Canadian Jewish industrialist Charles Bronfman believes that imaginative cultural approaches can case the polarizations which plague Jewish life in Israel and the diaspora and has put up a substantial sum of money to prove it.
At a press conference here Tuesday, Bronfman launched the CRB Foundation to finance theatrical groups, festivals and mass communications events aimed at bridging the religious-secular, Sephardic-Ashkenazic and Israel-diaspora gaps. Close to five million Shekels will be available for the first year’s projects and “if we do the job, that amount will grow,” he said.
The foundation’s Hebrew name is “Karev,” an acronym of the donor’s initials which spells the Hebrew word “to draw close” and thus expresses its theme. Bronfman said the fund should serve as a catalyst to spur individuals to come up with novel ideas. He stressed the need to reach out to the younger generation.
The initial projects to be advanced by CRB include theater in development towns, sponsored by Tel Aviv’s Tzedek Theater, street theater competitions run in coordination with the Israeli Festival; an institute for the study of Israeli economic policy in coordination with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University; and a Jewish culture festival to mark Israel’s 40th anniversary in 1988.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
