Celebrate An Inclusive Israel

by: Jay Ruderman

Today and tomorrow highlight life in Israel: Tragedy and triumph. Today is Israel’s Memorial Day, where we remember and shed tears for the 25,578 people who fell in defense of the country. Tomorrow we rejoice as we celebrate Israel’s 65^th Independence Day, the amazing rebirth of the Jewish people in the Jewish homeland.

Our foundation is proud to have Israel as a base of activities. Over the last five years, we have worked tirelessly towards the full inclusion of all Israeli citizens with disabilities into society. The latest studies estimate that there are approximately 1,000,000 people of working age with disabilities living in Israel- there is much work still to be done.

One program we are proud of is the AKIM program to allow youth with intellectual disabilities the ability to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Here is part of what we wrote when we awarded them the 2012 Ruderman Prize in Disability last year:

“For most young Israelis, service in the IDF is a normal part of life in the years between high school and college. Service becomes a core rite of passage in Israeli society and an empowering, transformative experience. AKIM is working now to make that experience open to people with intellectual disabilities, enabling them to perform significant supportive and productive tasks as part of IDF service. This project works with both the individual and the rest of the military unit to maximize adjustment and success.

Ultimately, inclusive IDF service will instill a sense of achievement and pride in all people with intellectual disabilities in Israel.”

The program has been a success- the soldiers with disabilities adapted well and the benefits for both the soldiers and the army were very evident. The IDF has now proposed to initiate a recruitment process in order to offer civil positions within the army and opportunity of permanent enlistment in the standing army to the released soldiers with disabilities.

As Israel moves forward, we will continue to impact and  strengthen Israeli society, a society which will become fully inclusive and everyone can contribute.

Read our last post: Thinking About Siblings

Thank You!

244 and  41. Those two numbers amaze me.

Our foundation announced the 2013 Ruderman Prize in Disability eligibility guidelines 5 weeks ago and on Monday, the applications process ended. When I awoke Tuesday morning, I was astounded: 244 applications were submitted, a 41% increase over last year! From Cambodia, South Africa, Canada, Argentina, France, USA, Israel, Russia, UK, Brazil and more.

A thank you to our many partners who helped spread the word to as many Jewish communities as possible so we can recognize the fine work being performed by local organizations. I am encouraged that there are so many innovative programs around the world working towards the full inclusion of people with disabilities in Jewish communal life.

I want to personally thank everyone who took the time to fill out the application and share with us how you are making your community more inclusive. Now the hard part for our staff begins: Choosing only 5 winners from among a pool of very worthy candidates.

This initiative is meant to recognize past work in inclusion. There is still much work to be done so that every person with a disability feels welcome in his/her community. But seeing so many people around the world dedicated to this issue gives me hope that we are on the right path to full inclusion.

- Jay

Read our last post: But Words CAN Hurt Me!

Cooking Up Employment Opps

We are proud to support Transitions to Work, in collaboration with Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Vocational Service (JVS). They work to train and help young adults with disabilities enter the workforce while simultaneously engaging the corporate and business community to increase employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

Here’s a wrap up of a program that just ended. It is great to see how everyone benefited- participants and their mentors.
- Jay

Five Transitions to Work participants recently graduated from a three month training program at Whitsons School of Nutrition in the Newton, MA North High School. The participants received classroom instruction in job readiness issues and gained hands-on work experience and training. The work included customer service, food preparation, food portioning and back of the house support positions.

“Thank you so much for letting us come in and do this work. Whitsons helped us use different types of tools. When we get a job somewhere and they ask us if we have used those tools, now we can say yes,” said Josh, a participant who spoke at the graduation. “I seriously like Whitsons and its people more than anything and will never forget. They are very superb and helpful… I like how we are able to work together and always ask when we had any problems. I also liked learning how to use the grill, serve food, and food prep from all of the Whitsons Staff.”

Everyone agreed it was a win-win experience for all. The program was not only highly beneficial for the participants but also for the Whitsons employees. Micah Fleisig, the Transitions to Work Employment Specialist for JVS, applauded Whitsons commitment to individuals with disabilities and to the Transitions to Work participant: “Due to the staff, chef and administration, Whitsons has been a wonderful work site for our interns. I have been completely impressed with the balance of mentoring and compassion with their professionalism and productivity.”

