Newton’s New Israeli-American Council Community Center Opens Today!
The Israeli-American Council (IAC) opens of its first community center, in Newton.
The new IAC community center will serve an estimated 20,000 Israeli-Americans around Greater Boston, as they undergo a dramatic shift transforming their community. Until recently Israeli-Americans largely remained under the radar and never organized in force. For decades they lived in the shadows, shamed and marginalized by those in Israel for abandoning their homeland. Even the government tried a controversial YouTube ad campaign using scare tactics about assimilation to try to woo them home.
But recently these Israeli-Americans have begun experiencing a dramatic shift, going public in a big way, propelled by several forces. The American-Jewish community, shaken by a recent survey showing deep communal apathy, has found an inspiring model to grow Jewish identity and connect to their ancestral homeland through IAC. Israeli government officials now view the newly organized community as a vital link to American Jewry and as a strategic asset to help advocate for Israel’s future.
