After making aliyah (moving to Israel) from the US in 2000, Gitler began his food rescue efforts from his car by rescuing meals from catering halls and delivering them to local nonprofits that serve the needy. Eventually, Gitler founded Leket in 2003, working with 200 partners to collect and redistribute more than 28 million pounds of fresh, perish…

Patrick Levy was one of the first individuals in Israel to be diagnosed with HIV and soon after became an activist for policy change to improve the lives of those living with the virus. Patrick eventually worked his way up, serving for three years on the Israel AIDS Task Force. To this day, Patrick continues his life’s work to advocate on behalf of…

*Israel’s War on Road Safety * *Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving * More people have died on the road than in the Arab-Israeli conflict – on both sides – since 1920. In 1997, Avi Naor founded the Or Yarok Association for Safer Driving in Israel following the tragic death of his son Ran in a road accident. Today, Or Yarok is a leader in Israel’…

At age seven, alongside her parents and many of her 12 siblings, Oshra Friedman left Ethiopia and escaped to Israel via Operation Moses.* Now a proud Israeli, Oshra has devoted her adult life to bridging socioeconomic gaps and promoting social mobility for groups on the periphery, including but not limited to Ethiopian, Russian and Arab Israelis. “…

Rabbi Gottfried is co-founder and director of Beit Tefilah Israeli, a fast-growing, multi-generational community that is renewing and revitalizing the landscape of Judaism in Israel. Under the radar from the official Jewish religious establishment in Israel, and for more than a decade, a grassroots movement of Israeli Judaism is emerging, gaining s…

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Dr. David Applebaum who revolutionized the field of emergency care in Israel. In 1990 Dr. Applebaum opened Israel’s first private emergency care clinic, which today sees over 150,000 patients a year. Emergency medicine in Israel is a new specialty, recognized for the first time in 1999. Dr. Applebaum…

Kaynan Rabino is the brain behind Good Deeds Day, an annual day of service that has flourished into an international phenomenon, currently reaching 75 countries—including the Greater Washington’s own Sara & Samuel J. Lessans Good Deeds Day. Rabino explains why the simple objective to change the world and positively impact the lives of others has ga…

Avner Stepak, former CEO of the second largest investment house in Israel, is revolutionizing Israel’s corporate world to include the previously overlooked disabled population in Israel’s workforce.The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington

Visionary activist Chaya Gilboa, an expert on the issue of Israeli religious reform, shares her desire for social change in Israel. In a country where politics are religious and religion is political, Chaya strives to transform Israel’s religious judicial system by challenging the Rabbinate’s legal monopoly on religious life to create a pluralistic…

Host Robbie Gringras interviews co-writer and director of the LGBTQ family drama “Ima v’ Abbas” (Mother and Fathers) about the intersection of his personal family dynamic in Israel (raising a child as a gay couple with a straight, single surrogate), his work, passions and Israeli society.The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington