A New Year’s Message

We, in Israel, are eagerly anticipating this busy week and the event that is already filling us all with energy.

January has arrived and excitement is building for the MOR week in Israel. After canceling the in-person meeting last year due to the war, this month we will have the privilege of hosting you here, hoping to create shared moments that we will cherish and preserve. We, in Israel, are eagerly anticipating this busy week and the event that is already filling us all with energy.

This month we participated in a special seminar organized by the WIZO Education Division in collaboration with the Levinsky-Wingate Academic Institute. This comprehensive seminar focused on treating and nurturing youth growing up in wartime reality. While this was an event for professionals in the field, its overarching message is much broader: in Israel, we don’t give up on anyone, and the mechanisms creating new tools to strengthen society in general and youth in particular never stop working and progressing.

Anyone who asks how Israel maintains its qualitative edge over its enemies should have glimpsed what happened at this event: the discussions, lectures, and the seriousness with which the question was addressed: how to help young people who have been affected in some way by the events of the war?

Across the border, the finest minds are engaged in planning tunnels and improving missiles, while here – our finest minds are engaged in planning and researching human development. Across the border, young people live in crisis, but no one takes interest in them, while our youth are embraced by an entire country that provides them with tools for strengthening and rehabilitation.

And here lies our strength. Because the tens of thousands of missiles fired at Israel cannot defeat a society that is resilient, confident, active, productive, and believes in good, and we can find this quality of the young generation in all areas of life in the country, including on the battlefield.

When peace isn’t visible on the horizon, we have no choice but to continue persistently with all our might on this winning path, which that seminar we held symbolizes so well: building a future generation with values and quality, strengthening the weak and turning them from a burden into an asset, meticulously gathering everyone who has lost their way, and maintaining an open, tolerant, enabling society that cares for the individual – and benefits from them.

We will continue to discuss this and other important topics later this month in Israel. We are already looking forward to and excited for your arrival!

Anat Vidor, World WIZO President & Anita Friedman, World WIZO Chairperson