“KKL-JNF expresses the vision of modern Zionism,” said Avi Dickstein, Executive Director of the KKL-JNF Resource Development and Public Relations Division, who retired last week after 20 years in the organization. “The fruits of KKL-JNF’s beneficial work can be seen on the map of our beautiful land Israel. Our common goal is to continue building our country, together with our friends worldwide.”
“They say that the only way to predict the future is to create it. Since its establishment, that is exactly what KKL-JNF has been doing in the country’s daily life – it creates the future,” said Avi Dickstein, outgoing executive director of the KKL-JNF Resource Development and Public Relations Division, who has just retired after over 20 years of fruitful work. In a letter that he sent to KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar in anticipation of his retirement, Dickstein noted: “I see KKL-JNF as a mission, not as a regular workplace. I always saw KKL-JNF as my second home. In actuality, KKL-JNF was often my first home.”
Dickstein served in KKL-JNF under five different chairmen. During his candidacy as executive director of the Resource Development and Public Relations Division, over 2,600 projects throughout the country were completed or are in the process of completion, thanks to the support of friends of KKL-JNF around the world. The extent of the contributions is approximately 3 billion shekels, with another 2 billion shekels in matching funds from the government, local authorities and KKL-JNF. The impact of their support is seen in the large and small projects that are catalysts for change in the many and varied communities around Israel. During this time period, over 15,000 ceremonies and events were held throughout the country with friends of KKL-JNF from all over the world, including many donors, heads of organizations, heads of state, prime ministers and presidents.
Over the years, Dickstein’s work was integrated with the realization of KKL-JNF’s vision of developing Israel for all its residents, with the help of KKL-JNF supporters abroad. This work promises the young generation a green and developed land that is settled and progressive, value-oriented and prosperous.
“With the help of our partners in 48 offices around the world, we are developing Israel, with emphasis on the Negev, Galilee and Jerusalem. We are strengthening the peripheral areas of the country and improving the quality of life for all the residents of the country,” Dickstein noted during a parting visit to the Negev last month.
Towards the end of his tenure, we asked Avi, “How are the values that KKL-JNF represents connected with your own personal values?”
“A person is only a reflection of his homeland’s landscape. I grew up and was educated in a Zionist home, where there was a clear hierarchy – the land of Israel is above everything else, family was in the middle, and personal ambitions were at the bottom. KKL-JNF expresses the vision of modern Zionism by developing the land and the vision of our forefathers by settling it – Abraham planted a tree, Isaac dug water cisterns and Jacob settled the land.”
Immediately after the Yom Kippur War, at the end of four years of military duty in Sinai and the Golan Heights, Dickstein began his path in the institutions of Israel and the Jewish world. As a student of Hebrew University, he worked as a counselor at the School for Overseas Students at the beginning of the 1970s.
“I was exposed to a world that I wasn’t familiar with, to all the importance and power of the Jewish world abroad,” he recalls.
Avi continued in the Youth and Halutz (pioneer) Department of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). In 1984, he was sent to North America as the head of a delegation of informal education emissaries by WZO and the Jewish Agency. There, he was active in the field of community centers and youth movements.
“I was privileged to get to know the warm Jewish communities abroad and to witness their commitment to Israel,” he noted.
During his five years abroad, he was active in the field of Jewish community centers and youth groups. Out of the many projects that he was involved in, he was responsible for organizing the arrival of about fifty thousand young people to Israel, in what would eventually be known as the Birthright program.
"KKL-JNF expresses the vision of modern Zionism by developing the land and the vision of our forefathers by settling it – Abraham planted a tree, Isaac dug water cisterns and Jacob settled the land.”
On his return to Israel, he was appointed director general of the March of the Living educational program, in which Jewish youth from all over the world go to Poland to learn and become familiar with the Jewish world that was destroyed by the Nazis. The participants embark on the powerful March of the Living: On Holocaust Remembrance Day, they reenact the Death March between the Auschwitz Death Camp and Birkenau. From there, they continue on an eight day visit to Israel, where they get the opportunity to experience Israel's rebirth on Memorial Day and Israel Independence Day. In Israel they are exposed, among other things, to projects of the Zionist movement and KKL-JNF’s work.
“Thousands of young people have participated in this educational project every year for the past twenty-nine years, a total of a quarter of a million youth from around the world,” Avi says with satisfaction.
In 1992, Avi joined the KKL-JNF leadership, and a few years later he was appointed Executive Director of the Resource Development and Public Relations Division, which is responsible for relations with KKL-JNF offices abroad and raising donations for Israel.
“Our goal is to meet the needs of each of our offices worldwide by promoting activities, connections and contributions with local friends of KKL-JNF, intensifying and strengthening their bond to Israel, and harnessing communities to be our partners in developing Israel, working to fulfill the vision of KKL-JNF,” he explained.
How deep is the connection between the communities in the various countries and the people of Israel, the land of Israel and the state of Israel?
“The Jewish world is extensive, fascinating, rich in content, and in large part, committed to the state of Israel. KKL-JNF is the main instrument that connects the Jewish communities of the world to the development of Israel. We are active together with friends of KKL-JNF and many Jewish communities in the world, and together, we have promoted many hundreds of projects to develop Israel. We work together in all the corners of the earth, and we all speak the same language and work to achieve the same vision. Our 48 offices throughout the world run campaigns and events to promote a great variety of projects. KKL-JNF is committed to the continued strengthening of the bond with the Jews of the Diaspora, and with its many friends abroad.”
