People make aliyah for a variety of reasons. When Lara Portnoy moved to the Jewish state in January 2013, it was very important to her to find a way to promote a better society there. For the past 10 months she has been doing just that, working in the External Relations and Development Department of the Peres Center for Peace. As we went to press this week, she was on her way to Kansas to spend some holiday time with her family and share a bit about the good works of the Peres Center. While she’s visiting she will speak at Kehilath Israel Synagogue on Sept. 26 during Shabbat services to a group of students at the Accelerated Schools of Overland Park and to at least one other private interfaith gathering.
She went to graduate school and lived in Israel before she made aliyah, studying among other things politics and conflict in Israel.
“There is an obvious problem that can’t be ignored, so it was really important for me that if I was to move to Israel and choose to be a part of this society, to do something that I felt helped the society overall,” she said recently in a phone interview from her home in Tel Aviv.
The mission of the Peres Center is to promote lasting peace and advancement in the Middle East by fostering tolerance, economic and technological development, innovation, cooperation and well-being — all in the spirit of former Israeli President Shimon Peres’ vision.
“We’re nonprofit, nongovernmental and nonpolitical. We do not in any way, shape or form get involved in politics or take any stance. We are very much focused on the people-to-people grass roots approach — not legislation, not the political realm,” Portnoy explained.
Peres founded the Center in 1996 after his term as acting prime minister following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
Portnoy explained that because Peres was still part of political life, “we did our work on our own but in his vision and he was always kept informed. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}After he finished his term as president last summer he returned to the Center as our honorary president.”
In simple terms, Portnoy explained that the Center brings together thousands of Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs annually, face to face, to get to know one another through joint activities.
The Center brings people together in a variety of ways. Over the years it has facilitated life-saving medical treatment of over 11,000 Palestinian children and trained over 200 Palestinian doctors in Israeli hospitals during the last decade. It enhances cooperation across borders in the fields of business, agriculture and the environment. It also brings together thousands of youth every year through sports, new media and art.
“We work in a lot of different fields. Peace education tends to be the one that is most popular and advertised. It’s bringing together young people from around 8 years old through university age through a range of programs including photography, soccer, new media, technology, leadership programs, and a wide range of cultural and physical activities for these young people to get to know one another,” said Portnoy, the daughter of K.I. members Dr. Jay and Ellen Portnoy.
She emphasized that the Peres Center is not simply dialogue groups.
“It’s never just sitting and talking. It’s always bringing the groups together through a mutual interest to do that activity and for something tangible to be created out of it, whether it’s a photography project or for our “Hangouts” program the group has to create some sort of product, whether it’s a video or an activity day for kids in the community, it has to be some tangible thing they do together that’s a product of their meeting.”
The Peres Center doesn’t do this work solely on its own. It has partners everywhere it plans programs.
“We are always working with partners, even in the West Bank. In Israel we always work with local partners — Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. We see tons of interest. Many people from the West Bank, Arabs in Israel … there is a lot of interest to meet one another. For sure there are extremists in every community who kind of spoil things for everybody else, but there are many more people who are really excited and interested in having that cross-cultural interaction,” Portnoy, 29, explained.
At the Peres Center, Portnoy serves as coordinator for Development and External Relations. That means she’s in contact with donors, funders or potential funders, writes grant requests and thank you letters, and handles a lot of the administrative things that keep the non-profit organization running.
The staff of the Peres Center is mostly Israeli. There is one other American among the 35 or so staffers besides Portnoy. She said she loves the people she works with and believes the Peres Center does incredible work.
“I think the Peres Center has a really amazing team of people who are really dedicated to what they do and who are dedicated to the peace process.”
Even though Portnoy spends a lot of time in the office, she has seen the Peres Center work first hand.
“I’ve gone to several different soccer games. In May we had our final Mini Mondial (World Cup) event, which brings together all of the participants from the soccer program. It was around 400 Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish and Arab kids. It was really amazing and an exciting event.”
In her job, Portnoy works with all of the different departments and project managers.
“Even if I’m here in the office, I’m writing the reports so I’m hearing about everything that happens in every department. That’s really exciting and interesting for me. My boss has started taking me into meetings where we are discussing new programs that we want to start so that’s becoming very exciting for me as well.”
Portnoy pointed out that education is just one aspect of what the Peres Center does.
“There’s an environmental program where we are working with partners on a master plan for the Yarkon River, which flows in Israel but the watershed is in the West Bank. That’s important to everybody.”
She said the Peres Center’s impact can be seen in a variety of ways, including when Palestinian children are brought to Israel from Gaza and the West Bank for life-saving treatment that isn’t available where they live.
“I really feel like I am taking part in a very important, positive step toward a better society, a better future,” Portnoy said.
Under Peres’ guidance, Portnoy said the Peres Center continues to grow.{/mprestriction}