Latet's first-ever "Road to Resilience" conference aimed at mitigating the social crises that resulted from COVID-19 was held on Thursday.
The conference included people from Israel and the US including politicians, leaders, businesspeople and social activists who took part in four-panel discussions: From "COVID-19 to Poverty-21," "The Fight Against Food Insecurity," "Challenges Faced by the Elderly" and "Social Responsibility in High Tech."
Speakers included Feeding America CEO Claire Babineux-Fontenot, UJA Federation of New York CEO Eric S. Goldstein, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia president and CEO Michael Balaban and IronSource co-founder and CEO Tomer Bar-Zeev.
Latet's annual Alternative Poverty Report in 2020 showed that hundred of thousands of families in Israel have struggled financially due to COVID-19, and the situation of low-income families has gotten much worse. The report showed that 22% of families in Israel suffer from nutritional insecurity, and 32% of children cannot get the nutritious food they need.
"The way we will get through this is together," said Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles president and CEO Jay Sanderson. "When someone cannot figure out how they're going to get to the next day, whether they live in the US or Israel, the challenges are the same. How we look at solutions has to be done together. We must share resources."
"We have the opportunity to build together collective intelligence that will enable us to increase the scope of our activity in the field because all over the world, we will be looking for the same solutions," said Latet's founder and president Gilles Darmon. "We have no other choice if we want to find the road to resilience."
"We are in the middle of a moment that is rich with opportunity for positive change and fraught with risk if we do not choose to change," said Babineaux-Fontenot.
"If we wish to realize the vision of the founders of Israel, we need to be leaders not just in tech unicorns, but also in Tikkun Olam," said Israeli President Isaac Herzog. "We need to be a center not only of hi-tech but also of high moral responsibility.