| Voice of the People | |
|---|---|
| Genre | conference |
| Frequency | biennial |
| Location(s) | Jerusalem |
| Country | Israel |
| Years active | 2025- |
| Founder | Isaac Herzog |
| Website | www |
Voice of the People is an initiative of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to gather a range of Jewish voices from all over the world to discuss issues and challenges affecting the Jewish people and to transform this dialogue into actionable strategies. [1] [2]
In April 2023, Herzog announced the plan to establish a worldwide Jewish advisory council under his office. [3] It was announced at a joint session of the Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the World Zionist Organization, and Keren Hayesod in honor of Israel’s 75th Independence Day. [4] The goal of the project is to open dialogue between Jewish communities across the world and advise the President on challenges facing them. [5] The Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization were announced as partners. [6] Subsequently, it was announced that philanthropic foundations including the Azrieli Foundation, the Patrick and Lina Drahi Foundation and the Wilf Family Foundations were partnering with this initiative. [7] [8]
The first stage of this was a consultation process in fourteen major Jewish centers, across the world. Deloitte assisted in this process. [9] In August 2024, [10] a global survey [11] was conducted to determine the most urgent issues facing Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. [12] There were over 10,000 responses to the survey. [13]
In September 2024, in a launch event with Gal Gadot, Herzog announced that the application process for the council was open. [14]
An algorithm narrowed the applicants down to 400 [15] based on gender, age, religious affiliation, ethnicity and location whereby the Voice of the People team reduced it to 150. [16] The council consists of 150 members from all over the world with each member serving a two-year term. [17] [18] There are 50 members from Israel, 50 from North America and 50 from the rest of the world. [19]
In 2025, the initial intake of 150 council members [20] was announced for the conference taking place in March. [21] [22] The council includes communal professionals, academics, students, rabbis, hi-tech professionals, social media influencers, and entrepreneurs, and its members hail from countries such as the U.S., Australia, South Africa, France, Brazil, the U.K., Italy, Ukraine, Argentina, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. [23]
Some of the 2025 council includes Natalie Rens, Jeremy Leibler, [24] Rona Kaufman, [25] and Josh Aronson. [26]