April Liles, Food Service Director – Newton Public Schools Whitsons School Nutrition, is a big supporter of the program. April mentioned that Whitsons saw this experience as an opportunity to partner with the community and it turned out better than even anticipated. The participants arrived every day, on time, eager to work and learn, and became members of the team. “The experience was amazing for Whitsons, the participants, and all involved. We would do it again in a heartbeat”.

Mitzvah Mensches: Inclusive Social Action for Teens

Friends,

Periodically we offer you glimpses into excellent and innovative inclusion programs from all corners of the Jewish community. Today I’m happy to bring you a post about a wonderful program run by Gateways, a Boston organization with which my family has been deeply involved since its inception.

It can be hard to get teen inclusion programs right, but we believe Mitzvah Mensches has done just that. I hope this inspires you to think about starting your own inclusive philanthropy and social action program—or tell us about the one you already have.

–Jay Ruderman

Mitzvah Mensches: Inclusive Social Action for Teens

By Nancy Mager, Gateways: Access to Jewish Education

Jewish Disability Awareness Month highlights the issue of inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of Jewish life. Here in Boston, Gateways has a teen youth initiative – Mitzvah Mensches – that strives to include teens with disabilities in meaningful Jewish extracurricular activities.

Mitzvah Mensches is an inclusive teen youth group fostering young philanthropists. We create a social life through social action.  Teens join Mitzvah Mensches for a variety of reasons– but one thing is for sure: they all think it’s fun, they all feel like they belong, and they all have a voice that is heard and counted.

The overt curriculum at Mitzvah Mensches is about philanthropy and social action. Teens tell us what they are interested in and we find charities that are aligned with their interests. As a group, we learn about the charities in fun and creative ways. Sometimes, it looks like formal learning (reading and writing, or watching a video about an organization), but often we incorporate games and team challenges into the evening. The games have a secondary (covert) purpose: through them, we work on social skills and building relationships among the participants.

As an inclusive program, some of the Mensches have disabilities and others do not. A diagnosis or disability is not so important. What is important is that the teens make connections with one another. In the beginning of the year, the teens may feel they do not share interests or have much in common, but as the year progresses and the program creates unique shared experiences, the teens bond and have things to talk about.  Eventually those connections grow stronger and friendships are forged.

Now in its eighth year, the group meets twice a month during the school year and includes students with and without disabilities.

So, while wonderful activities, posts and celebrations of awareness carry on during Jewish Disability Awareness Month, the teens of Mitzvah Mensches will be celebrating a slightly different agenda: acceptance, individuality, and inclusion of all.

Nancy Mager is the Director of Jewish Education Programs at Gateways: Access to Jewish Education. She can be reached at nancym@jgateways.org.

What Do You Value in Jewish Life?

Friends,

Today I’m pleased to bring you a post by one of the founders of Jewish Disability Awareness Month, Shelly Christensen.  Shelly has been in the forefront of the Jewish inclusion movement for many years.  Here she offers ideas for examining our own feelings and assumptions about Judaism and disability—an important exercise for each of us, this month and all year.

–Jay Ruderman

What Do You Value in Jewish Life?

By Shelly Christensen, Founder of Inclusion Innovations, and co-founder of Jewish Disability Awareness Month with the Jewish Special Education International Consortium

We recognize Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM) for only the fifth consecutive year. In that short span, Jewish communities across North America have adopted JDAM as a call to action.

Yasher koach, we say to each other as we hold a Shabbat of Inclusion, invite participants from a group home to services, or invite a speaker to give the sermon on disability issues. Each activity tagged with the JDAM logo means that someone is paying attention and observing that there are many people with disabilities and mental health disorders still living on the margins of Jewish life.

We must sincerely and with integrity work towards the day when any Jewish person who has a disability can be a valued member of the Jewish community, not by platitudes, but by recognizing that individual’s gifts, strengths and desires to live a Jewish life.

Think for a moment of all that you have come to value by being a member of your Jewish community–whatever form that takes.

Do you have a picture of that in your mind? Imagine if none of that existed for you; that you could see others doing what you want to do through a clouded window. Imagine if all you love about belonging to your Jewish community was not destined to be yours. How would your life be different? You would be denied access to all you value and never have the opportunity to choose what your own participation would be.

