Launched in March 2009, NIFI has  made a tremendous impact. Our aim is to put Israel’s case reasonably and fairly to the people of Northern Ireland.

We combine the support of political  leaders representing rival  parties with a strong grassroots following. Over three thousand people have attended our events  and many more from across Northern Ireland have registered their support. Christians and Jews, media people, academics, trade unionists and members of the public have attended our meetings, many of whom have travelled the length and breadth of NI to be with us. 

“At a time when so much of the media is so blatantly biased against Israel and makes no attempt to understand the unique challenges Israel faces, we are happy to lend all the support we can. I would feel ashamed if I was not prepared to defend a nation’s right to exist and to continue as the only democracy in the Middle East”  – NIFI Supporter.

We were honoured to host the ambassador of Israel, HE Ron Prosor, in Belfast (seen above, meeting First Minister, Peter Robinson, and Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness). The deputy ambassador, Talya Lador-Fresher, spoke at our launch event at Stormont, hosted by Robin Newton MLA.

We have also put Israel’s case to the local media and featured prominently in the Israeli press.

NIFI opposes demonisation of the world’s only Jewish state and believes boycotting the Middle East’s only democracy is wrong in principle and wrong in practice. We wish to promote positive engagement with all those who seek a just and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours.

If you are interested in learning more about the many connections which exist between Israel and Northern Ireland, and what we stand for, please read on…

Please click on the headings in blue below to look at the following:

About: our Mission Statement launched at the Park Avenue hotel in May 2009.

Boycott: Why the Boycott Israel movement in Northern Ireland is wrong in principle and wrong in practice.

Conflict: Israel’s conflict with Hamas, essential points which can’t be ignored.

History: what is the Jewish people’s connection to the land of Israel?

Israel news in Northern Ireland - over 80 stories of strengthening spiritual, cultural, economic and political connections between Northern Ireland and Israel, provided by NIFI supporters.

NIFI events: our future events 

NIFI in the news: links to media reports about NIFI.

NIFI’s Diary: our events so far!

NIFI Football auction - NIFI raises over £1,000 in an auction of signed football shirts from leading Premiership clubs in aid of cross community football in Northern Ireland and Israel. Our chosen charities are Soccer for Peace (Israel) and IFA endorsed cross community schemes in Northern Ireland.

Articles: an archive of our 10 most-read articles of 2009, by NIFI supporters.

For more stories and articles, please scroll below

and to be placed on our mailing list please contact us  nifriendsofisrael@ymail.com

Many thanks for all your support,

Terry McCorran and Steven Jaffe (London), co chairs, NI Friends of Israel.

Members contributions are their own and may not in all cases reflect the views of the organisition. Articles published are owned by the person who made them and are not the views of the site’s editors, contributors, or other commenters.

Sarah Herzog 1899-1979 -  185 Cliftonpark Avenue (marked by a blue plaque as the birthplace of Chaim Herzog, president of Israel).

 
If she’s remembered at all in Belfast, it’s as the mother of Chaim Herzog, president of Israel, born on Cliftonpark Avenue in 1918. But Sarah Herzog was an important personality in her own right.
 
Her son, Chaim, described her as “clearly the dominant individual at home. She was very pretty and gracious and, although petite, almost regal in her demeanour. Wherever her home was, it was a centre of grace and culture and, later, in Israel, a magnet for the Jewish community from around the world.”
 
Sarah Herzog was a prominent figure in the development of the leading geriatric and psychiatric hospital in the Middle East, which is named after her – the Sarah Herzog Memorial hospital in Jerusalem.  She would head the women’s division of a political party. She was awarded two honorary doctorates and was an accomplished speaker – in English and in Hebrew.
 
Sarah’s communal responsibilities were to begin in Belfast when in 1917 – still in her teens – she married the Belfast rabbi, Isaac Herzog. It was in Belfast where she first assumed the title of rebbetzin, the designation of a rabbi’s wife, and took on pastoral and charitable responsibilities. Born in Riga (Latvia) in 1899, to a distinguished rabbinical family, she was brought up in London. Her husband was destined to become the first chief rabbi of the Irish Free State and then, from 1936, chief rabbi of the Holy Land.
 
In 1977, Sarah Herzog became the founding president of World Emunah, a Jewish women’s organisation which today has 180,000 women as members from almost 30 different countries. http://www.worldemunah.com/. As she had been widowed for almost 20 years by that time, Sarah didn’t owe this appointment to the status of her husband.
 
Emunah is one of the largest social providers in Israel, and has helped absorb Holocaust survivors and over 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Emunah’s many projects include two named after Sarah:  Neve Sarah Herzog, in Bnei Brak, which brings educational and employment opportunities to religious Jewish women; and the Sarah Herzog Children’s Home in Afula, in northern Israel, which provides a residential home to over 90 children who are unable to live with their families.
 
