UIA NSW AGM 2024 and Report Back event
UIA NSW held its annual AGM and Report Back event with special guest Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, chairperson of the Fund for Victims of Terror, who provided an overview of how UIA-donor support assists the People of Israel.
Maytal Saltoon, David Velik, Liam Or, Romi Elishar, Anthony Tockar, Ella Lobelson
Approximately 200 members of the Sydney community attended the event at the Central Synagogue, which also included a conversation between Ayelet and Tom Ken-Dror, whose brother Jonathan and his girlfriend Yael, were murdered while trying to flee the Nova Music Festival, as well as Liam Or, one of the first hostages to be taken over the border into Gaza, where he was held captive for 54 days.
“We are humbled to be the custodians of over $100 million in donations over the last 12 months,” UIA NSW President Gary Perlstein said. “All that support has already been deployed in Israel and is helping tens of thousands of beneficiaries across the country.” Perlstein went on to explain that UIA “only distributes your funds in accordance with the national priorities of the country. We don’t choose what we think here in Australia is worthy; we are directed to fund what are truly the priorities of the day in Israel.”
Steven Lowy AM, outgoing Chairman of Keren Hayesod-UIA World Board of Trustees, received the UIA NSW Louis Klein Award for outstanding leadership on behalf of Israel and the Jewish People. “We have one country and our responsibility here as part of the diaspora, is to be with Israel,” Lowy said. “We have a very tough long haul ahead of us, as the country does. We’re just getting going and the impact of war on the country is just overwhelming.”
The event was both insightful and emotive, leaving guests feeling inspired to carry on the long-term process, which UIA has committed to, of rebuilding and rehabilitating affected communities in Israel.