So it is for many Jews with disabilities and their families. We have a responsibility to take action beyond Jewish Disability Awareness Month.

Inclusion does not happen just because we know it is the right (and Jewish) thing to do. It happens because people who believe that each human was created in the Divine Image know that when one person is left out from belonging, we are not finished with our work of inclusion.

There is much to do, and the clock is ticking. As an advocate for and practitioner of Jewish community inclusion across the lifespan in all facets of Jewish life, I have been privileged to be a partner of many Jews, of all ages, who sought inclusion, membership and to simply “belong” to the community. Inclusion is possible. We can do this when we set our course, determined to adapt our attitudes and beliefs so that all may belong.

Each of us is responsible for each other. What can and will you do?

Announcing the 2013 Ruderman Prize in Disability

Friends,

In this special edition of Zeh Lezeh today I want to share the worldwide announcement of the 2013 Ruderman Prize in Disability.  The following press release was sent all over the globe, and we are already seeing interest from Jewish communities in Rwanda, Fiji, and the Netherlands—among many others.

We excited about the buzz the Prize is generating, and look forward to receiving applications from excellent and innovative programs that will inspire our community to an ever greater dedication to inclusion.

–Jay Ruderman

RUDERMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $250,000 GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR INNOVATION IN INCLUSION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Second Annual Ruderman Prize Will Celebrate International Work on Inclusion

Newton, MA (February 10, 2013) Ruderman Family Foundation President Jay Ruderman today announced the launch of the 2013 Ruderman Prize in Disability, its second year, which will provide $250,000 in funding to recognize  innovative programs and services that foster full inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community worldwide.  The $50,000 awards will be given to five organizations that work in the disability arena, serve those in the Jewish community, and actively champion inclusion in their work.

“This year’s Ruderman Prize in Disability will again celebrate exemplars in inclusion, which by example accelerate innovations for people with disabilities and energize the global Jewish community to work toward those ideals,” said Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation.  “We believe this competition will generate new attention to the issue and spur new ambitions, as we work toward our goal of the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community, so that these individuals have the same employment, social, and religious opportunities as those without disabilities.”

In June, the Foundation awarded $200,000 total to ten organizations.  The Foundation received over 150 applications representing seven countries.  The Ruderman Prize recognizes organizations for exemplary existing initiatives rather than making grants for new programs.

The application form for the awards is available on the Foundation’s website.  Submissions are due on March 18 and winners will be announced in May.

The Ruderman Family Foundation is dedicated to creating and promoting innovation that fosters inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community and Israel.

Moses, Inclusion, and Jewish Disability Awareness Month

Friends,

As you may know, February is Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM).  It was founded in 2008 by the Jewish Special Education Consortium and this year we are hearing about schools, congregations, and communal organizations marking the occasion with celebration and reflection. You can check out the JDAM Facebook page here.

Below, our colleague Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi takes the opportunity to reflect in a JTA op-ed on the state of inclusion in Jewish organizations in the United States.

What are you doing for JDAM?

–Jay Ruderman

 

Play the money card to push rights for disabled

By Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi,  February 7, 2013

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish identity and connection are the birthright of every Jew. So why do so many Jewish institutions discriminate against Jews with disabilities?

It keeps happening because we let it happen. We make excuses by saying there isn’t enough support or enough dollars, or because we value children going to Harvard over those who won’t.

With February being Jewish Disability Awareness Month, it’s time to ask how long we plan to provide the pearls of our heritage only to those capable of receiving them in the rote methods they are presented?

Judaism teaches us that when we were slaves in Egypt and really needed help, God’s instrument was a person with a disability: Moses was “slow of speech and tongue.” But with tremendous assistance from Aaron and the proper supports, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and into freedom and the Promised Land.

For how long will the keys to our treasure trove of tradition only be given to those at our Jewish day schools, synagogue religious schools, youth groups and others who can use those keys without adaptation or support?

More is being done in some institutions to broaden the tent, and there are pockets of excellence. However, I know more than a hundred parents from across America, including top Jewish leaders, whose children have been rejected or “counseled out” from Jewish day schools because of their disabilities.

I watched in pain recently as a prestigious Jewish day school encouraged three children in a classroom of 16 students to leave Jewish day schools because the schools did not want to accommodate their special needs. The three went on to non-Jewish schools for children who are college bound but have special needs. Their parents’ tuition bills increased from $25,000 a year to $35,000 to $65,000 a year — funds they gladly would have paid to keep their children within the walls of a Jewish school.

