Some 150 people attended a Jewish National Fund’s Breakfast for Israel in Camp Massad's dining hall to hear featured speaker Aviva Klompas, a former head speechwriter at Israel's Mission to the UN, and author of the new book exploring Israel's history of global development, Stand-Up Nation: Israeli Resilience in the Wake of Disaster, came from my time as speechwriter for Israel’s delegation to the United Nations. Klompas covered a wide ranging number of topics having a fireside chat with David Greaves, JNF Executive Director for MB and Sask Region.
While doing research for her speeches, Klompas who has lived in Toronto, Israel , and now resides in Boston said she learned the "impressive” story of how the tiny state of Israel, in 1958, when it was itself a fledgling developing nation, actually founded an international development agency, called MASHAV, to reach out in friendship and support to other low-income nations. Klompas noted that it is astonishing how “little Israel has had such outsized impact in the field of international development” especially since Israel started its overseas work as it fought for its survival and contended with dire economic hardships.” She emphasized that the Jewish State was founded "three years after the Holocaust that had decimated European Jewry." In its earliest days, beset by overwhelming economic and military hardships, Israel's leaders had every reason to turn inward. Instead, however, as Klompas noted, they chose to engage with the world.
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After her time at the UN, Klompas founded and led an initiative called Project Inspire, which took young Jewish professionals overseas to see Israel’s work in low-income nations. She ran study tours in developing nations such as Kenya, Uganda, India, Guatemala, and Nepal, where participants saw firsthand how local communities adopted Israeli know-how and technologies to combat poverty and address inequalities. During these visits, Klompas was often surprised to meet people in remote communities who felt strongly connected to Israel. This gave her the inspiration to write her new book.
Klompas explained that Israel engaged in the field of international development because of the Jewish imperative of Tikkun Olam, and also with the hope that their good work would be remembered by these poorer nations of the world. As David Ben-Gurion said, “It’s not enough to be up to date, you have to be up to tomorrow.” In her book, Klompas shares stories of remarkable people involved in international development.
Klompas submitted the manuscript for this book in August of 2023, six weeks prior to October 7.
Klompas said that as with every previous crisis over the past seventy-six years, we must decide whether we are destined to be a people who dwells alone. In a world that seems indifferent or even hostile to the fate of Jews, the natural inclination may be for the Jewish people to turn inward. However, in Klompas's view we have long understood that we are the authors of our own story and "ours is a story of human contribution." She added, "We are not meant to live in despair or accept injustice and so we turn outward," determined to build a more connected, safer, prosperous, and compassionate world.
Klompas is the co-founder and CEO of Boundless, and is an outspoken advocate for the Jewish people and as a leading Israel educator. Boundless combats online antisemitism, and conducts opinion polling (Klompas noted that in an opinion poll Boundless conducted she found that a majority of Americans do not know what the word "Zionism" means, for example) which help enable the Jewish community to learn the steps needed to make its case for Israel. She is involved in making posts on social media to advocate for Israel.
There was a lot of discussion about significant upsurge in antisemitism in north America and elsewhere seen since October 7. Klompas was critical of Prime Minister Trudeau for in her view not doing enough to combat increasing antisemitism, noting that her own parents’ synagogue in Toronto had been marked by antisemitic attacks five times since October 7.
Klompas, who was born in Toronto, obtained her B.Sc from the University of Toronto, an MPA from New York University, and has extensive experience in the public sector. Klompas was a Senior Policy Adviser to the Government of Ontario (2009-2013), when she helped with the settlement of Syrian refugees in that province. She was also Associate Vice President of Israel and Global Jewish Citizenship from 2016-2021, based in Boston.
Given the news that six Israeli hostages had just been murdered by Hamas, Danial Sprintz, Executive Director of Camp Massad, recited the names of each of the victims.
