve another historic fundraising milestone this year: 2017 was the third consecutive real, inflation-adjusted growth of our Campaign in over 40 years!

As much as we are grateful for your support of the Annual Campaign, in 2017, Federation raised a total of over 26.5 million dollars for our community. And some of those funds were raised through multi-million dollar gifts from people in this room tonight in the form of Annual Campaign endowments, capital campaigns and scholarships.

Reflecting on this evening’s theme of intergenerational work, I also want to recognize our legacy donors, individuals who have set up endowments to ensure our community’s strength will last for generations to come. We have a significant opportunity to build on our recent successes. If you value the stories you heard tonight, if you are inspired by our mission, if you recognize the importance of creating something that outlives you for the good of all, we would be honored to work with you to set up a legacy gift that would communicate your commitment to our community.

Finally, I want to mention our Lion of Judah program that signifies women who give at least $5000 a year to our unrestricted Annual Campaign. While she cannot be here tonight, I want to publicly recognize Marilyn Fox, who is the 2019 Lion of Judah St. Louis Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award honoree!

Our St. Louis Jewish community would not be able to accomplish all that we have over the past year without your generosity. So let me conclude very briefly because I know the dessert in the atrium is beckoning!

These are increasingly days of discord and division. But I want to encourage you to look at the hope and promise that Israel still represents and that your support of Federation allows us to achieve. Let us approach our differences from a position of strength, with broad shoulders and a big tent. And let us be unified over our shared pursuit of the values that were written into Israel’s own Declaration of Independence 70 years ago: That it should be a Jewish State for the protection and refuge of all Jewish People, to promote the flourishing of Jewish culture, and with a commitment to securing the human rights, justice and democracy based on Jewish prophetic values for all over whom it rules.

Thank you, again, for your commitment to the Jewish Federation of St. Louis and our community. Please enjoy dessert and coffee in the atrium outside the auditorium.