Instead these families, who needed support from the Jewish community as they were dealing with their children’s special needs, left feeling anger as their community turned them away.

Too often, no matter how hard they try, many Jews with disabilities are simply not fully welcomed. This isn’t an isolated problem: Estimates based on Jewish studies put the number of Jewish children in America with some sort of disability at 200,000. According to the U.S. Census, 20 percent of Americans have a disability, and a recent national poll showed that 51 percent of likely American voters either have a disability or a loved one with a disability.

The Jewish community harms itself when it turns away people with disabilities.

Moreover, some buildings for Jewish day schools, synagogues and special events education have doors that are too narrow for wheelchairs. Why host programs in places that are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act? High Holidays services are led without sign language interpreters in congregations with deaf members. We hand out songs sheets in font sizes too small for the visually impaired to read.

The mantra of the disability community, which wants and deserves a say in its destiny, has become “Nothing about us without us.” Yet even many Jewish organizations that serve Jews with disabilities don’t put people with disabilities on their committees, staffs or boards.

We would not tolerate it if a prestigious school rejected children because they were Jewish. Why does the Jewish community continue to tolerate it when Jewish institutions say no to people with disabilities?

It’s time to use the power of the purse to stop the discrimination.

The “golden rule” of non-profits is that those who give the gold makes the rules. So donors, large and small, must say “hineini” (here I am) to end the intolerance and injustice. Rather than talking the talk, we must walk the walk.

Jews with disabilities aren’t the only Jews who face discrimination from within; so does the LBGT community. Thankfully the Schusterman and Morningstar foundations, along with Stuart Kurlander, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and a gay rights activist, have created an index to show if Jewish groups are open to the LBGT community. They are having a positive impact. This is an example to follow.

Indeed, the Ruderman Family Foundation was the first to raise this issue when it came to inclusion of Jews with disabilities. Others should follow its example. At the Mizrahi Family Charitable Trust, we are. While our family foundation doesn’t accept any unsolicited applicants, even those who we encourage to apply for support must answer serious questions.

They include:

* Does your organization have policies that support meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities at all levels, including on your board of directors?

* Does your organization have a disability advisory committee/inclusion committee?

* Will the program or project include people with disabilities?  If not, why not?  If so, how do you plan to identify, reach and welcome them?

* Describe the accessibility of your offices to people with physical disabilities.

* Do you employ and/or offer internships to individuals who have disabilities?  If so, what are their jobs?  Do they receive the same compensation and benefits as all other employees in like positions?  Please describe how you educate your board of directors or trustees and staff about serving and partnering with people with disabilities.

Our foundation is smaller than others, but we believe that no matter the size of our philanthropic investments, they must be moral in nature. For example, this year we cut funding to an organization with the sole purpose of serving people with disabilities, but tragically the very people they were supposedly serving didn’t feel they were being heard and respected as equals.

We hope that others, including federations, foundations and individuals, will join us as we fight for justice and opportunity, so that all Jews can experience our Jewish birthright.

(Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is the co-founder and director of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Trust and founder and president of Laszlo Strategies.)

Opening Abraham’s Tent in Baltimore, Delaware, Boston… and Beyond

Friends,

Today I’m sharing with you an op-ed that ran recently in the Jewish Advocate here in Boston.  It was written by my sister and Ruderman Family Foundation Trustee Sharon Shapiro and our colleague in the struggle for inclusion, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi.  As you see, signs of progress in our community are everywhere.

–Jay Ruderman

Boston sets example for full inclusion of disabled

The Jewish Advocate, November 28, 2012

Recently, we had the honor of participating in an informative and inspiring conference in Baltimore titled, “Opening Abraham’s Tent: The Disability Inclusion Initiative.”  This conference was proof that, finally, the right people are “on the bus” to help ensure that people with disabilities and their families are fully included in Jewish life in communities across North America.  It also validated the model for inclusion that has been developed here in Boston.

The conference resulted from a partnership of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the Jewish Funders Network (JFN) and the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes (JFGH).

The caliber of the people in the room, including top staff from JFNA and many of the largest federations, demonstrated the importance of this issue. These organizations, which collectively raise billions each year to support Jewish causes, can do more for inclusion than any other network in the Jewish community.

