In the Room Where It Happens at the Jewish National Fund
Kenneth Bob — July 27, 2026
Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent NJN's views and policy positions.
One of the most memorable songs in the musical Hamilton is "The Room Where It Happens." Its central insight is that history is often shaped not only by the speeches delivered in public but by the decisions made behind closed doors where sometimes only a handful of people have a seat. That image came to mind recently when a representative of our movement, serving on the board of Himanuta, the Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael- Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) real estate subsidiary, managed to derail a routine administrative process that would have advanced the eviction of the Shaludi family from their home in Silwan, Jerusalem. Because someone was in the room – paying attention, asking questions, and speaking up – the eviction was halted.
This is not an isolated case, as there has been a systematic effort by settler organizations and right-wing Himanuta officials to evict Palestinian families in several East Jerusalem neighborhoods. The basis for this effort is Israel's Absentee Property Law of 1950. Enacted in the aftermath of Israel's War of Independence, the law transferred to the Custodian of Absentee Property land and other assets belonging to individuals classified as "absentees" – generally those who had left areas that became Israel during the 1948 war. The law has been applied in ways that deprived Palestinians of property even when they or their relatives remained in or near Jerusalem. In the Shaludi case, the property had belonged to Haj Musa Sumarin, who was classified by the Custodian as an absentee in 1987, several years after his death. The property was subsequently transferred to Himanuta, which later sought to enforce its ownership rights through eviction proceedings against the Palestinian families living there, including the Shaludi family.
How in this case did the process get stopped? A person appointed by our progressive Zionist coalition to the Himanuta board conscientiously reviewed a long agenda and noticed an item near the end about the Shaludi family. While Peace Now organized a protest outside the board meeting, our appointee asked KKL-JNF leaders pointed questions about why they were evicting a Palestinian family from a home they had lived in for over 50 years. As a result, the issue was taken off the agenda and the family is staying in their home, at least for now. He will now serve as our watchdog on this and related issues.
I am often asked why we remain engaged in the legacy national Jewish/Israeli institutions that often fund projects with which we don’t agree and require a great deal of investment in time and money to have any impact. While I understand the hesitancy – I am the first one to admit that it can be both frustrating and uncool – I’ll quote another cultural icon, the outlaw Willie Sutton, who reportedly said “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.” The KK’L-JNF, Jewish Agency, and the World Zionist Organization have a collective annual budget of well over $1 billion – Why shouldn’t we participate in democratic elections every five years and place our people on a variety of decision making bodies to have input on budgets and policy that affect Israel and international Jewry?
One of the biggest victories last October at the World Zionist Congress for Brit Etz - World Labor Zionist Alliance, where I serve as Chair, was the election of Eyal Ostrinsky as the chair of KKL-JNF. In keeping with the spirit of the resolution we successfully passed at the congress against funding of West Bank settlements, Eyal has announced that JNF-KKL, which owns and controls a significant portion of public land in Israel, will no longer be purchasing land in the West Bank and will no longer fund programs at West Bank settler outposts. As we like to say, elections have consequences. He has prioritized working with communities in the north and south of Israel that have been disproportionately impacted by the brutal October 7 attack and nearly three years of war, and has directed massive investments into those areas.
Silvio Joskowicz, a longtime Brit Etz leader, has continued as the head of the Zionist Enterprises Department following the Zionist Congress. In that role, and in the spirit of the resolution we passed enshrining diversity of Zionist expression, he has established a brand-new, funded unit within his department to support Cultural Judaism as an expression of Judaism equal to the existing streams (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Ultra-Orthodox). As his department has laid out: “We are now working to establish a global movement of Cultural Judaism that will connect a democratic, liberal, Zionist, and egalitarian Israel with Jewish identity and belonging rooted in culture, peoplehood, and heritage.”
At the congress we were also part of a coalition that supported the passage of a resolution calling for expanded access for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall (Kotel). Putting words into action, Brit Etz leaders, including Joskowicz and Rotem Yadlin, head of the Gezer Regional Council and deputy chair of KKL-JNF, joined Ostrinsky to participate in a Torah-style reading of the Declaration of Independence at the egalitarian plaza at the Kotel in celebration of Yom Ha’atzamut, Israeli Independence Day. In the spirit of broadening access to that section of the Kotel, they pointed to the founding ideals of the modern Jewish state as laid out in the Declaration of Independence itself to ensure equality for “all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”
And two months later, in a rare public rebuke of the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors criticized two bills that are being considered by the Knesset. One would effectively criminalize egalitarian and women-led prayer at the Kotel and would be punishable by up to seven years in prison. The law would also apply to the egalitarian plaza, the site of the Yom Ha’atzamaut reading of the Declaration of Independence. The other would reject non-Orthodox conversions to Judaism for the purpose of immigration to Israel, thus dramatically changing the status quo regarding the Law of Return.
Citing the aforementioned Zionist Congress resolution, a statement with overwhelming support declared that the bills “could undermine Jewish pluralism and weaken the Jewish people.”
The lesson is not that every disagreement can be resolved behind closed doors, nor that public advocacy alone is enough. Institutions change when thoughtful people are willing to work from within, and they change when an engaged public reminds those institutions of the values they are meant to uphold. The most effective social change movements understand that these are not opposing strategies but complementary ones. Working inside and speaking outside create a productive tension that can move even long-established organizations toward better decisions.
This is how change happens. And this is the approach we will continue to pursue.
Ken is the Chair of Brit Etz-World Labor Zionist Alliance and a board member of New Jewish Narrative. He previously served as the President of Ameinu and serves on the J Street Board of Directors.