During the time he served as the department’s executive director, dozens of conferences and many international meetings took place, with the participation of KKL-JNF representatives from different countries, in what was to become a KKL-JNF tradition that leaves its imprint on the organization’s work.
At the KKL-JNF World Leadership Conference, leaders of the organization from around the world meet and exchange opinions and professional ideas about future development while receiving information on projects they support that are in stages of completion.
The KKL-JNF World Marketing Conference is attended by KKL-JNF representatives from all the different countries, who receive new tools for marketing campaigns and fundraising projects back home. Dozens of delegations from all over the world visit Israel regularly, and many ceremonies take place in every corner of the country to dedicate new projects and to honor donors and partners.
“They say that the only way to predict the future is to create it. That is exactly what KKL-JNF does in the country’s daily life – it creates the future."
It would be impossible to list all the projects that the Resource Development and Public Relations Division under Dickstein was involved in developing over the years, but in the weeks leading up to Avi’s retirement, division teams visited an impressive number of sites: At the Fred and Linda Waks Mediterranean Botanical Garden in Akko, for example, which they visited on their trip to the north, they saw a flourishing park and garden, complete with walking paths, an abundance of native plants and flowers, and a large adventure playground where children from Akko's Jewish and Arab communities were playing happily together.
At Ilanot Forest in the central region, they saw a site full of life built by KKL-JNF, with accessible paths and a visitors center that is in the process of being built. “Ilanot Forest should be a must-see for every delegation and every friend who visits Israel,” Avi said to the participants in his speech.
During a visit to the garden that KKL-JNF created at the Center of the Israeli Society for Autistic Children (ALUT) in Kfar Saba, Avi expressed a lot of emotion about the work KKL-JNF does with adults and children with autism, thanks to the support of its friends. He added that “KKL-JNF has a long tradition of extensive work for the welfare of people with special needs.”
On a visit to the southern region, Dickstein and the division staff felt particularly proud of the new communities in the Halutza sand dunes. The team gazed at the new houses that sprung forth out of the desert sands, at the families who live in them and the fields that surround the communities and provide a livelihood to their residents, with the knowledge that all this was made possible thanks to KKL-JNF and its friends worldwide. The plans to build these communities were first presented at the 2006 Marketing Conference and were later realized over the next decade.
“When we came for our first meeting here all there was was sand, sand and more sand,” Dickstein recalled. “At the Marketing Conference that was held later, we presented the idea of creating the Halutza communities to the KKL-JNF representatives from around the world. It is extremely satisfying to come back here today and to see the communities flourishing.”
The Beersheva River Park is another example of the change that KKL-JNF is bringing about in the Negev. This site was also visited by the Resources Development and PR team during their visit to the south. “Until about twenty years ago, this area was desolate. There was nothing here, and now, thanks to the support of our partners, the park is thriving. The green hill, the impressive amphitheater - one of the biggest in Israel - was built, and in two years from now there will be a lake here, in collaboration and with financing from the government, the municipality, KKL-JNF and JNF USA,” Dickstein said as he gazed at the area that KKL-JNF transformed. Thanks to the park, new surrounding neighborhoods were built in Beersheva and new recreation centers were developed.
During the visit, everyone planted a tree together. “This is what we do – plant the future together,” Dickstein declared.
When Avi was asked to choose the projects that served as catalysts for change over the past few years, he said that other than the new communities that were built, the water reservoirs and forests that were developed, it was difficult to choose between the many hundreds of projects that the Division and KKL-JNF supporters were partners to creating. Even so, he numbered a few, including the Halutza communities, Beersheva River Park, Ben Gurion Park and the manmade recreational lake in Dimona, the new parks in Sderot, the Aleh Negev Rehabilitation Center, the Hula Lake Park and its bird watching center, the Botanical Gardens in Acco, security shelters in the Gaza border communities, the many parks in Jerusalem, building a new wing of the Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, developing the ANZAC museum in Beersheva, agricultural infrastructure for the Gaza border communities, developing educational centers in the Arava, support of research and development stations, the Families Park in Ma’alot, environmental landscaping around various hospitals and the Rosh Tzippor Birdwatching Center at in the Yarkon River Park.
“These are just a few of the projects, and of course this small and partial list doesn’t even begin to describe the scope of KKL-JNF’s monumental work throughout the country, in so many diverse fields, all thanks to contributions from countries worldwide.”
“The Jewish world is extensive, fascinating, rich in content and committed to the state of Israel...We work together in all the corners of the earth, and we all speak the same language and work to achieve the same vision.
What are your parting words to the leadership, partners and staff of KKL-JNF?
"I send my very warmest wishes and heartfelt gratitude to all the KKL-JNF friends and supporters, to the many volunteers, the employees and emissaries, the administration of each and every country, to the KKL-JNF chairpersons and presidents worldwide, to the employees of the Resource Development and Public Relations Division, to the entire KKL-JNF team, to the members of the administration, to the directorate, and to KKL-JNF World Chairman Danny Atar.
"To the KKL-JNF leadership, I wish you much success in continuing our mission of developing the land. I would like to thank our quality division staff, who work with a high level of dedication. I also wish the best of luck to my successor, Moshe Pearl, who is the right person in the right place."
From the Resource Development and PR Staff:
Dear Avi,
It is our pleasure to present you with this album, which reflects KKL-JNF's activity over the years and your amazing work during the twenty years that you were part of KKL-JNF.
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