Nir Buchler, Southeast USA regional director for the Jewish Agency, joins Israel National News from the Jewish Agency board of governors conference in Jerusalem.

“It's very emotional to be back after three years here in Israel. Enough with the Zooms and those little frames. Finally we can get here face to face and tackle the big issues of the Jewish world.”

The conference discussed a wide range of significant issues concerning the Jewish Agency’s agenda and programs.

“It's a very important conference. The new chairman of the executive was just voted, Mr. Doron Almog. We just heard his story and many had tears in their eyes when he told the story of his son and his legacy,” Buchler says. “We just had a new chairman of the executive and also new chairman of the board after a very long process but a thoughtful process, so we're very excited to be working with a new leadership here at the Jewish Agency and also we're implementing a strategic plan that started just before COVID on the three strategic areas of impact of the Jewish Agency and in the committees. Also one-on-one with our partners we're having conversations about how to implement and how to put into effect division of the Jewish Agency for Israel.”

Buchler explains the role of the Jewish Agency in this era.

“We have three impact areas of the Jewish Agency. One of them is aliyah. In the last year we had the highest numbers of aliyah in the united states since 1973. We just announced 50,000 new olim in 2022, a record number and that's around the world.”

He explains that the Jewish Agency’s emissaries have a major impact on the ground, for instance in the United States.

“Emissaries play a major part. We are after COVID coming back to increase the number of emissaries. Just in my area alone I’m having about 41 emissaries, but also all the different programs of connect, the partnerships, the twinning between schools, and all those programs around it.”

He adds: “We're trying to connect Diaspora Jewry, world Jewry and Israel together in new innovative ways and the last part of what we do is our impact in Israel. We are engaging, we bring change agents in Israel to a variety of programs. We are talking right now, we are in committee meetings, we're one-on-one discussing how to implement this vision.”

He agrees that their work has become more challenging in the era of COVID and the Ukraine war but comments that they are optimistic about the future.

“We are the only organization that can bring Jews to Israel to make Aliyah and we did that very effectively during COVID,” he says. “We were able to maintains programs… The Jewish Agency was able to pivot and show the relevance also with different programs in Israel.”

They are planning to increase the number of emissaries.

“After being so separated for so many years through those Zoom boxes people are very thirsty for connections and bringing young emissaries into communities and that excitement of connecting one-on-one is what’s going to make a difference at the end. It’s that authentic experience, that immersive experience that the Jewish Agency brings an added value to.”