H eadlines
New Jewish Federation CEO, JAFI Chair Discuss Goals
L OCA L
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE FEATURE
BOTH ISAAC HERZOG
and Michael Balaban have
busy to-do lists that feature
the importance of building
community in the year ahead.

Balaban, the incoming CEO
of Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, and Herzog, the
chairman of the executive for
the Jewish Agency for Israel,
were featured during Jewish
Federation’s community
leadership call on May 7.

Balaban, who is the presi-
dent and CEO of the Jewish
Federation of Broward County,
Florida, and begins locally
on June 1, said that building
connections and community
would be the key to increased
funding of the local Jewish
Federation. One of his goals is to
ensure that Judaism is accessible
to more Jews in Philadelphia
and that the Jewish Federation
is prepared to meet the diverse
needs of Jews.

“We must come to under-
stand that Jews and Judaism
are not a monolith, that one
size simply doesn’t fit all,” he
said. “My vision is to create
a Jewish community that
connects people, ensures a
Jewish future, and cares for
people here at home, in Israel
and around the world.”
Balaban created a list of
“musts” for the Federation for
it to achieve his aim of commu-
nity building: instilling a sense
of pride in the Philadelphia
Jewish community and working
toward common goals, creating
connection points and accessible
ways for community members
to begin participating in Jewish
programming and building
synergy between the different
Jewish organizations in the area.

Above all, Balaban said,
Jewish experiences needs to be
vibrant and affordable.

In addition, Balaban hopes
to engage with more LGBTQ
Jews and Jews of color, believing
that the Jewish Federation
should be proactive in reaching
out and hosting events.

“Our job ... is to guarantee
that when a person wishes to
access the richness and diver-
sity of the Jewish experience,
the mechanisms and responses
are in place to both enchant
and to captivate,” he said.

Herzog, who has served
as chairman of JAFI — the
Michael Balaban
Courtesy of Michael Balaban
world’s largest Jewish nonprofit
— since June 2018, listed JAFI’s
priorities in the coming year:
increasing the numbers of Jews
making aliyah and continuing
to connect young Jewish people
to Israel through programs
such as Birthright, Masa and
Onward Israel.

Though the pandemic stifled
travel globally, aliyot have not
ceased entirely: Since March
2020, 22,000 people moved
to Israel from 45 different
countries, Herzog said.

And JAFI recently saw triple
the number of files open to
those looking to make aliyah.

Israel has become the first
nation in the world to approach
herd immunity, Herzog
said, and as it begin to ease
Isaac Herzog speaking in Philadelphia in 2018
Courtesy of Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia
restrictions, travel to Israel will
be able to increase. For now,
first-degree family members of
those living in Israel may visit
if vaccinated and tested before
and after arriving to Israel.

Through Birthright, those fully
vaccinated may travel to Israel
this summer, and Masa is now
allowing travel by having olim
quarantine upon arrival.

JAFI is also preparing 1,400
Israeli emissaries to work
at Jewish summer camps in
the United States this year,
including summer camps
funded by Jewish Federation.

If the measures put in place
to increase travel to Israel
prove successful, JAFI expects
about 250,000 olim over the
next three to five years.

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Aside from growing connec-
tions between North American
and Israeli Jewry, JAFI has
sought to increase Jewish
solidarity internationally by
providing monetary aid to
more than 75 Jewish communi-
ties around the world, including
COVID-related aid to the
Roman Jewish community.

JAFI wants to continue
to influence Israeli society
through the support of social
projects, such as JAFI’s creation
of a fund to assist struggling
Israeli non-governmental
organizations, Herzog said.

Herzog touted JAFI’s
commitment to prioritizing
pluralism in Israel — reaching
out to charedi communities, as
well as supporting the small,
but growing, Conservative and
Reform Jewish communities.