An important first step is work done by JFNA’s Disability Committee, which developed the “Four Key Elements of Inclusion,” a framework to guide federations and affiliated agencies to achieve meaningful progress toward inclusion.

• Accessibility — Ensuring that people with disabilities can access Jewish institutions in our communities and all of the activities held within them.
• Acceptance — Understanding that each one of us has a role to play so that all people are welcome and can participate in meaningful ways.
• Accommodation — Adapting and modifying the environment or programming to allow people with disabilities to actively participate.
• Welcoming — Treating people with disabilities and their families with respect and dignity, while creating a sense of unity within the Jewish community.

Agreeing to these elements was an important milestone, but actions mean more than words, and the commitment to these principles must come from the entirety of our communities.  Therefore, it was meaningful that the gathering included luminaries in the field from all different walks of Jewish life, as well as representatives from the breadth of religious, Jewish social service, and educational organizations.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell, who keynoted the program, is Jewish and served on his local Federation board and as a member of the JFNA Young Leadership Cabinet.

As chairman of the National Governors Association, Governor Markell has focused his efforts on employment issues for individuals with disabilities.  His initiative, A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities is working to bring people with disabilities into the workforce by focusing on their abilities, not their disabilities.  He is meeting with governors and businesses across the country to advance opportunities for these individuals to be gainfully employed in the competitive labor market.  During his speech, Markell inspired federations and other Jewish organizations to “walk the walk” and be even more inclusive not only in whom they serve, but also in whom they hire.

In Boston, the Ruderman Family Foundation, in partnership with Combined Jewish Philanthropies has funded groundbreaking initiatives that provide inclusive opportunities for members of our community. Among them are Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, which helps children with disabilities in Greater Boston to access Jewish learning services.  Another program, Transitions, which partners with the Jewish Vocational Service, funds an innovative employment program for young adults with disabilities to obtain job training at a site (Hebrew SeniorLife’s NewBridge on the Charles) that can potentially employ them after training. This pioneering program aims to increase the low employment rates among persons with disabilities.

In addition to these programs, Boston is blessed with agencies, synagogues and initiatives that provide housing, employment, education, friendship, camping, case management and advocacy services to people with disabilities and their families.

It is clear that every Jewish person must be included in order for the Jewish people as a whole to be truly united as one. The work done by CJP and other Jewish philanthropic organizations in Boston is ushering in a new era of accessibility, acceptance, and accommodation to welcome everyone into our Jewish community.

We believe that while much is left to be done, Boston is a model for the full inclusion of people with disabilities.  This is a cue for the rest of the Jewish world not to trail behind.

Sharon Ruderman Shapiro is Vice President of the Ruderman Family Foundation of Newton and Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi is the Founder & President of Laszlo Strategies and co-director of the Mizrahi Family Charitable Trust, which was a cosponsor and funder of the conference.

Unforgettable Summertime Shabbat: An Inclusive Prayer Service at Ramah

Friends,

As the days shorten and we move toward the darkest time of year, I want to share with you a summer memory from one of the summer staff at Camp Ramah’s Tikvah program in Wisconsin. Such tales of true inclusion move us deeply, all year long.

–Jay Ruderman

By Guest Blogger Daniel Olson, 2012 Rosh Atzmayim (Vocational Program Director) at Camp Ramah, Wisconsin

It’s a rainy Friday night in July at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin. The Tikvah group, teens in Ramah’s disabilities program, and Atzmayim, a college-age group with disabilities, were leading Friday night services together for the whole camp. What transpired was a prayer experience that no one present would soon forget.

The kehilla (community) grew silent as Ari– a Tikvah camper for four years and an Atzmayim participant for two — stood up to speak about his growth at camp. Ari reflected on the large circle of people who have been part of his life. He spoke of his counselors, the friends he’d made in Tikvah and Atzmayim, and the campers who volunteer each summer as inclusion buddies, spending significant time with Tikvah friends. During the speech, he invited anyone who had ever been a part of this circle to rise. Half of the room rose to its feet. He thanked everyone present for helping to shape the lives of all the campers with disabilities who come to Ramah. Now, everyone in the room was on their feet, applauding, moved by Ari’s powerful words.

