Your chance to quiz New Israel Fund chief

NEW Israel Fund (NIF) CEO Daniel Sokatch (pictured) is set to return to Australia for a speaking tour later this month.

Sokatch will arrive almost a year after NIF president Naomi Chazan formally launched the Australian branch of the group last year. He will speak at three events in Sydney and two in Melbourne.

“Daniel’s visit offers our supporters a wonderful opportunity to hear from the frontline about NIF’s work in Israel, and it is also an opportunity for those who want to know more about NIF,” said NIF Australia president Robin Margo.

His visit comes after a bumpy first 11 months for NIF Australia.

Chazan’s Limmud-Oz appearance in June 2011 was marred by a heated argument over whether the NIF was still funding an organisation that supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

A month later, Zionist Federation of Australia president Philip Chester wrote a column in The AJN, in which he asserted “there are recipients of NIF grants totalling millions of dollars who stand for principles and carry out activities which are at basic odds with the Zionist and Jewish ethos of the State of Israel”.

Then in November, the community was divided over an NIF-sponsored visit by former Ha’aretz editor David Landau, who had previously made the controversial comment that his “idea of a wet dream is the rape of Israel”.

GARETH NARUNSKY

The AJN is inviting readers to submit questions for Daniel Sokatch. This is your opportunity to ask anything you’ve ever wanted to know about the NIF. Send your questions in by 5pm, Wednesday, May 9. The most interesting questions will be put to Daniel Sokatch in a special Q&A feature to be published in The AJN on May 18. Submit questions either on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/australianjewishnews), via Twitter (@aus_jewishnews) or by email (askthenif@jewishnews.net.au).

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