How is AMIT like the mafia? As our Executive Vice President Andy Goldsmith quipped to “JM in the AM” host Nachum Segal, “Once you’re in, your family is in.”
Goldsmith and other AMIT team members took part in a special broadcast of the popular radio show for Yom Yerushalayim, which aired live on May 24 from the rooftop of Aish HaTorah world headquarters, where they discussed the very real impact that AMIT has on Israeli children’s lives and on its supporters.
All kidding aside, Goldsmith explained what’s special about AMIT: “This is a legacy that a family gives to each other.” He went on to describe how it’s not uncommon for there to be three of four generations within a family that help sustain AMIT and its important work of providing the best Jewish values–based education possible for Israeli children.
“There [are] no more passionate lovers of Israel, people who are vested in the future of the state of Israel, than the AMIT family,” Goldsmith says. “We’re 50,000 strong across the United States, and it’s not new. For 92 years we’ve been doing this—and what is so healthy about us is that we’ve evolved along with the state of Israel. You and I grew up with the narrative that if we didn’t support Israel, Israel wouldn’t survive, and that’s the narrative that for 69 years we’ve spoken over again and again and again. And the reality is that’s just not true. This is startup nation… We didn’t have any natural resources, so we developed Jewish brains, and that’s our chief export.”
Goldsmith says that the question AMIT focuses on isn’t how will Israel survive? “The question that AMIT focuses on…is what do we want Israel to look like five years, 10 years, 20 years from now? And that’s the role that as an American lover of Israel, as an American Zionist, we can play. That’s where we really get to have a say.”
Watch the full video to hear Andy explain why AMIT is your best bet if you’re interested in supporting Jewish education in Israel:
