About us
About the Initiative
The responsibility of Israel to Diaspora Jewry was expressed in the Declaration of Independence and received legal status with the enactment of a Basic Law: Israel, the Nation-State of the Jewish People. Israel holds responsibility for the well-being of Diaspora Jews and for fostering the relationship between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jews.
This pivotal relationship is based on a sacred bond of shared destiny between Israel and world Jewry, which recent events made all too evident. But this relationship cannot be one-sided and relies only on the support of world Jewry for the State of Israel. While most Jews around the world are learning about Israel, including the heavy price that has been paid to this day to guarantee the existence of a free and secure nation, the vast majority of the Israeli public is not familiar enough with the status of world Jewry, the historical events and its connection to the establishment of the State of Israel, and it is largely unaware of the Jewish victims worldwide who died strictly because of their Jewish identity.
The Ruderman Family Foundation was among the initiators of an Israeli Government decision to commemorate Jewish victims of the Diaspora who are not Israeli citizens. In the “Ruderman Roadmap,” the Foundation offered a policy paper on how such commemoration could be made.
The Ruderman Family Foundation
The Ruderman Family Foundation is a private philanthropic organization established in 2002 in the US and managed by the Ruderman family. The foundation operates in the US and Israel to strengthen the connection between the State of Israel and the American Jewish community and promote strategic philanthropy. Until 2020, it has also worked to integrate people with disabilities into society.
In the field of Israel-American Jewry relations, the Foundation focuses on strengthening the sense of mutual commitment between the State of Israel and the Jewish communities in the US. The Foundation works to increase awareness of the American Jewish and disseminate quality and trusted knowledge about it to the Israeli public, and to develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of the needs, successes, and challenges facing American Jews. The Ruderman Family Foundation sees American Jewry as a strategic asset for the State of Israel and a significant element of the prosperity of the Jewish people as a whole.
The Ruderman Family Foundation strives to act as a strategic catalyst in the areas in which it has chosen to intervene, in cooperation with the state, civil society, the private sector, and philanthropy—without political affiliation and based on values of social justice, equality, and tikun olam. The mission of the Foundation is to create a commitment by the leadership and the Israeli public that will lead to joint action and strengthen the connection between the two largest Jewish communities in the world.
