On May 2016, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund held its annual Latin American Leadership Conference. This time, the conference opened in Buenos Aires, Argentina and continued in the city of Montevideo in Uruguay, in the presence of KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar, and senior staff of KKL-JNF in Israel. The conference took place from May 26th until May 30th, and was attended by KKL-JNF representatives of 16 Latin American countries and delegates of other Zionist organizations.
For the opening event, KKL Argentina organized a great dinner under the slogan: “Building Halutza, Continuing Zionism”. KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar, on his first visit to the region, emphasized in his speech that without the presence of KKL-JNF, “the State of Israel would not be the same”, adding: “KKL-JNF is the most important green organization in Israel, and probably in the world
Because of the criticism heard, we decided to ask all the members of the Jewish People to determine which should be the main goals of KKL-JNF. We work in the Diaspora by fostering the Zionist and Jewish education (formal and non-formal) and strengthening the ties between the members of Jewish Communities and the State of Israel."
In addition to the World Chairman, other honored guests included: KKL-JNF Vice-Chairmen Nisan Clalic and Hernan Feldman, KKL-JNF Executive Director of Resources, Development and PR Avi Dickstein, and KKL-JNF Latin American Department Director Ariel Goldgewicht; the Israeli Ambassador to Argentina, Dorit Shavit; the Cultural Attaché at Israel’s Embassy, Dovrat Zilberstein; the Governor of Tucumán, Juan Luis Manzur; the Argentinean Congressman, Waldo Wolff; the Joint Public Ombudsman for Buenos Aires City, Claudio Presman; the Assistant Secretary of Human Rights and Cultural Pluralism for the city of Buenos Aires, Pamela Malewicz; Danny Lev, OSA Chairman; and Javier Vainberg, FACCMA Chairman. Also present were the Chairman of KKL-JNF Argentina, Adolfo Filarent, and the Chairman of KKL-JNF Uruguay Alejandro Weisz, and Rabbis Salomon Nussbaum, Alejandro Avruj and Ariel Stofenmacher.
KKL-JNF Vice-Chairman and the man responsible for the Latin American region, Hernan Felman, addressed the audience and invited them to look at the colors representing KKL-JNF, its important mission and the meaning it has for the Jews in the Diaspora: “The blue color is symbol of dawn, brown is the color of the land we bought in Eretz Yisrael thanks to the efforts of Jews from all over the world. Four percent of the lands were purchased with funds donated from Latin American countries. The green color is not only the symbol of the hundreds of millions of trees that were planted in Israel, but is also the green of ecology for the modern world, the need of this world to face the problems which could affect millions of people over the coming years”.
In addition to the speeches, Adolfo Filarent, KKL-JNF Argentina Chairman, was honored with the Jerusalem Prize for his contribution to the organization and the Zionist Movement. A video promoting the Haluza Project - in which agricultural towns are being built in the Negev region near the Gaza and Egyptian borders by KKL-JNF with the support of its friends worldwide - was featured, and the public enjoyed the performance of the Israeli international singer, David D’Or.
After the reception in Buenos Aires, the delegates from the 16 countries continued on to Montevideo, where they participated in the activities held in the Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel.They were also invited to participate in the reopening ceremony of the Holocaust Memorial, located on the sea front promenade. The memorial had been inaugurated for the first time 25 years ago.
The ceremony was attended by Holocaust survivors and their families; the Israel Ambassador to Uruguay, Nina Ben Ami; the former President of Uruguay, Julio María Sanguinetti; and the Mayor of Montevideo, Eng. Daniel Martinez. Other prominent community and diplomatic figures included Eli Cohen and Saul Gilvich.
In his opening speech, Danny Atar stressed that “in spite of the fact that we’ve built the Homeland for the Jewish People, today we continue to struggle for our existence, in our land and in the rest of the world. Antisemitism in the whole world wears the mask of the BDS movement, and attacks the State of Israel because of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But it is actually an envelope where, upon opening it, we discover the intense hatred towards the Jewish People. We will succeed to win this struggle if we remember the Jewish values of support and solidarity.”
During the Conference, each and every delegation presented the activities and the situation of KKL-JNF in its own country. This session was very important for the leadership who came from Israel, to be able to hear first hand directly what is happening in Latin America.
During his turn, Ariel Goldgewicht reviewed the important mission and the projects of KKL-JNF in the different countries. Hernan Felman gave a comprehensive presentation about KKL-JNF's economic situation, and the World Chairman Danny Atar, presented the challenges for the coming years.
"During the last 20 years, everybody was concerned about globalization: how to succeed in business, how to establish High Tech companies, and we left solidarity, Zionism, the education of the future generations aside, in order to succeed and integrate in the world and in the global economy. Today, we have a new leadership in KKL-JNF who says that Jewish and Zionist Education is more important than anything else. In the first place, Zionist Education, Jewish identity, and the love of Israel are the most important matters. Without these elements, there is no money in the world that can ensure Jewish People’s future," stressed Atar. He said: “the future of the Jewish People will be ensured only if we keep our link to Judaism, and to the State of Israel. This is possible to achieve through education".
Watch in Spanish:
KKL-JNF Latin American Leadership Conference, May 2016