But what happened next was even more moving.

Before Tyler — a second-year Atzmayim participant — began the early evening service, he covered his eyes with his prayer shawl and said the proper blessing. Many members of the kehilla may have questioned why he would need to cover his eyes. After all, Tyler is blind.  As leader of the service, though, he knew his responsibilities and his respect for tradition was clear. Tyler is also deaf, and wears two cochlear implants, which allow him to hear. So while Tyler’s tunes may have been unconventional, they were charged by a deep love and appreciation for Jewish ritual. As his index finger flew across the pages of his Braille prayer book, he demonstrated intense and meaningful kavana (focus and religious intention).

Members of the community could not contain their emotion when Tyler finished. Some were sure they felt the shekhina (divine presence) in the room. Others said they had not felt as close to G-d in a long time. One Israeli staff member wants to use Tyler’s praying as an example at home, to show that Jews with disabilities can participate in religious life and take on leadership roles. Indeed, thanks to Tikvah, that Friday night service was one of the most meaningful religious moments those of us in camp had ever experienced.

– Daniel Olson

Being in Two Places at Once: Our Foundation’s Challenge and Advantage

Friends:

I’m writing to share an op-ed I wrote this week for ejewishphilanthropy.com.  I have been reflecting on why — even with the logistical difficulties of running a foundation with offices thousands of miles apart — the strategic advantages to having a dual presence far outweigh the challenges.

As always, I welcome your comments.

– Jay

Being in Two Places at Once

by Jay Ruderman

There’s an old Yiddish expression that says you can’t have “ein tuchus oft da ganze velt” or, simply put, you can’t be all over the place at once.

But like many foundations today, our agenda transcends nations. We work toward the goal of full inclusion for Jews with disabilities wherever they may live and we also seek to strengthen the bond between Israel and the Jewish community in the United States.

Unlike many foundations, however, we felt we could not be fully effective at this work without a physical presence in both Israel and in the U.S. Our foundation is one of the few to have its principal decision maker live in Israel, while keeping the organization headquartered in the U.S. This unusual arrangement has given us a broader perspective from which our organization and those we serve truly benefit. It has also given us the opportunity to be a peer-to-peer resource for other funders in both the U.S. and Israel.

There are times that the increased coordination required by this arrangement is challenging. But the advantage of having feet on the ground in both places, and the additional involvement with grantee programs that it provides, cannot be measured. We believe that our twin locations provide us with a distinct perspective on philanthropy. Being in two far-away places at one time truly lets us understand the special and unique relationship between Israel and the U.S. Jewish community and how to most effectively pursue our foundation and program goals.

Looking back to Israel’s failed ad campaign in 2011 to woo expatriates to return home, we had a unique vantage point. We could both see the particular forces in Israel that led to the development of the campaign and better understand why it was so poorly received among American Jews.

More recently, during the military conflict with Hamas, we were able to provide our partners in the U.S. with a first-hand account of what it was like in Israel living beneath the thunder of the Iron Dome explosions, as Israeli anti-missile defenses collided with incoming rockets from Hamas, and also report to the public about how Israelis with disabilities were adversely impacted by a shortage of services during the crisis.

Such a perspective is helpful in an environment where major Israeli philanthropists tend not to fund programs outside of Israel. At the same time, many American foundations that fund programs in Israel do not have offices and staff here, even if they visit frequently.

The fact that I choose to live in Israel makes a statement to our board and partners that our foundation understands how Israeli civil society operates. It would be hard for our foundation to be as effective without this structure, in the same way that it would be hard for a newspaper to report on a community if it did not have a presence there.

Similarly, our Ruderman Fellows program, which brings Members of the Knesset to the U.S. so that they can learn more about the Jewish community in the U.S., benefits from our presence in both places. By being located in Israel we are able to directly recruit Members of the Knesset for the program and our operation in the U.S. is able to design the right experience for the participants as well as handle the thousands of details that make these trips a success.

The power of a dual or multi-location operation for foundations should not be underestimated today. In a world where information, influence, and contacts defy boundaries, the strategic advantage of being in two places at once often translates into the greater fulfillment of goals and the coalescing of mission.

Jay Ruderman is President of the Ruderman Family Foundation.  For more on this topic, please follow Zeh Lezeh, the Ruderman Family Foundation’s blog.