In the years that she lived in Belfast (1917-1919), Sarah Herzog’s principal task was to bring order to the home of the rabbi. Isaac was an outstanding Jewish scholar, but very unworldly. The community paid him a weekly salary in cash on a Friday morning. He was often left peniless by the onset of the Sabbath on Friday evening. His generosity attracted every hard up case, from within and outside the Jewish community. Never refusing anyone, the rabbi was left unable to pay his own rent. Following marriage, it was at Sarah’s insistance he was paid by cheque and all charitable cheques had to be signed by both of them!
 
On the morning he was sworn in as president of Israel in 1983, Chaim crossed Jerusalem to pray at the graves of his father and mother, and reflected: ” my mother continued on as a grande dame, even as she lost her husband and her younger son. She was fully in charge of her senses and clever to the very end. She had been offered – several times – the opportunity to run for the Knesset (Israeli parliament)…She devoted her life to Israel – starting schools, helping immigrants and setting up the largest mental and geriatric hospital in the Middle East. As I stood by their graves, I so wished they could have witnessed this day.”  Sarah Herzog’s remarkable record of communal activism flourished in later life in Israel, but the seeds were sown as a young rabbi’s wife in north Belfast.

Steven Jaffe

You must be joking! Deputy ambassador meets senior academics in Belfast.

He was welcomed to the campus by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Barnett, and the Provost, Professor Alastair Adair.

The visit was the first by an Israeli diplomat to the Belfast campus, and the Deputy Ambassador was given a short tour of the facilities, as well as a briefing on the University’s £250m development plans for the campus.

During the visit, Mr Roth-Snir took part in a wide-ranging round-table discussion  with senior academics from the University’s Institute for Research in Social Sciences, touching on topics as diverse as Middle Eastern politics, the lessons of the Northern Ireland peace process, the future of peace walls, and more. 

Professor Alastair Adair said: “The University is delighted to welcome the Deputy Ambassador to our campus. We have a long and distinguished record of research into peace and conflict issues around the world, as well as into transitional justice and peace processes in Ireland, the UK and beyond – and were pleased to have the chance to share some of our research and insights with Deputy Ambassador Roth-Snir.”

“This was a stimulating and potentially very fruitful meeting, and we look forward to exploring opportunities for future academic links with Israel.”

Caption: Israel’s Deputy Ambassador Alon Roth-Snir and Ruth Fee, Head of the School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy take part in a panel discussion at the Belfast campus. They are flanked by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Richard Barnett, and the Provost, Professor Alastair Adair. Photo: Nigel McDowell, University of Ulster.

Alon Roth-Snir, who previously served as an Israeli diplomat in Jordan, expressed his gratitude for the strong support which exists for Israel in Northern Ireland. Equally the deputy ambassador demonstrated his determination not to dodge  questions posed by Israel’s critics.

At a Q and A session jointly promoted by NIFI and the East Belfast Mission, Alon took questions from members of the main political parties as well as NGO leaders at an event chaired by Rev Gary Mason, superintendant of the Mission. Over 80 attended this early evening event.

Earlier Alon met government minister, Jonathan Bell MLA, at Stormont Castle along with Jonathan’s party colleague, David McIlveen MLA, who voiced their warm support for Israel.

Alon had a chance to see at first hand the cutting edge work of the East Belfast Mission and its development plans. He also met with Evelyn Collins, chief executive of the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland, to discuss that organisation’s twinning with its Israeli counterpart. His busy visit was rounded off with a roundtable discussion with leading academics.

Alon said that as an Israeli engaged in the peace process in the Middle East he felt all parties there had much to learn from people in Northern Ireland regarding community reconciliation.

Steven Jaffe, co chair of NIFI, said: “It was a great pleasure to help arrange and come over with Alon for this visit. We were particularly pleased to co host the evening event with the East Belfast Mission, which has repeatedly shown its commitment to  inclusivity and dialogue. Like every visiting Israeli diplomat, Alon was  impressed by the extent of support for and interest in Israel that exists in Northern Ireland and  looks forward to strengthening the connections between the two countries”.

Yibaneh HaMikdash (The Temple will be rebuilt)
Ir Tzion Timaleh (The city of Zion will be filled)
V’sham nashir shir chadash (And there we will sing a new song)
U-virnana na-aleh (And be uplifted with rejoicing).

Over 400 people attended events  at several locations, (including the Belfast Synagogue), organised
by the Irish branch of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. The guest speaker was Susanna Kokkonen, Director of Christian Friends of Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Memorial institute in Jerusalem).

Susanna, Finnish born, is a Holocaust scholar, who has a doctorate in contemporary Jewish history from the Hebrew University.

Susanna spoke on the root causes of anti-Semitism which led up to the
Holocaust. She explained how the silence of the
Bystanders contributed to the suffering of the Jewish people during the Nazi era. After each
meeting there was a very good response as people signed up to be Christian
Friends of Yad Vashem .

Susanna’s speaking tour took in a talk to 40 sixth form pupils at Wellington College.

