By NOA AMOUYALJewish National Fund-USA CEO, Russell F. Robinson.(photo credit: JNF)
Since 1998, Russell F. Robinson has led by example. The tireless work ethic of the CEO of the Jewish National Fund – USA has demonstrated that all you need to get something accomplished is a great idea and passionate people to help execute it.Take, for example, a speaking tour bringing residents of the Gaza envelope across the United States. As Israel’s South burns, the media response in the US has been silence. As such, residents of the Gaza Envelope have shared their harrowing stories so those in the US can hear the real story from people who experience Hamas atrocities everyday.Under Robinson’s leadership, the Jewish National Fund is also hard at work getting a state-of-the-art culinary academy underway in Kiryat Shmona. Taking the farm-to-table concept quite literally, students will learn from local farmers and have the opportunity to receive business management training at Tel Hai College to learn how to get a new small restaurant up and running.This is all in a day’s work for the JNF, which also oversees a variety of additional programs, including helping people with disabilities, investing in Israel’s water innovation industry and, of course, the organization’s Billion Dollar Roadmap initiative, which seeks to bring 500,000 and 300,000 to Israel’s South and North respectively.Next up on the horizon is the organization’s national conference in Phoenix, Arizona, which will feature high-ranking officials in the Jewish World and will bring together more than 1,000 lay leaders, philanthropists and college students to celebrate their unbreakable common bond: an unwavering love for Israel.