Both Balaban and Herzog
identified growing antisem-
itism and the distancing of
Israel from American Jewry
as challenges their respec-
tive organizations need to
overcome. “We work with the Jewish
world in a parallel track,
meaning, on the one hand, we
help and encourage aliyah,”
Herzog said. “On the other
hand, we help and encourage
Jewish communities and Jews
wherever they are to ... have a
strong Jewish identity and to
live a Jewish life without threat
or harassment.” l
Sasha Rogelberg is a freelance
writer. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Letter from 1834 on US Diplomatic Visit to
Holy Land Surfaces at Jerusalem Auction
I SR AEL
ASAF SHALEV | JTA.ORG
A DETAILED ACCOUNT of
one of the earliest American
diplomatic voyages to Palestine
has surfaced as part of an
upcoming auction in Jerusalem.

The account appears in a
handwritten letter from one
of the passengers of the USS
Delaware, a U.S. Navy ship that
visited the Mediterranean Sea
in 1834 and made a stop at the
port town of Jaffa, then under
the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Sent from the Spanish island
of Menorca and addressed to
Circleville, Ohio, the four-page
letter describes several histori-
cally significant moments in the
sailing ship’s journey, including
a stop in Palestine and a visit
with the first American diplomat
stationed in the region.

According to Kedem Auction
House, the letter’s existence was
entirely unknown to scholars
who study the history of the
Holy Land and U.S. diplomacy
in Palestine. The anonymous
collector who spotted the letter
and realized its importance
usually focuses on the history
of the Israeli postal service. That
person bought the item from
another collector who had
been holding it as an artifact of
relevance for U.S maritime and
postal history.

“This letter is of great
importance to both the history
of American Jewry as well as
to the history of the State of
Israel,” Kedem CEO Meron
Eren said in a statement. “It’s
amazing to read, if only to
learn about relations between
the United States and Palestine
at the time.”
The passenger
who authored the letter, Lewis
Woofley, describes traversing
much of the Mediterranean
on an eastbound route along
the coasts of France, Italy
and Greece with stops at
various islands. Eventually,
the sailing ship reached the
port of Alexandria in Egypt.

Well-versed in the geography
of antiquity, Woofley is thrilled
at the sight of various ruins,
noting locations mentioned in
ancient folklore.

An extended stop in Egypt
allowed Woofley and other
passengers of the USS Delaware
to venture inland where they
had an encounter with the local
ruler, Mohammad Ali. Known
today as the founder of Egypt,
Ali was busy fashioning a
modern nation out of the ancient
kingdom when this audience of
Western visitors arrived.

“We rowed once [sic] the bay
to his palace, where we were
received by him seated on his
divan in one corner of the room,”
Woofley wrote. “He did not rise
to meet us, but kept his crossed-
legged position reclining his
head and motioning us to be
seated. Coffee was handed us
in fine china goblets resting on
golden stands.”
During the conversation,
the “good-natured” Pasha, as
Woofley refers to him, displayed
a charisma that apparently won
over his visitors.

“The Pasha is one of the
most interesting men, in many
respects, of the age,” Woofley
writes. “The changes that he has
introduced among his subjects,
the improvements that he has
made and is still carrying on in
Egypt are immense.”
From Egypt, the ship sailed
northeast along the coast until
reaching the shores of the
Holy Land. This is how excited
Woofley was on the morning of
arrival, according to the letter:
“The Holy Land! Palestine! The
feelings, the reflections, the
ecstasies, you may more readily
imagine than I describe.”
An American diplomat
stationed in Palestine, David
Darmon, boarded the ship and
briefed the visitors on what
conditions to expect when
they disembark. Darmon
was a French Jew who served
as a consular agent, the first
American representative in the
area. Little is known about him,
which makes the discovery of
the letter significant.

Woofley was excited to make
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but
Darmon delivered some news
that seemed to quash that
possibility. Palestine was in
an “unsettled state.” Darmon
shared news of bad roads,
bandits and a dangerous plague
gripping the area.

“What a pity!” Woofley
writes. “After having come so
far and being so near to it —
Like Moses, we are only to be
permitted to see the Promised
Land but not to enter it.”
Kedem expects the letter to
fetch a price of between $2,000
and $4,000, with the proceeds
going to an anonymous seller. l
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The first page of a newly
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Courtesy of Kedem Auction House,
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