What is Heart of a Nation?

Heart of a Nation was launched in 2021, with a commitment to empower emerging American, Israeli and Palestinian changemakers to improve their political cultures. By providing integrated training and engagement opportunities to young people dissatisfied with the political status quo, we aim to redefine leadership, reduce friction among potential allies, and significantly strengthen the forces of moderation. This will be our primary focus going forward.

Politics is failing young Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians. In all three societies, young people feel a certain dread about the world they’re inheriting. For their future to be brighter, young people must be given the tools to fix what is broken around them. They need a horizon of hope, a safe space to dream with their peers, mentors to guide them, faculty to instruct them, and opportunities to gain practical experience beyond their narrow communal silos. Without such an environment, young American Jews will further distance themselves from Israel, young Israelis will turn their back on the pursuit of peace with the Palestinians, and young Palestinians will give up on coexistence with Israel.

The young people we have already engaged through our Teen Essay Competition, Teen Summit, and Teen Workshops stand out from their jaded peers. They aspire to make things better. We are building for them an International Changemaker Academy. The initial one-year program consists of a mentor-guided, immersive training curriculum, taught by experienced changemakers. Participants in this leadership development program will develop the confidence, skills, contacts, resiliency, and practical experience to bring about generational change.

Heart of a Nation is unique in the way that it pushes back on distancing between and among American Jews, Israelis and Palestinians. We are also unique in that we celebrate and channel dissatisfaction within a paradigm of “Bettering, Not Battering.” We are thoroughly intergenerational – our youngest Board Member is 16, and our oldest is 72 – and we currently have more than a dozen American, Israeli and Palestinian teens serving on our advisory committees. By inspiring leadership of all ages, at all levels, in all three societies, to share with each other their unique perspectives and strengths, we are connecting previously siloed activists around a commitment to “Embrace Better, Together.”