It occurs to me that I haven’t explained what has brought me to Israel on this adventure with the Good People Fund.
The Good People Fund was founded 19 years ago by my friend and teacher Naomi Eisenberger, seeking out and supporting extraordinary people and organizations that are doing the work of Tikkun Olam/world-repair in powerful, creative, and grassroots ways. We currently work with 35 projects across North America, 28 in Israel, and 1 in Ukraine. And they are not necessarily Jewish projects; what makes our work Jewish is the way in which we do our Tzedakah work.
(For more information about the Good People Fund—and for a real jolt of inspiration—check out the new edition of the Journal for Good, available on the GPF website.)
Naomi and I met each other 34 years ago in Jerusalem, where we both were mentored by Danny Siegel, the pioneering teacher, author, and poet who changed the ways in which the Jewish world thinks about Doing Good. For years Naomi was the Managing Director of the Ziv Tzedakah Fund which Danny created. When Ziv closed its operations in 2007, Naomi launched the Good People Fund—taking the whole idea to the next level of seeding new projects and mentoring them in best practices of how to run a truly transformative organization. (It’s been wonderful to see the love that each of our projects’ leaders have shown to Naomi throughout this trip.)
Naomi retired as the Executive Director earlier this year, and the Good People Fund is now under the leadership of the wonderful Julie Fisher, who will take this work to another level in what is effectively chapter 3 of this story.
My connections to Naomi and Danny have absolutely shaped my outlook on the world and why I do the work I do. So when Julie invited me to join the Board in 2025, of course I said yes. And when I was invited to be the “rabbi-in-residence” for this sojourn to Israel, it felt like coming full circle.
Now, Jewish communities frequently launch “Tzedakah missions” to Israel, often via Jewish Federations or large foundations, but this trip is far from those. The Good People Fund nurtures young Tzedakah startups, providing them with a crucial foundation from which to grow. Every project inevitably is led by a visionary—someone who is creative, passionate, loving, and utterly non-arrogant or self-consumed. They tend to have a ziv – a warm radiance of integrity, honesty, kindness, and hope.
The other common denominators that Good People Fund projects share are absolute trustworthiness, transparency in their finances, and a grassroots commitment to their work. And, of course, touching lives and transforming them.
They work in different fields and care for different populations of people. But for me, one thing cuts across all their work:
Being with Good People is an antidote cynicism.
It’s a fraught time for the State of Israel, and for Jewish people around in the world in this era of slander, hate, and surging antisemitism. I know I have days when those forces feel overwhelming.
But if you’ve felt that way before, know that we have to push back against those forces. Cynicism is a spiritual toxin, and it brings a terrible coarsening of the soul.
The best antidote I know is to spend time with these people and the countless others like them.
Here are a few examples drawn from the 20+ Good People Fund grantees we’ve encountered in the past few days (in addition to a few I described in my previous post):
Assif (Assi) at Back 2 Life Farm
Back to Life Farm in Sdot Yam: In a nation that is wracked with PTSD, especially in the wake of the massacres of October 7 and the subsequent war, it is inspiring to see how many compassionate people are addressing victims of trauma. We met Assi Nave, who started in this magnificent place in memories of his brother-in-law Ro’i Levy and his best friend Danny, each of whom died tragically in recent years. Assi and his companions created this farm, starting with rescued horses and other animals, and created an oasis of a caring community.
And we met with a current client, also named Ro’i, who spoke about how this place not only saved his life by restoring his self-worth, but how it gave him the opportunity to become a volunteer on the farm, helping other who had been similarly traumatized. “That’s one of the best things they could give me,” Ro’i told us.
Jamal telling us his story
Jamal Alkirnawi/A New Dawn in the Negev: There are around 40 unrecognized Bedouin villages in Israel’s south, and they lack many crucial services and support systems. We journeyed to the Negev, Israel’s southern desert, to meet grantees who are working with the Bedouin community here, especially the children.
Jamal Alkirnawi has a remarkable and inspirational story about how, as a shy and introverted child in this traditional and insulated community, he discovered Israeli teenagers’ student councils—and made a journey to encounter and learn with his Israeli peers. Then he returned to his home communities here, and now works to empower young people with initiatives based in literacy, leadership development, entrepreneurship, and peace.
Gadi and me
Gadi Gevaryahu/Tag Meir: I’ve known about and contributed to Tag Meir for years, but was delighted to meet its founder Gadi in person We all know about the shameful surge in racist violence by Jewish extremists against Palestinians in the past few years; they call it tag mahir/”price tag” attacks for Palestinian acts of terror. In 2011 Gadi created an Israeli-Jewish emergency response unit; Tag Meir (a “tag of light”): every time there is an act of Jewish terror, their volunteers mobilize with visits of compassion, sorrow, and empathy—and much more, including Tzedakah. It’s Israeli anti-racism at its most urgent and primal level.
Racheli Tadessa Malkai
Ma’atzimot—Empowering Ethiopian Women/Racheli Tadessa Malkai: In 1992, my life changed volunteering on an Israeli immigrant absorption center in the wake of Operation Solomon, when over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel. Racheli and Ma’atzimot work to promote women’s rights in that tradition community, combatting sexual abuse and teaching leadership development, vocational training, resilience and entrepreneurship—and promoting pride in their distinct heritage in Israel’s cultural mosaic. She is awesome—as is the book of women’s voices that they’ve published (in Hebrew).
That’s the tip of big iceberg and a very intense and inspiration week. Do check out the Journal of Good on the GPF website for more of these wondrous people and project.
Ultimately, this journey is about hope. Hope is not some glassy-eyed view of the world that “everything will work out for the best.” The open wounds of October 7 prove that. But hope is a reminder that there is still a powerful network of good that exists in this world, and if you can plug into it, you can be empowered to defeat the cynicism and fear and solipsism that poisons the spirit.
Am Yisrael Chai!