ISRAEL @ 75 SPECIAL SECTION
For most of its existence, the primary focus of the Allied Jewish Federation was fundraising for Israel and for Jewish human services, global and local. Allied is now JEWISHcolorado (Jco), and fundraising is still a large part of its mission, but now Jco connects not only people’s money with Israel, but connects people themselves with Israel.
As Allied, there was always programming designed to strengthen the relationship between Colorado Jews and Israel, but with Allied’s rebranding came a specific effort to provide programs designed to deepen the Colorado Jewish-Israeli bond. That effort resulted in the creation of Jco’s Israel and Overseas Center, an outgrowth of Allied’s Israel and Overseas committee.
The center — a collection of programming and services, rather than a physical facility — is directed by Edina Segal, whose personal journey and connection to Israel makes her perfect for such a position.
Segal comes from a family with deep roots in Israel. Her mother’s family was living in Hebron in the 1920s. Her great-grandfather was a rabbi there.
“They lived very peacefully with their Arab neighbors until the 1929 Hebron Massacre, when they fled. My mother’s family left on a ship and ended up in Central America, and they still live in Panama.”
Segal’s father was a native New Yorker, and that’s where Edina grew up. At age 21, after finishing her studies in college in upstate New York, she went to Israel for what was to be a three-month touring and kibbutz experience.
“I fell in love with the country, and I basically told my parents I was never coming home. I lived there through my 20s and 30s, and got married and had my first child there.”
Segal’s now-ex-husband worked for an Israeli chemical firm and was transferred to Manhattan. The young family moved to New York, where Segal’s second child was born. “I got very comfortable with the American way of life, and having grandparents here for my children, and basically got stuck in America,” Segal says with a chuckle.
Always passionate about Israel and connecting Americans to Israel, Segal taught Hebrew in the Solomon Schechter Day School system in New York before becoming a Jewish preschool director.
With her children grown — her son lives in Boulder — Segal was attracted to the job opening for a director of the newly-created Jco Israel and Overseas Center.
Prior to Segal’s arrival and the creation of the center, there were various Israel-centric programs and entities under Jco’s aegis, including missions to Israel, the shaliach (emissary from Israel, provided by the Jewish Agency for Israel), shinshinim (pre-Army Israeli teen emissaries) and the 51-year-old Joyce Zeff Israel Study Tour (IST).
“We had all these programs and, of course, our partnership region in the Negev, but they wanted one umbrella center that would oversee and inspire the work to connect the Jews of Colorado to the people of Israel and Jews worldwide,” Segal explains.
Itai Divinsky is the current shaliach; Michelle Schwartz coordinates the shinshinim and Jillian Feiger directs IST. All are now part of the Israel and Overseas Center.
In some cases, “connecting people with Israel” is literal. Divinsky recently facilitated a Coloradan making aliyah, moving to Israel. And the center coordinates missions to Israel. The first post-COVID Jco mission to Israel in October for major donors and will include a visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Programming includes Celebrate Israel, the annual community-wide walk and festival on Sunday, May 7, commemorating Yom Ha’aztmaut, Israel’s 75th Independence Day. The event will be at Great Lawn Park in Lowry, and will include the traditional walk for Israel, a festival with booths showcasing community agencies and a concert with with Shaanan Streett of the Israeli hip hop band Hadag Nahash.
Segal says last year’s event attracted 1,000 and this year, nearly double that number of participants are expected.
The center organized this week’s Yom Hazikaron ceremony in commemoration of Israel’s Memorial Day in conjunction with other community organizations.
The Israel and Overseas Center does a lot of programming with the Boulder JCC. Recently, a Palestinian-Israeli rap duo performed, as did a Middle Eastern oud player.
There was a culinary event with Roger Sherman, producer of the film, “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” and a night of Israeli food tasting.
The center had an event featuring Israeli wine from Jco’s partnership region, Ramat HaNegev.
That theme will be repeated at a fundraiser planned for Jan. 18, 2024, with Ramat HaNegev.
“We are going to bring over a Bedouin Israeli ensemble that will play music and answer questions about the Bedouin narrative in the Negev. We will have an auction with items from artisans in the Negev area, such as olive oils, ceramics, honey and wines.”
“One of our most important demographics, though, are the young adults,” says Segal.
“So we do partner a lot with the YAD cohort of JEWISHcolorado. I would love to get more younger people involved with some of our work groups and the Israel and Overseas Committee.
Segal realizes that Israel, at least politically, can be polarizing within the Jewish community, but she believes the cultural and Jewish identity aspects of Israel are what attracts people to participate in Israel-centered programming.
Segal maintains a position of neutrality, but when it is necessary to respond to developments in Israel, she follows the lead of the Jewish Federations of North America.
“When things were getting very chaotic a couple of weeks ago, we had an emergency Zoom briefing with Ramat HaNegev Mayor Eran Doron about judicial reform. People ask us what’s going on, and we try to just present the facts and answer any pressing issues that might come up.”
When Edina Segal lived in Israel, she found it very easy to live a Jewish life, albeit as a secular Jew, as she was living in the Jewish state. Then when she moved back to New York, she found herself still surrounded by many Jews and Jewish culture, but it was in the context of a very diverse and large New York populace.
When she came to Colorado, she was pleased to become part of a surprisingly active and vibrant Jewish community, but realized she would need to work harder to connect Jewishly than in Israel and New York because here Jews are more assimilated.
JEWISHcolorado’s Israel and Overseas Center, she says, “makes it easier for people to access their Jewish identity and connection with Israel.”
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