By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — To considerable applause, Russell Robinson, the chief executive officer of the Jewish National Fund, announced Thursday, May 11, that the next national president of JNF will be San Diegan Dr. Sol Lizerbram.
Lizerbram, active with his wife Lauren for 35 years in JNF, will begin his two-year term in November and, if all goes according to precedent, likely will be reelected to one additional term thereafter.
Lizerbram told reporters that he understood he is the first San Diegan to ever serve as president of a large national Jewish organization. In his new position, Lizerbram will automatically gain a seat on the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an important national voice for the Jewish people.
Robinson made the announcement at a Love of Israel Breakfast at the Del Mar Marriott, which organizers said was attended by more than 250 supporters. In addition to Robinson, Israel’s Los Angeles-based Consul-General Sam Grundwerg was a featured speaker. Lauren Lizerbram is president of the San Diego chapter.
Asked what some of his priorities as JNF President will be, Lizerbram mentioned a program in Sderot, an Israeli city very close to the Gaza border, where JNF built a 22,000-square foot sheltered indoor playground in which children from the area can play without fear of being hit by rockets launched by Palestinian terrorists against the Jewish state.
Associated with that program, he and Robinson noted, is the C. Hugh Friedman Music Center, named for the late San Diego attorney and USD law professor whose widow is former Congresswoman Lynn Schenk. Friedman played the saxophone and clarinet, even having the opportunity in his youth to play some gigs with band leader Benny Goodman.
Robinson said youth who once had only 15 seconds from the moment a “Code Red” siren sounded to get to safety in a shelter, now have replaced the sounds of rockets with the sound of music.
Lizerbram said one of his favorite projects will be to expand the center in the Sderot Center, which also serves the youth of the nearby Sha’ar Hanegev Municipality which includes 10 kibbutzim and a moshav very close to the Gaza border. Sha’ar Hanegev is the Israeli partnership region for the Jewish Federation of San Diego County.
Metal tulips made from rockets that had been fired from Gaza onto Sderot and environs were placed on many tables, demonstrating that beauty can emerge even from ugly horror. Contributors of $1,000 or more to JNF were eligible to take one of the sculptures home.
Asked how he became involved with JNF in the first place, Lizerbram said he was called one day by the late M. Larry Lawrence, who at the time was owner of the Hotel del Coronado. Lawrence asked him if he knew what JNF was, and Lizerbram replied that he knew it as the organization that placed in nearly every Jewish home, including his “bubbe’s” or grandmother’s — collection boxes in which people dropped their coins to help fund the planting of trees in Israel.
Today, he said, he is a zayde (grandfather) and Lauren is a bubbe, and their family makes a ritual every Friday of baking challah, having the grandchildren put coins in a pushke, and then lighting the Shabbos candles prior to a festive meal.
Robinson said many people associate JNF with tree planting — and why not, in its history JNF has been responsible for the planting of 262 million trees planted in Israel. That has made Israel one of the few countries in the world which today has more trees than when it began.
Currently JNF has a $1 billion campaign — to which attendees of the breakfast contributed gifts of varying amounts– to fund not only its signature trees, but also many other projects in Israel. The sheltered playground in Sderot is one such project.
Others include the building of new communities in the Negev Desert, among them Halutza. Its new residents include Jews who formerly lived in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip before their evacuation in 2005 on the orders of Israel’s then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
How do you get to Halutza? Robinson said it seems like you go to the end of the world and take a left.
He said many of the Gush Katif Jews settled in Halutza on the recommendation of their spiritual leader, Rabbi Eli Adler, who said it was time for community members to set down new roots, and begin again as farmers. Today, said Robinson, Halutza is raising carrots, cauliflower, and seed stock, among other produce.
Other JNF projects in Israel include the creation in Akko of a consortium of cheese and wine producers of the Upper Galilee. Along with a new visitor’s center, the consortium is helping to generate tourism for the city, which has a mixed Arab and Jewish population and is a holy city for the Baha’i faith.
In the Arava — the land between the Dead Sea and Eilat — farmers grow figs, melons, dates, peppers and also farm fish in large tanks. Carefully utilizing the sparse rainfall and precisely measured water from imported sources, they have made their hot desert profoundly fertile.
In the Arava and elsewhere, students from Third World nations of Africa and Asia are learning agricultural techniques. Robinson quoted one student from Nigeria as saying that he came to Israel as a job seeker, but thanks to what he has learned in a JNF sponsored program, he will be able to return to Nigeria as a job creator.
In addition to its projects in Israel, JNF takes 65 bus loads a year to Israel to teach youngsters about the Jewish homeland. Another of the organization’s projects is the Alexander Muss High School in Israel, which draws its student body from the Diaspora.
Recently, said Robinson, Tremayne Smith, an African-American student at George Washington University, visited Israel under JNF auspices. When he returned to GWU, there was a motion before the student government to support the anti-Israel BDS movement. Smith stood up and argued against it so forcefully that the motion was defeated, according to Robinson.
In a short talk, Consul-General Grundwerg noted that the year 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem as a result of israel’s victory in the 6-Day War of 1967.
He complimented JNF as being a vital part of Israel’s history, noting that the Jewish State has been getting stronger not only militarily, but also technologically and economically.
Israel’s reputation as an innovator, its leadership in cyber-security, and its tehnological know-how have been winning Israel friends across the world, including governments of India, China, Australia, and various African countries, he said.
Additionally, he said, as Iran continues to threaten the Middle East region, Israel is quietly drawing closer to some of its previous Arab foes.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com