Many experts agree that the Israeli Air Force is the best in the world. As a celebrated former chief of staff of said air force, Major Gen. (Ret.) Giora Romm naturally agrees.
So after rising to the pinnacle of success there, could any other job seem as challenging?
According to Romm, director general of the Jewish Agency for Israel, one of the main overseas partners of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the answer is yes.
“I think [this] is an extremely challenging position,” Romm told The Chronicle during a visit to Milwaukee on July 16 to speak to MJF leaders. “I have found it seriously fascinating to work in the complex world of the Jewish people.”
Romm, who was appointed to the position about ten months ago, has made a number of JAFI-sponsored trips to the United States to get to know Jewish federation leaders and to see better how JAFI can help them meet their needs.
JAFI is best known for bringing Jewish immigrants to Israel and aiding their absorption, “which forever will be the agency’s goal number 1,” said Romm.
JAFI, he said, “enables every Jew who wants to move to Israel to do it. In many cases we are in charge of rescue aliyah [for Jews living in life-threatening situations], but in most cases we are the enablers of aliyah.”
But that’s not all JAFI does. In fact, said, Romm, 50 percent of JAFI’s budget is not spent in Israel but goes toward such endeavors as Jewish-Zionist education in the diaspora.
“In a sense, Jewish life is constantly under threat. Sometimes it is physical … but there is also the threat of assimilation,” said Romm, adding that a solid Jewish education is one “answer” to assimilation.
“We are the biggest [employers] of Hebrew teachers, and Hebrew can unite all Jews,” he said. “We have 1,200 camp counselors in the U.S., Ukraine and [many other places, including three at the Steve & Shari Sadek Family Camp Interlaken in Eagle River]…. We also support day schools throughout the world.”
JAFI’s third mission has to do with “enhancing the partnership between Jews and Israelis.” This is accomplished by sharing the burdens of immigrant absorption and of terrorism, and through partnership programs.
Romm said JAFI is not changing its priorities, but is instead looking at them with regard to Israel’s current situation and the conditions faced by Jews in such places as Argentina, North Africa and Europe.
Fighter and diplomat
In the course of his military career — besides serving as commander of air bases; director of air force intelligence analysis; assistant director of Israel Defense Force Operations; deputy commander and chief of staff — Romm was also Israel’s defense attaché to the U.S. and Canada, a role that gave him both political and diplomatic experience.
That was “a fascinating chapter in my career,” he said. “We dealt with very complex political and military issues that to a certain extent are at the heart of the relationship between us and the government of the U.S.”
Romm grew up in Tel-Aviv. He said he wanted to be a fighter pilot since high school, and went directly to flight school on graduation.
“It is very competitive, not just to get in but also to graduate,” he said. For those admitted, “the rate of success is less than ten percent.”
During the 1967 Six Day War, Romm downed five enemy fighters and was promoted to captain. A couple of years later, during the War of Attrition against Egypt, he was shot down by a missile and taken prisoner.
“I was very badly wounded from the ejection,” he said. Upon landing Egyptian farmers were waiting for him. “They were fighting over whether to kill me or not.” As for his three months as a POW, Romm said simply, “It was not fun.”
It took him 13 months to recover fully. By the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Romm participated in combat as a squadron leader. He also piloted one of the aircraft that destroyed Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunisia in 1986.
After retiring from the military in 1996, Romm worked briefly in Israel’s high-tech industry as well as with Encyclopedia Britannica.
Romm’s fighting days may be over, but at his new job he still finds himself “grappling” with issues that affect the Jewish people.
“Maybe because I am an Israeli I tended to make my Jewishness in a very natural way,” he said. “I never had to grapple with my identity.
“Now I find myself [dealing] with the heart of Jewish problems, and as I travel to new areas I find myself exposed to aspects of Jewish life that I never thought about before. I think [JAFI] is a fascinating organization to be involved with, and it is a privilege to work in the Jewish world.”
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