Yonatan, or as we all know him, Yoni, is one of my better friends in Israel. I first befriended Yoni back in the mid-2010s when I had just finished the military and became more involved in the Jewish Community. Yoni happened to become an Emissary for the Jewish Agency within the city of Denver and worked at promoting relationships with Israelis and Denver Jews. 

Yoni can be seen as the poster child of what the founders of Israel wanted. Service to the country is paramount and personal accolades and wealth come second. He is an Israeli Defense Force Officer, has worked directly and indirectly for nonprofits and government organizations most of his adult life, and now is slowly building his own consulting business assisting with the organizations he used to work for.  

He is also an intellectual at his core and like most Israelis, he constantly evolving his ideas, passionate about politics locally and internationally, and well versed in a myriad of subjects. In the podcast, we talk about growing up in Israel as a kid who lived in a prominent neighborhood of Israel's top brass in society and the opportunities this offered later in life. We talk about family, having a Libyan background, service to the country, geopolitics, and much more. 

Enjoy the conversation! 

Eyal is a very ambitious guy with a vision for the future of his people and the impact they can have in the Middle East and around the world. After his military service, he was traveling around the world as most IDF soldiers do after their service and met people on vacation. Things were going well until he was asked where he was from, when he said he was Israeli the mood of the conversation changed almost instantly and Eyal wondered why. 

This is the birth of the idea and nonprofit called Israel-Is, a nonprofit designed to create a dialogue with the outside world of Israelis and what the country stands for. This means initially providing training to all IDF soldiers once they leave the service in techniques on how to talk about the country and create lasting memories with people from around the world. The second part of the initiative is to invite people from all over the world to discover and visit Israel at some point on their own and experience the country and rich history for themselves. This means creating rapport and building common ground through outreach and using the change in government policies like the Abraham Accords to normalize relationships on all levels. 

I initially heard about Eyal's idea a few years ago and it is impressive to see how far this idea has grown. The nonprofit also has put out a documentary of the work in action called "Finding Abraham". This documentary brings Arabs from neighboring countries to Israel to learn firsthand about the country and its people. 

Link to Documentary - https://youtu.be/YXM3EmXzEeI
Link to Israel-Is Website: https://www.israel-is.org/

Julia is probably one of the most thoughtful people I met in a long time. Her vast knowledge of culture, language, and professional experience is the exact kind of person that the founders of Israel wanted to immigrate to the country. As she is known in Israel, Jules has had a relatively more straightforward transition than most with moving and adapting to the local culture. However, she knows that is not common and feels fortunate to have worked for two corporations in Israel because of her expertise in Human Resources and languages. 

We talk about the process of moving to another place and adapting to your new environment. This conversation led to discussions about what Israel does well and what the country could be doing better in that aspect. We also discuss her time in the US and being there when Trump was elected, and this time in history greatly affected her decisions to move forward and come to Israel.