Jewish Philanthropy Podcast · Dovid M Cohen

Israel at War: How Can We Help? Guest: Michal (Miki) Leon

·50 min·3 clips

"We are falling apart and piecing ourselves back together again" in Israel right now.

1. Jewish Philanthropy Podcast centers on Israel at war and how Jewish philanthropy can respond. 2. David M. Cohen hosts Michal Leon, a Tel Aviv-based CEO and foundation leader whose family gives in Israel and in education. 3. The episode asks what giving can do now, when emergency needs, public opinion, and rebuilding are all moving at once. 4. Leon says she was born in Israel, grew up in the UK, and came back to Israel about 15 years ago with her two daughters. 5. She recalls her parents moving to the UK in 1970 and keeping a strong Israel connection through radio and family ties. 6. She says the Israeli community in London grew in the 1990s, including Israeli businesspeople and Israeli kindergartens for her daughters. 7. Leon describes her early career in Channel 4, ITV, the BBC environment through her husband, and later digital media and dot-com work. 8. She dates a major shift in the Israel narrative to the late 1980s, the first intifada, and the 2002 Jenin incursion. 9. She cites a UK poll showing 21% supporting Israel, 19% supporting the Palestinian story, and about 60% disengaged. 10. She says leadership support from the U.S., Europe, and the UK matters more than raw public-opinion numbers. 11. Leon says social media amplifies separation and polarization while philanthropy and civic groups try to cross the aisle. 12. She explains that her family foundation spent three years giving to around 10 organizations to learn philanthropy in Israel. 13. She says her parents wanted their giving to stay in Israel and to focus on education because one educated person can lift a whole family. 14. Leon says the foundation then narrowed its education work to homeroom teachers as major change agents. 15. She says homeroom teachers see parents, children, classrooms, and social interactions, yet are rarely given the professional identity to catch children who fall between systems. 16. She reports more than 150 peer-to-peer learning communities and over 3,000 homeroom teachers this year out of 30,000 in the elementary system. 17. She says the war forced the family to release emergency funds for troops, charities, mental health, and displaced families. 18. She tells a specific story about Ofra from Zderot, whom the family helped leave town and supported with her son's special diet. 19. The interview is conversational, fast-moving, and shaped by real-time wartime updates from Tel Aviv. 20. Listeners interested in Israeli education, Jewish philanthropy, and wartime civil society will likely get the most from it.

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