After a two-year hiatus, due to the Corona plague, the Conference of Presidents of Jewish Organizations convened again and for the 40th time will do so in Israel.
The conference will open in Jerusalem next Sunday, in the presence of Prime Minister Bennett, Foreign Minister Lapid, Defense Minister Ganz, former Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior officials.
As mentioned, the "Presidents' Conference" is an umbrella lobby that unites over 50 Jewish Zionist organizations, dealing with Israeli-US relations, and the Jewish community in America and is considered to have an influence on American governments. Many continue to serve as vice president of performance.
In a joint interview ahead of the conference, Honline and Daroff say that holding the conference in Jerusalem after two years heralds the expected return of American Jews to visit Israel, with the beginning of the decline of the Omicron wave. "Before the outbreak of the corona, and it is the first significant American Jewish conference to return and take place in the country, with what we hope is the beginning of a return to routine in relations between the Diaspora and Israel," Daruf said.
Honlein added that it was precisely the inability of American Jews to visit Israel due to the plague that illustrated to many how important and important the Jewish state is in their lives.
But in my opinion precisely because of this, now that it is possible to come here again, we see a large wave of tourists, from all streams, who come to visit and also many who will immigrate to Israel.
I am optimistic.
I think the difficulty actually strengthened the connection to Israel. "
"There is a wave of events that have not been seen for 80 years"
"In addition to the difficulties created by the epidemic, the Jewish community in the United States has experienced and still experiences a great wave of anti-Semitism.
"Jews of all streams, not just Jewish-looking, are being attacked in huge numbers, all over the country," he said online. "There are swastikas and slogans on synagogues, on a large scale and not everything is reported.
Of course there have been a string of violent attacks, including the Pittsburgh massacre in 2018 and the recent capture of hostages in Coulwell Texas.
"It happened before in Europe, we predicted it would reach us in the United States and we prepared. There is a wave of events that have not been seen for 80 years."
Graffiti of a swastika in a synagogue in Pennsylvania,
Daruf: "The Jewish community has not yet returned to what it was before the Corona, but has shown great resilience. Their and it shows a lot of power.
"Although, naturally, most synagogues have experienced a decline in the number of worshipers physically. Much of the activity has gone virtual, but the volume of activity has increased, and there are more participants in digital activity than there was in physical activity before the Corona. In fact the community adapts to the 21st century. The change, and Israel is one of the stable things the Jewish community has. "
A significant portion of the Conference of Presidents' activities focuses on strengthening ties between Israel and the United States, and between the Washington administration and the government in Jerusalem.
"The atmosphere is positive and matter-of-fact, although there are disagreements on various issues, especially Iran. In our eyes, too, the removal of sanctions over the civilian part of Iran's nuclear program without visible consideration is worrying. "It shows that," says Daruf.
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