Israel-Diaspora Partnering for Shared Society

Dining in Tira with a close friend and resident of this Arab city in central Israel, I expected hummus, kebab, and young men gathered around a television watching the Africa Cup. Instead, we ate at a crowded Italian restaurant, where a third of the patrons were Israeli Jews and most of the rest were Arab women dining independently, dressed as if they were going to a wedding.

This may sound modest, given the scale of challenges facing Israel and the region. What I experienced, however, reflects real, lived change. When I lived and worked in Tira in the mid-1980s, the only Jews who entered at night were typically there to buy drugs. And there were no restaurants where Arab women could eat on their own. That was the reality then.

What I saw in Tira and elsewhere during my early January visit to Israel, is precisely the kind of transformation civil society work is designed to produce.

In 1985, I lived and worked in Tira as a young American Jew participating in a civil-society program called Interns for Peace that was founded by an American rabbi. My work centered on education, on facilitating interactive relationships between pupils, teachers and administrators in Tira schools with their counterparts in the nearby Jewish communities of Kfar Saba and Ra’anana.

Our involvement, as a civil society organization, enabled first-ever encounters between young Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel, who lived in neighboring communities but rarely, if ever, met. These experiences shaped me not as an academic observer, but as someone who lived in both Arab and Jewish societies inside the complexity of this region.

One of the earliest lessons civil society teaches is that progress rarely arrives as a dramatic breakthrough. More often, it emerges as small, incremental changes that only reveal their significance over time. And this principle is evident in the efforts to build a shared society in Israel.

As Mohammad Darawshe, Givat Haviva Director of Strategy, explains, “a shared society recognizes that Jews and Arabs in Israel are not just connected by geography but by common interests that shape their everyday lives. A shared society focuses on actively working together to advance mutual aspirations, ensuring that equality is not just a distant ideal but a lived reality.”

Civil society endures. It matters because governments change, coalitions shift, and politics polarize. Civil society organizations can build trust where political actors often cannot. Civil society does not replace politics, but it stabilizes society when politics fails.

Shared society initiatives are practical, measurable, and rooted in daily reality—not in ideology or rhetoric. This is not symbolism. It is practical nation-building. The organization I represent, Givat Haviva, builds through education, youth leadership, teacher training, and municipal cooperation, the societal infrastructure necessary for a shared future in Israel.

By virtue of their own experiences and challenges with democracy, Americans should favor the success of shared society initiatives in Israel. Yet, one reason so many Americans may feel overwhelmed today is that they are watching events unfold rather than participating in shaping outcomes. Hope grows when people move from passive spectatorship to engaged partnership. Shared society work offers a way to act without denying complexity or surrendering moral seriousness.

For Americans who understand that this conflict is complicated, historical, and deeply nuanced, and who want to make a meaningful contribution to improving the situation for all peoples who are directly affected, shared society initiatives offer a concrete place to begin. Many of Israel’s challenges—identity, equality, and social cohesion—are the same challenges facing democracies around the world including our own in the United States.

In my address to the January 6 Givat Haviva conference for a shared society, I emphasized the potential – indeed essential obligation – for American Jews, as well as for pro-Israel Christians, to engage with Israeli leaders, Arab and Jewish, to work together to advance communal relations that will strengthen democracy in the country we all love. Our responsibility is to build a bridge between that hope and the work being done on the ground in Israel.

Forty years ago, I received training on shared society initiatives at Givat Haviva before moving to Tira, where I lived for two years. After four decades of engagement with this region, and despite the extraordinary difficulties of recent years, especially since October 7, 2023, I remain hopeful. I am a pragmatic optimist, not because I underestimate the conflict, but because I have seen what sustained civil society partnerships can achieve over time.

To American Jews, as well as pro-Israel Christians, I say this: I understand your deep connection to and love for Israel because I share that same commitment. At the same time, no democracy thrives when a significant portion of its citizens is left on the margins. Israel is stronger and more resilient when all of its citizens, Jews and Arabs, are included in the work of building its future. Supporting shared society initiatives is a long-term investment in Israel’s strength, stability, and moral credibility.

In the spirit of partnership Israeli Jewish leaders should recognize that the Jewish diaspora looks to Israel not only as a homeland, but as a moral reference point. A sustained commitment to a democratic Israel—grounded in equality, the rule of law, and mutual responsibility among all citizens—matters far beyond Israel’s borders. It strengthens the ability of Jews around the world, who are minorities in their own countries, to advocate for Israel with integrity and confidence in increasingly polarized environments.

Arab leaders and civic institutions in Israel should welcome partnering with American Jews. By building relationships between Arab communal and municipal institutions in Israel with Jewish and Christian civic and educational organizations in the United States and Europe, we can help ensure that future generations of Israeli Arab and Jewish leaders know one another personally, trust each other professionally, and experience shared society as a lived reality rather than an abstract aspiration.

Despite the pain, polarization and uncertainty of the current moment it is possible to remain hopeful about Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. Healing does not mean forgetting pain. It means refusing to let pain define the future. Renewal requires action—repairing trust, revitalizing institutions, and reviving commitment. Partnership is how revitalization becomes real.

Supporting civil society organizations and their leaders who are making genuine efforts to build a better future for both Jews and Arabs is a goal diaspora Jews should welcome and engage to deepen their own relations with Israel.