Christian writer David Dolan on UK tour

David was in Northern Ireland as a guest of Christian Friends of Israel. He was on the final leg of a UK tour which took him to the four home countries and over 20 different venues right across the country. 

NIFI salutes everyone in Northern Ireland who has prayed for the day of Gilad Shalit’s return to his family. From songwriter Jim Clint who wrote a song for Gilad that was listened to by thousands on Youtube to those who signed on-line petitions or wrote to his family to give them support or who simply prayed or had him in their thoughts..

We think of those families who will never see their loved ones again and who have witnessed killers and accomplices walking free as part of the deal to bring Gilad home. We think of Arnold Roth and his family. Their 15 year old daughter was slaughtered with other youngsters in a Pizza bar bombing in Jerusalem. Out of that cold blooded killing the Roth family launched a charity in the name of their daughter, Keren Malki, which allows families with disabled children the option of caring for them at home – a charity which works right across the Jewish-Arab divide. Arnold visited Belfast some years back – the woman who piloted the bomb to the pizza parlour is now free, having never shown any remorse.

We rejoice with Gilad and his family today. His abductors will claim a great victory. They denied Gilad every human right but humanitarians who arrived in Gaza rarely said a word on his behalf.

Gilad Shalit, soldier of Israel - welcome home!

The trip was organised by the Zionist Federation. Both are leading members of Anglican Friends of Israel (AFI), Simon as a founding member and Steve as AFI’s Director of Community Affairs. Steve played a key role in bringing the Anne Frank + You exhibition to the Province in 2010, which was visited by thousands of schoolchildren and adults in Strabane, Newtownabbey and Belfast.

 Here Simon and Steve reflect on their visit.

Our tour focussed on the diversity that is Israel today, with an emphasis on the educational and cultural richness that characterises Israeli society, but which rarely features in the news.

 For both of us an unexpected highlight was the visit to Bar-Ilan University, which fosters both a commitment to traditional religious values and cutting-edge work in the medical and life sciences. The work of the University benefits all, regardless of race or creed.  Both of us felt very strongly that our philanthropic impulses as Christians have been re-energised by our visit to Israel. Simon says, “I was particularly impressed with the Community Mental Health Clinic run at Bar Ilan which caters for those sectors of Israeli society which would struggle to pay for private psychiatric services. I would love to see University departments providing similar services in the UK”. 

Of course issues of security also featured on our trip and another highlight was the guided tour of the Green Line by IDF Colonel (Ret’d) Miri Eisen. It was sobering for us to be reminded that  the pre 1967 lines leave Israel less than 9 miles wide at its narrowest point. Prior to the Six Day War, the Jordanians and the fedayeen terrorists controlled  the hills overlooking the plains of central Israel. To complicate matters, the Palestinian city of Qalqilyah  (population 40,000) lies on the Green Line, and in recent times there have been attacks from Qalqilyah against Israeli neighbourhoods. All this puts into stark relief the Palestinian demand at the UN to “return to the Green Lines” without offering any land swaps or security guarantees. Unless you visit, you cannot see exactly what this would mean for Israel.

Seeing the terrain with your own eyes  makes it abundantly clear that any proposals for the redrawing of the boundaries need to take these security realities into account. In addition, the so-called “settlements” we hear so much about are often  normal dormitory towns whose residents want to, and are entitled to, live in peace. The sad reality is that terrorists are likely to attempt to use the territories under the oversight of the PA for attacks on Israel for the foreseeable future.

We were reminded of the ethnic tapestry that is Israel today on our visit to a Druze Arab town near Mt Carmel. The Druze are a non-Muslim Arab community which is deeply loyal to the State of Israel and whose menfolk serve with great distinction in the IDF and Border Police.  The enthusiastic greetings of “shalom” by local children attested to the goodwill this community has towards its fellow Israeli citizens. Also noteworthy is the German Christian community outside Zichron Yaakov, whose members are much loved by their Jewish neighbours for their generosity and their willingness to roll up their sleeves and help after terror attacks and other calamities. These committed Israeli patriots, both Arab and Christian, give the lie to the slur that Israel is somehow an “apartheid society”.

Steve says “It was a pleasure to visit a country that enjoys the most genuinely pluralistic society in the Middle East. It is the only country in the region whose Christian population is growing”. 

Simon and Steve also visited the settlement of Alfei Menashe, met Tel Aviv Mayor (Ron Huldai) at Old City Hall and had briefings with Gil Hoffman from the Jerusalem Post and with veteran journalist David Horowitz. At the Kenesset they had a briefing by MK Otniel Schneller of Kadima. They visited Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and the graves of the founder of the modern Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl, former PMs Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin and (Belfast-born) President, Chaim Herzog. On a visit to Bakery 29 in Tel Aviv they met the bakery’s  founder, Netta Korin, and in Jaffa met with Israeli artist Frank Meisler. 

Interested in joining a Zionist Federation tour? Contact them via:  https://zionist.org.uk/

Interested in Anglican Friends of Israel: http://www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com/