Partners for Progressive Israel
| Founded | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Moshe Kagan Avraham Schenker Arthur S. Obermayer |
| Type |
Non-profit NGO |
| 13-3607222 | |
| Focus | Civil Rights in Israel, Human Rights and a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict |
| Location | |
|
Area served
|
United States, Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories |
| Method | "public campaigns, symposia, conferences, lectures, street activities, conference calls, and demonstrations." |
|
Key people
|
Theodore Bikel (Board Chair) Rabbi Israel Dresner (former President, current Vice President) Harold M. Shapiro (President) Maya Haber |
| Mission | "To generate and promote partnership between Israelis and Americans who support a progressive Israel." |
| Website | progressiveisrael |
Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly Meretz USA) is a non-governmental organization and registered 501(c)3 devoted to civil rights in Israel, and human rights throughout the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The organization advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, social justice, human rights (especially for ethnic and sexual minorities), religious freedom, and environmentalism.
Partners for Progressive Israel’s philosophy comes from a merger of two schools of Zionism: Socialist Zionism, and Labor Zionism. Socialist Zionism’s principles were shared society, peace and social justice. Liberal Zionism championed standards such as civil and human rights, religious pluralism and political and economic sustainability. Today, all of these issues comprise our mission.
Organizationally, Partners for Progressive Israel has roots in the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement, which was founded in 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. In 1947, adult former members of Hashomer Hatzair in the United States, who due to World War II were unable to move to theYishuv (pre-Statehood Israel), driven to maintain a social and political cohesion, came together and created the Progressive Zionist League (PZL). In the years immediately following Israel’s independence, PZL members sought a means for involving people not from "the movement" to share in the political activities; in 1950, PZL formed a related group, Americans for Progressive Israel (API). API was active in promoting peaceful relations between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. In 1952, PZL began publication of a magazine, “Israel Horizons.” The publication was a voice for left-wing Zionists for 59 years. Taken over by API a few years after it was formed, IH continued publication until 2011. When the PZL folded in the 1950s, API assumed the mantle of the adult "arm" of the movement represented by Hashomer Hatzair, as well as PZL's representation in the American Zionist movement and its diverse organizations.
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