Personal Holocaust Connection & Syrian Crisis Motivation

• Speaker's parents survived concentration camps in Poland and Hungary
• Family arrived in US as stateless refugees after WWII
• Syrian crisis parallels drew personal connections:
  • Destruction of Aleppo reminded speaker of bombed Budapest (birth city)
  • Starvation by siege recalled mother losing pregnancy carrying rotten potatoes
  • Tortured Syrian corpses evoked walking skeletons of Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Bergen-Belsen
  • Syrian refugee displacement mirrored speaker's own refugee childhood

Three-Step Problem-Solving Framework

• Step 1: Find an entry point
• Step 2: Identify a gap
• Step 3: Find something doable to fill that gap

Syrian Aid Operation Development (2015-2016)

• Entry Point: Mobilized Jewish response, scaled to inter-religious response in US
• Created Multi-faith Alliance for Syrian refugees with 100+ partner organizations
• Gap Identified: Southwest Syria difficult to access due to regime forces
• Doable Solution: Israel shares border with that region, easy aid delivery from Israeli side of Golan Heights

Secret European Meetings & Advocacy

• Held clandestine meetings across European capitals with Syrian refugees, Israeli aid workers, American Jews
• Despite Syria-Israel state of war since 1948, found cooperation pathway
• Lobbied multiple governments:
  • UK Parliament
  • EU Parliament
  • Canadian Parliament
  • US Congress
  • All levels of Israeli government
• Initial efforts unsuccessful

Operation Good Neighbor Launch

• September 2016: Israeli government officially launched operation
• Policy opened border for international humanitarian aid transit to Syria
• Cargo containers with Syrian organization goods unloaded in Israeli ports by Israeli soldiers
• Aid transported to Golan Heights, distributed by Syrian ground partners

Aid Delivery Results & Impact

• Population served: 1.3 million people in stabilized region
• Total aid delivered: $245 million (nearly)
• Initial operation: $120 million delivered
• Infrastructure supported:
  • 3 medical facilities
  • 1 bakery producing 15,000 pitas daily
  • Water, fuel, electricity provision
  • Medical equipment, ambulances, food, clothing, sanitary kits, medicine
• Duration: 2 years of regional stability (only functioning part of Syria)
• Beneficiaries: Over 2.5 million war victims helped
• Operation ended when regime forces took over and destroyed the area
• Expanded deliveries to other hard-to-reach Syrian areas

Historical Applications of Three-Step Method

1971 NYC Police Department Sex Crimes Unit

• Entry point: NYC Police Department through crime prevention work
• Gap: Sexual assault victims badly treated
• Doable solution: Established first sex crimes unit in country
• Legacy: Inspired Law & Order SVU (23 seasons reference)

Corporate Religious Diversity Initiative

• Context: New Millennium approaching, workplace 2000 diversity focus
• Gap: Religion rarely considered in workplace diversity despite changing demographics
• Solution: Founded Tannenbaum Center for Inter-religious Understanding
• Impact: Guided major corporations in accommodating religious beliefs in workplace

Biblical Motivation

• Leviticus 19:16 verse drove action: "Thou shalt not stand idly by while the blood of your neighbor cries out from the Earth"