Founder of Israel Think Tank Speaks at KI

By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Contributing Writer

Former Israeli diplomat Gidi Grinstein flew all the way from Tel Aviv just to speak to the Palisadians who gathered at Kehillat Israel Reconstructionist Synagogue last week.

At the May 11 talk, Grinstein, recently the founder of the R’eut Institute, one of Israel’s most prestigious think tanks, addressed the societal challenges and complex issues facing Israel and the world at large that his problem-solving group tackles.

While in public service, Grinstein served on Israel’s negotiation team on the Permanent Status Agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization for the Bureau of Prime Minister Ehud Barak and attended 2000’s Camp David Summit. He also helped develop the highly successful Birthright Israel program.

Grinstein was introduced by benefactor and KI member Rachel Jeffer, who has visited R’eut’s Tel Aviv headquarters with her husband Bruce Jeffer.

Grinstein delivered a succinct yet moving overview of his foundation’s mission.

“We’re in a permanent state of otherness,” Grinstein said of the Jewish people. “Israel has inherited that DNA to become a model society for the 21st century.”

The crux of Grinstein’s talk was humanitarian, not geo-political or military or terrorism-related. His nonprofit organization concentrates on societal innovation.

“One single shock can [cause] a major disruption in society, possibly irreversibly,” Grinstein noted. “You can have a great job today and then two to three years down the road, you’re unemployed; in five years, you’re unemployable.”

In the spirit of tikkun olam (the Jewish edict meaning to “repair the world”), Grinstein’s R’eut Institute finds alternate avenues and untapped resources among all of society’s constituents to actualize its ideas. The institute empowers students, seniors and the disabled—a vastly underrated, under-utilized and under-addressed segment of society’s population—to participate toward “a vision of a model society in which nobody is left behind.

“If we solve her problem,” he continued, using one handicapped individual as an example, “we solve every problem in the world that is similar to hers.”

By embracing concepts of community, diversity, inclusivity and “lifelong learning to stay relevant in the job market,” Grinstein said people of all ages and walks of life can make great advances in improving society.

The R’eut Institute’s goal does not only involve Jewish Israelis but also people of other cultures.

In a section of northwest Israel that is 52 percent non-Jewish (reflecting its multi-religious population of Christians, Muslims and other faiths), R’eut has made great strides in capitalizing on that diversity.

“It brings a lot of new ways of thinking and makes our society richer and more interesting,” Grinstein said.

Last September, R’eut Institute sponsored a Makeathon in San Francisco, where 12 development groups concentrated on projects to help the betterment of mankind.

In the coming weeks, there will be Makeathons everywhere from Ho Chi Minh City to Sao Paolo and Buenos Aires and 50 events internationally by 2018. The fruits of these Makeathons run on R’eut’s YouTube channel in an effort to share the ideas developed with others globally.

“Israel and the Jewish people could move the needle on worldwide issues,” Grinstein said to his audience of fellow Jews. “We’re in a unique position to write another chapter in our remarkable history.”

Grinstein is the latest compelling speaker to participate in KI’s Israel Matters lecture series. The series is designed to add depth and insights into understanding Israel and her role in the Middle East, arguably the most politically and religiously tense and complex region on the planet.

Post-lecture, a private conversation among event organizer Rick Entin, KI’s Michele Alkin and Friends of R’eut Managing Director Doris Schwartz caught fire, leading to viable ideas on how to actualize R’eut Institute’s mission locally, including potentially at Palisades Charter High School.

If R’eut’s inspiration indeed lights a flame in Los Angeles and by extension across America, the purpose of Grinstein’s visit will be fulfilled.

And to think: It all began right here in Pacific Palisades.