| Winning the Battle for Israel's Fundamental Legitimacy
The global assault against Israel's legitimacy, alongside its operative arm – the BDS Movement, is gaining traction. This summer is crucial for preparing for the coming fall and aligning ourselves toward what promises to be a tough challenge for Israel on campuses around the world and elsewhere. Based on our years'-long work – which has included piloting some of our ideas in London and other locations in the U.S. and working with dozens of organizations and government agencies – we have compiled key points about understanding BDS, fighting BDS, and winning against BDS (please see here). Reut continues to serve as a resource in this area for organizations and activists on the front lines of this challenge, with the understanding that now it should be our collective duty and objective to win this fight.
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| TOM's Promising Ventures
Reut's TOM:TLV Make-a-thon event, held this past March in conjunction with the JFN Conference in Israel, brought together technologists, designers, therapists, and people with disabilities to develop ideas and products to address unmet needs of people living with disabilities. The prototypes produced during the course of the three-day 'marathon of making' continue to advance on their path to achieving widespread impact. A team that developed an application to track the progress of the ALS disease was recently awarded a grant of $100,000 by former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg through the Genesis Prize to continue development of the application. Two additional teams were accepted to a top-tier accelerator. (To watch a short video describing the projects developed during the TOM:TLV event click here.)
We are also proud to announce that TOM has made it to the final round of the Aspen Ideas Award Contest, a prestigious American competition that encourages innovative thinking and solutions that promote community development.
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| An Inspiring Conversation: Reut Hosts Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
In early June, Reut hosted Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, in our offices for an open conversation about the challenges that underlie the relationship between the State of Israel and the Jewish world. Rabbi Sacks emphasized the need for the establishment of a new civilian leadership able to elevate the relationship between Israel and the Jewish people to a new path, which will ensure the future and strength of Jewish communities everywhere. "The first role of Zionism was to build the State of Israel," said Rabbi Sacks. "The second role, these days, is to build the society."
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| Getting Ready for the Next Revolution: XLN and the Israel Employment Agency
Reut's XLN (Cross-Lab Network) recently completed our first training course in partnership with the Israel Employment Agency to train unemployed individuals in 3D printing and self-manufacturing. The XLN is a network of communal technological labs, based primarily in Israel's socio-economic and geographic periphery, designed to catapult Israel into leading the coming revolution of self-manufacturing and to generate growth that is also inclusive. The course trained participants in advanced planning programs, digital modeling, and operating the newest models of 3D printers along with laser cutting and other tool – skills for which there is likely to be a sharp rise in demand in the coming years. We anticipate opening additional such courses in the near future.
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| Leapfrogging the Western Galilee: Advancing Regional Inclusive Growth
Reut's pilot in the Western Galilee is moving ahead rapidly. Our work in the Western Galilee is designed to catalyze a local leapfrog, focusing on generating economic clusters around the region's unique assets. To advance this goal, Reut – with the generous support of Raya Strauss Ben Dror – has formed a regional steering committee, which recently formulated an articulated vision for the region. The committee, led by Teva Naot CEO Michah Iluz, comprises 15 regional lay and professional leadership including Arab and Jewish private and public sector CEOs, academics, mayors, regional council leaders, and non-profit leaders. Reut is currently focused on harnessing dozens of additional regional stakeholders to this vision, based on our approach of mobilizing local leadership to take aligned and collective responsibility for advancing inclusive growth regionally. (Please click here for a brief video that tells the story of the leapfrog club.)
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| Training Reut's Strategic Leaders
Reut's leadership training, aimed at grooming a cadre of future leaders in Israel and the Jewish world, is a core pillar of our impact strategy. Our aim is to provide each member of Reut's staff a formative personal and professional experience, as well as tools to help them integrate into key positions in the public sphere.
In early May, Reut partnered with the Schusterman Foundation's ROI Community to create a week-long intensive seminar on Adaptive Leadership for the Reut staff and select members of the ROI Community brought into Jerusalem for the event from all around the world. The seminar, which condensed a semester-long course, was guided by Tim O'Brien and Michael Koehler from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Reut continues to expand its training through dedicated monthly training days and continuously in adaptive leadership, which has long been the fundamental pillar of our approach to societal impact, as well as in other aspects of our methodology, theory, and approaches to innovation.
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