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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18495/full/18495/new-challenges-at-israel-center-lure-ex-director-to-s-f/ <br /><br /> <b>New challenges at Israel Center lure ex-director to S.F.</b> <br /> Friday, September 20, 2002 | by <p>JOE ESKENAZI </p> <br /><br /><p>Shlomi Ravid's office is roomier than it used to be, but that's not a good thing.<br /><br /> The San Francisco Israel Center's new director had a larger staff to work with in his first tour of duty at the post from 1996 to '99, before the intifada, a sharp decline in trips to Israel, and budget and staff cutbacks. Now working to connect the Bay Area to a changed Israel, Ravid hopes to accomplish more with less.<br /><br /> "Let me give you a little army example. When you get into a tough situation you can either go back and retreat or go full steam ahead. We're going full steam ahead," said Ravid, 49, a lifelong kibbutznik who was shot through the leg in the Yom Kippur War.<br /><br /> "We're going to do so by being strategic and trying to restructure some of our work," said Ravid, a second-generation shaliach. "We're rethinking every activity, whether we want to continue doing it, whether it's cost-effective."<br /><br /> One thing that would definitely not be cost-effective would be pushing programs like those Ravid oversaw when he served as the founding director of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation Israel Center six years ago.<br /><br /> "Three years ago, sending teens to Israel was our No. 1 priority. At this point, to try and promote Israel trips in this current situation is not very effective. We can put in ads, we can go and speak to people until we're blue in the face and they're blue in the face. But parents are worried. So we need to figure out some way to work with that population," said Ravid, a father of four whose wife, Linda Gattmann, is a native San Franciscan.<br /><br /> Unable to send students to Israel, "maybe we can bring more of Israel here."<br /><br /> Ravid plans to invite more Israeli cultural figures to the Bay Area, and to collaborate on these "scholar-in-residence" visits with local Jewish institutions. Not only does this cut down on costs, but it also provides a built-in audience for the scholar.<br /><br /> But, most of all, he sees a pressing need for education about Israel.<br /><br /> "My sense is that people here don't feel empowered to understand and present Israel's case in the conflict. They feel like they have difficulties explaining it to their children and teachers don't know how to approach it with their students," said Ravid, who has taken over a position that has remained vacant since Lisa Gann-Perkal left in June 2001.<br /><br /> "Students on Bay Area campuses feel inferior to their [pro-]Palestinian peers in terms of knowledge of history of the conflict. In the past we used to bang on doors many times and say, 'We have some programs for you, some ideas for you' and people would say, 'We have enough.' Now people are opening their doors and saying, 'Come help us.'"<br /><br /> Ravid's dream is the eventual development of an Israel resource center, but he also hopes to build something less tangible—a "living bridge."<br /><br /> "The idea is that in this day and age, in order to develop a relationship with Israel, you have to have people-to-people meetings with Israelis," he said. "The ethos of the previous generation: The Six-Day War, the War of Independence, the Holocaust if you will, is not there for the next generation," said Ravid, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on how to keep the post-socialist kibbutz a viable and functioning facet of Israeli society.<br /><br /> "My belief is, our future in terms of Jewish peoplehood is Jews all over the world…having direct relationships with Israelis."<br /><br /> Taking over a position left open for more than a year with a smaller staff and a reduced budget may sound like a difficult place to start, but if Ravid is daunted, he isn't letting on.<br /><br /> "We will do more than we did with fewer people," he said matter-of-factly. "Interview me in a year from now and I'll prove it to you."</p> <p> </p>

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