This past week, I spent a few days in Cleveland.
I have an especially warm place in my heart for Cleveland's Jewish community, and feel very much at home there. For five years I worked closely with this community, building economic, social and educational connections between them and the region of Beit Shean, as part of the Partnership 2000 program. It was the leaders of Cleveland's Jewish community who recruited me to lead the Partnership, initiating my return to Israel in 1998, after living with my family for several years in Boston.
Just as in many communities in the US today, the Jewish community of Cleveland is experiencing difficult times. The migration of young people out of the city, the abandonment of businesses from the city center, and a plunge in the donations that represent the lifeline for Jewish institutions, these are just some of the challenges the community is facing.
Among my meetings in Cleveland, I was able to have a heart to heart talk with my friend Chuck Ratner, in his office at Terminal Tower in the city center. Chuck is Chairman of the Board of Forest City, a family led real-estate development company. For several generations, the Ratner family has been and remains one of the principal supporters of the Jewish community and of Israel, and its members can be found among the economic and philanthropic leadership. Chuck told me how my uncle Pinchas Sapir would sit on the couch in his home and not budge until he'd gotten his father to commit to another investment - to establish another factory in the periphery or finance another plan to create new jobs in the fledgling Israel of the 1960s.
Chuck Ratner is distinguished by several characteristics that make people like him so rare, and if only they could be cloned, the Jewish people and the State of Israel would be in much better shape. Among these are 
a heart as broad and towering as his office building, profound wisdom, the persuasive powers to lead others to acts of "tikkun olam", modesty and warmth, along with a total commitment to the perpetuation of the Jewish people and their future in the State of Israel.
Towards the end of our meeting, as we were about to part, Chuck admitted that he sometimes feels guilty that, in spite of his deep commitment to, and actions on behalf of the State of Israel, he doesn't actually live in the country, and doesn't feel that he is at the "front line" in Israel's struggles. I put down my bag, sat down again, and shared some thoughts of mine on this subject.
First, I believe that Israel is the best place for a Jew to live. Not just because it is our Jewish nation, where we are a determining majority, and where Jews do not have to be an apologetic minority. Not even because, after two thousand years, and only the second time in our people's history, there is a sovereign Jewish nation for the Jewish people. For me, the reasons also include the things that are more connected to the land, like the food, the climate, the landscapes and the culture, the grand and the mundane.
Obviously, I am not objective, since I was born in Israel and this is what I am used to (despite having lived abroad for several years). Yet, on the other hand, what is objective in this world? My wife and I like to joke that our house stands on the best piece of land in the Jewish world, since Israel is the best place for Jews, the Galilee is the most beautiful part of Israel, our community of Hoshaya is the optimal community in the Galilee, and our home is set facing the most beautiful view in Hoshaya....
Secondly, and particularly in our 21st century world that is continually becoming more global and "flatter", the ability to live in one part of the world, and be influential and involved in another part, is becoming more and more prevalent. People like Chuck and his friends, who not only donate money, but also contribute tirelessly to different organizations that support Israeli causes (i.e. public diplomacy, immigration, lobbying, higher education), represent a critical element in the worldwide system that is reinforcing and securing Israel's future.
The truth must be told. And so, ultimately, when missiles are falling and bombs are exploding, those who actually live in Israel are in the eye of the storm, and their children are those who sleep in shelters, are wounded and suffer from trauma. Still, if we want to take a relevant example, even in the army, only a small percentage of soldiers are physically present at the front lines and actually take part in the fighting. Most of the armed forces (Intelligence, maintenance, computers, etc.) is backing up, supporting and enabling the fighting to take place, without directly participating. Could the army function without its backup forces? Clearly not. And can the State of Israel hold its own against the many fronts of the global world without the Jewish communities of the Diaspora at its side? Perhaps, but without a doubt less successfully.
And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the true problem is that most of the world's Jews don't support and assist Israel! An increasing percentage of Jews do not identify themselves with the Jewish state, don't visit, don't act in its defense and don't see the connection with it as a source of pride that should be stated out loud. A decreasing percentage of Diaspora Jews recognize the connection between the independent existence of Israel and the fact that they themselves can live freely as Jews with equal rights in (almost) any place on earth. Today, the commitment to, and support of the State of Israel are integral parts of the DNA of every Jew wherever they are. Thus, those who do stand at Israel's side should be honored, acknowledged, encouraged and embraced, as at the same time we strengthen the connection and solidarity between the Jews of the world and their national home.
And so, for the Chuck Ratners of the Jewish world, please know that you are essential and perhaps even indispensable to the future of the State of Israel. I hope I'll be proved wrong, but I suspect that in the not too distant future, we'll be needing you more than ever.
Sagi Melamed lives with his family in the Galilee community of Hoshaya. He serves as Vice President of External Affairs at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, and is the Chief Instructor of the Hoshaya Karate Club. Sagi received his Master's degree from Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies with a specialty in Conflict Resolution. He can be contacted at: melamed.sagi@gmail.com. For more articles, see: http://sagimelamed.blogspot.com
