The Living Bridge to World Jewry

Bridge to the Jews passes through "motherhood" and genealogy

An honest look at the state of the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, reveals a complex picture. On the one hand, enormous investment and glorified organizations. On the other, statistics show that they are unable to reach more than a minority of Diaspora Jews.

The reason for this lies in the fact that for generations we have been operating according to only two paradigms (worldviews):

• The communal-religious system ("Come to us"): Synagogues, Chabad, JCC, youth movements, etc. The message is: "The door is open, you are welcome.".
• The ideological-Zionist method ("Support us or immigrate to Israel."): Political lobbying, advocacy, donations. The message is: "Israel needs you."

Both of these methods are excellent, but suffer from the same structural flaw: they work by "...Attraction" (Pull). They have to wait for the individual to take an active action – register, pay membership fees, or express a political position. And what about the millions who don't? Who aren’t “Pulled״, who don't set foot in a synagogue, who aren't connected to Israel or don't even know they're Jews? These people (millions) are transparent for the existing systems. We don't know who they are and we have no way to reach them.

The third paradigm: Family.

The person is not required to register with an institution, to be religious or a passionate Zionist. He is only required to be himself. Unlike existing methods based on ideology, this method is based on Biology and emotion. This is the way to break through the glass ceiling and reach every Jew, wherever they may be.

How does it work? The "Rivlin Family" model for everyone. Take the Rivlin extended family of Jerusalem for example. A vast clan that knows exactly who belongs to it, meets and maintains connections. Why? Because someone bothered to manage the records and someone took care of connecting the people. There is no reason in the age of big data and people finders that this should remain the domain of individuals. The entire Ben Hamu family or the extended Goldberg family could become a "Rivlin family."

Three critical layers: the infrastructure (the data), the human factor (primarily women), and the proposition (the value).

1. Prerequisite infrastructure for all programs: establishing a global population database of world Jews.

This is not a one-time project of "enrollment", but a living, breathing enterprise, constantly updated, based on cross-references, genealogical research, and big data. Without this modern census, which maps family connections, we’re groping in the dark for updated family ties. The database is the engine that enables us to know who belongs to which clan and where they live.

2. The Human Secret: From Feminine Power to Feminine Power

Who keeps the family memory? Who remembers birthdays, distant relatives, and who takes care of hosting on holidays? Experience shows that in most cases, women are the custodians of the family tradition. They are the ones who strengthen the social-family network.

Therefore, the strategy focuses first and foremost on women. Moreover: "Liaison officers" as it were, should be (primarily) women know how to create intimacy and emotional dialogue more easily. When a woman turns to another woman, mother to mother, and offers to connect her children to the extended family – the barriers fall faster and suspicion dissipates.

3. Breaking the "cold calling" barrier

The biggest problem for organizations is that cold calling is perceived as harassment or marketing. People filter out calls from strangers who are trying to sell them something or ask for donations.

The family system elegantly circumvents this entire limitation because it is not out to sell anything.

When a woman gets a phone call that says: "Hello, I am speaking on behalf of your cousin from Israel who would really like to make contact." This is not a "Seller-Customer" request, but rather a "Family-family" call which opens the door to the heart – almost immediately. The conversation is about roots, about grandparents, about belonging. This is a value that modern man, who is sometimes lonely, thirsts for contact.

The Living Bridge to Israel

The vision is to connect the Family "Clusters" abroad to their parallels in Israel, to transform Israel in the eyes of unconnected Jews from a political place into a place where they are welcome with a living personal connection to family members."

"The liaison officers" do not disappear after making connections but remain in the background, like dedicated gardeners, to ensure that the warmth is maintained, that the bonds are strengthened, and that the families of the Jewish people return to being a living, breathing, and connected network."