Just hours before boarding a flight to India, Shirin Ezekiel’s excitement is contagious. "I hope this year will be an exceptional opportunity to learn more and to continue working in the Jewish world," she said. Winner of the 2005-06 Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship for International Jewish Communal Service, Shirin will take the breadth of her experience working with Diaspora Jews and apply it to JDC’s community development work with India’s unique and culturally rich Jewish population.

Born in Israel to parents who emigrated from India, Shirin developed an appreciation for her Indian-Jewish heritage while visiting family on a trip she took to her ancestors’ home country as a teenager. She has spent much of her student and professional life seeking to merge her interest in the diversity of Diaspora Jewish culture and her connection to Israel.

"Although the traditions and customs of my Indian-Jewish heritage were part of my day-to-day life, I was raised and educated in Israel, a country about which I care deeply," Shirin wrote in her personal statement to JDC. Shirin is, in fact, the first Israeli to be awarded the prestigious fellowship, named for JDC’s honorary executive vice president who served as the organization’s top professional leader for several decades and was instrumental in the birth of the State of Israel.

She emphasizes that her experience as an Israeli citizen, particularly as a commander for female cadets in their basic training in the army, has helped to shape her identity. "The army improved a lot of my ‘skills’ — I became more independent, more confident in public speaking, more integrated into society…" she shares. "I also experienced some of the harder side of being a soldier — Arafat returned to Gaza, it was the beginning of the Oslo peace talks, and my unit was sent to deal with women settlers that were protesting…we slept in the field for days with no showers, no food…but lots of jokes and high spirit."

After Shirin completed her Israeli military service in 1995, she was selected to work in a JCC summer camp in Central New Jersey, during which time she discovered the need for better dialogue between Israel and the Diaspora. "This was the first position in which I was confronted with the realities of Israel-Diaspora relations, and I learned the importance of a strong and positive relationship between these two communities," Shirin said.

Shirin has a B.A. from Tel Aviv College of Management and an M.A. in political science and communications from Bar Ilan University. As a student, she played a key role in campus activism, organizing general strikes for lower tuition, building bridges between Jewish and Arab students and facilitating dialogue between Diaspora Jews and Israelis. As a professional, she has worked as a spokeswoman in the Knesset for Labor Party MK Salach Tarif and as a political consultant. She has also worked as a field coordinator and instructor for several prominent Diaspora volunteer programs, including Project Otzma, NFTY, Birthright Israel and World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS).

"My Diaspora experience was particularly helpful when, at the start of the current Intifada, I was sent to Europe and the US as part of a student delegation to work with campus groups and discuss the situation in the Middle East," Shirin said.

With her heightened Diaspora-Israel sensibilities, Shirin served a term as the first-ever Jewish Agency emissary in Madison, Wisconsin prior to beginning her RIG fellowship orientation in New York City in September 2005.

Shirin expressed that spending time at the Federation as well as at the Hillel on the campus of the University of Wisconsin afforded her further insights into North American Jewry and its relationship to and perception of Israel. She worked with young children at the Jewish preschool, taught teenagers about Israeli culture and politics in the after-school program, and helped to create communitywide programs such as concerts, an Israeli film festival, and a winter day camp, among other things. At the UW Hillel, she worked with the various groups on campus connected with Israel, serving as a resource for the groups and helping them to develop programs such as the Rock for Peace program, an Israeli wine tasting, and an Indian Israeli dinner.

"All of my experiences have helped me to understand the differences between Diaspora Jews and Israelis," says the striking young professional. "Culturally, Israelis are more direct, sometimes rude, leave many things for the last minute and don’t count till ten before they speak their mind," she says, almost giggling. "But they are also very warm, friendly and open. Americans are much more organized, follow schedules and are less spontaneous…you're not always sure if they are telling the whole truth about what they feel," she adds, still smiling and exuding an almost tangible warmth. "But they also care and are more open for criticism than Israelis are. I learned a lot from Diaspora Jews about how I would like my own Jewish identity to look like."

Upon her completion of the year-long fellowship overseas, Shirin hopes to achieve her ultimate career goal of "working at a Jewish or Israeli organization that promotes connections between Jewish communities on a global scale." Given her demonstrated excellence and commitment to Jewish communal service for which she was awarded the RIG fellowship, there is little doubt that Shirin is well on her way to achieving this and more.

December 2005