After landmark elections in Israel and U.S., 2,500 leaders flock to JFNA General Assembly in D.C.

For the first time, Givat Haviva will be featured at the Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly. Mohammad Darawshe, Givat Haviva Director of Strategy, was interviewed for the  eJewish Philanthropy preview article on the 2026 JFNA GA.

eJP reporter Jay Deitcher writes:

It is also coexistence leader Mohammad Darawshe’s first time attending the GA. The trip to the GA would have typically been a schlep for Darawshe, who lives in Israel, but he is currently a visiting scholar at American University in Washington for the semester.

Darawshe, who is the director of strategy for the Center for Shared Society at Givat Haviva, will be presenting a lunch session on Monday titled, “Building a Shared Society: A Conversation with Mohammad Darawshe.”

“Shared society [is] a topic that is not very much [discussed] in the mainstream American Jewish community, and one of my main efforts is to try to mainstream this work as much as possible, exactly as we try to do in Israel,” Darawshe told eJP. He sees the visit as a chance to thank the federations that have supported Givat Haviva, including ones in New York, Boston, Washington, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and St. Louis. He also hopes to invite other federations to join in the cause.

“The work in Jewish-Arab relations has been damaged severely in the last four years under this government, and in the last three years after Oct. 7, there’s a lot of damage, a lot of mistrust, a lot of fear,” Darawshe said. But Arab Israelis make up one-quarter of Israel’s doctors, nurses and dentists and half of the country’s pharmacists. They are the majority of bus drivers. He hopes attendees can look to the entire Israeli population, not only the roughly 80% who are Jewish.

“This is the future of Israel,” Darawshe said, and people can help by supporting “collaboration and cooperation.” This too is part of mending Israel, he said. “A lot of healing work needs to be done in Jewish-Arab relations, and the [interest in helping] I hope will triple in 2027.”

Read the full JFNA GA preview article: After landmark elections in Israel and U.S., 2,500 leaders flock to JFNA General Assembly in D.C. - eJewishPhilanthropy