It has become a joke in this country to see old chairs or beds that have signs posted on them claiming that “George Washington sat (or slept) here.”
But it was no joke to Joan Prince, vice chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, when she saw recently a chair that Golda Meir, Israel’s Milwaukee-raised prime minister, had really sat in.
That chair was located in what Israel calls Independence Hall, the site in Tel Aviv at which on May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion read Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
An Israeli historian showed Prince and a group of 11 other Americans that room, which has been preserved as a landmark, and pointed out where the various participants and witnesses sat, including Meir.
And Prince could not resist taking photos of Meir’s chair. “It helps you understand how small the world truly is,” Prince told The Chronicle in a telephone interview last week. “There is a connection from Milwaukee to Israel, and from Israel throughout the world.”
Indeed, Prince was in Israel from Dec. 3-11 as part of a distinctive effort to build connections between Israel and the general U.S. community.
She and Paula Simon, executive director of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, joined 10 other Americans from five other states — general community activists/leaders paired with Jewish community relations leaders in their respective locales — in an Israel Institute hosted by the Israel Advocacy Initiative.
Such institutes have been taking place for about three years now, according to Simon, and this is the first time one has had participants from Milwaukee.
Beyond the news
And what participants get is “not a tourist trip,” said Simon. Through speakers and travel through the country, they get “an understanding of the complexities and issues of living in Israel … beyond what you read in the newspaper,” she said.
In addition, participants get to meet Israelis and become acquainted with Israeli institutions and organizations that may offer opportunities for connections and joint projects, said Simon.
Prince said that the institute “exceeded the expectations I had going in.” She met people “working hard at the grassroots,” spoke with authors and journalists, learned about the legal system, and heard both Israeli and Palestinian speakers.
Above all, she was able “to really try and look at the history and value of Israel through the eyes of the people who live there.” And she came away “in awe of the resilience of Israelis as they go about their daily activities.”
Prince, who is also director of partnerships and innovations for UWM, also came back with a stack of “40 business cards.”
She said she has already exchanged e-mails with officials at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa; and she said planning to begin partnerships and projects with academic, business and civic organizations.
Simon, for her part, said that even though she has been to Israel many time, she learned some important things by traveling there with Prince.
“This is the first time I saw Israel from the perspective of somebody who is not Jewish and not involved with it every day,” she said.
She learned that even well-educated people, like Prince, often don’t understand basic information about Israel — the origin of the Palestinian refugees, or just how small a country Israel is. (Prince told The Chronicle that it was “an eye-opener” to learn that Israel “is a much smaller territory than I realized.”)
Simon said that information will help her speak about Israel, transforming her assumptions about what audience members might already know.
Simon also said she found it fascinating to watch Prince and the others perceive opportunities to make connections and develop ideas for collaboration “in ways that I couldn’t have thought of on my own.”
Finally, seeing Israel through other people’s eyes helped deepen Simon’s appreciation of “the amazing accomplishments Israel has achieved in 60 years,” she said.
Simon and Prince have known each other for years and worked together on a variety of projects. Most recently, they are associated with Mosaic Partnerships, an effort of which Prince is co-chair and Simon is on the advisory board. It strives to build personal relationships across racial lines in Milwaukee.
Simon knew about the Israel Institute program because the Israel Advocacy Initiative is a joint project of the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of North American Jewish federations, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella organization of Jewish community-relations councils like the MJCCR.
With the IAI’s approval, Simon invited Prince, who immediately agreed. “This was the ultimate way to connect people not only across races, but across faiths, to spend time one-on-one to build trust,” Prince said.
IAI contributed to the funding of the civic leaders’ participation, but the balance and the Jewish community professionals’ participation required local funding. Simon said she received a grant for her and Prince’s participation from the Jewish Community Foundation, the endowment development program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
Incidentally, as one more indication of “how small the world truly is,” Prince and Simon at one of the hotels they visited happened to run into two other Wisconsinites participating in an Israel mission.
They were state Reps. Jason Fields (D-11th District) and Tamara Grigsby (D-18th District), who said they were on a trip to Israel for state legislators sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
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