Please support us even with a small amount, share this announcement with your network, and encourage others to support us.
As some of you know, I started an online forum called Unity is Strength three and a half years ago, which I run. The forum has expanded from its original page into a network of online communities across several online platforms. It has become one of the Internet’s largest and most vital communities dedicated to discussing Israel-Palestine topics. Unity is Strength is also a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit project of the Social Good Fund, as well as a United Religions Initiative (URI) Cooperation Circle. Its mission is to promote a cooperative dynamic between Israelis, Palestinians, and the foreign supporters of one or both groups. Toward that end, our forums are open to discussions of many types of solutions, including two-state, confederation, federation, and one-state.
The content of our original online page, a Space on Quora.com, has received over 6 million views in the 3 1/2 years since it was created. We were the first Quora Space to be awarded external grant funding, and are a graduate of the GreaterSum Foundation Winter 2021 nonprofit virtual incubator. Other community accomplishments include a #1 "Top Op" in Times of Israel, as well as articles in Jewish Journal and New Mexico Jewish Link. Publicity to date includes being featured on Optimum Channel 77 and Cablevision 22 in Eastern New Jersey, as well as the How Cool is This? Podcast.
As the Israel-Palestine discussions on our main forum host Quora.com became more hostile, we launched a cross-factional effort of Quora writers to work with the conflict transformation nonprofit Challenge/אתגר/تحدي. Our goal is to develop scalable interventions that would depolarize the site. On the Israeli side, core members of this effort include a former Israeli Head of Station of multiple Southeast Asian countries, who retired from his position in the Israeli Prime Minister’s office but is still well connected to members of the Israeli government. On the Palestinian side, core members of this effort include Palestinian and Lebanese founder-CEOs of near-unicorn-level Australian startups, who met and connected with one another through our community. We are currently in contact with academic research groups, who would collaborate with our in-house research and technical team to quantitatively measure the effects of these interventions.
Unity is Strength is still an almost entirely volunteer effort. It does not cover a U.S. salary. Both my husband and I are currently out of work, with an infant to care for. Earlier this year, my husband was laid off from his job. A couple of months later, just three weeks before the birth of our child, his kidneys failed and he needed to go on dialysis. Dialysis has meant extreme fatigue and severe activity restrictions, which interfere with his ability to raise our child and support the family. We have a preliminary kidney donor, and we are waiting for this person to be able to exchange their kidney with one that would match my husband’s. This could take some time. In the meantime, we are largely paying for our family’s U.S. health insurance out of pocket and draining our savings.
With your support, I can focus on Unity is Strength and help make the world a better place for your children and mine. A contribution as small as USD $5 monthly will make a difference in my ability to work on the research and mediation efforts, and we will thank you on the forum. For USD $25 monthly, I will send you a personal thank you and offer you an opportunity to continue the discussion. For USD $100 monthly, the team can dedicate a few hours per month to a collaboration with you relevant to the community’s mission. For USD $250, $500, $1000, and larger amounts monthly, the team can dedicate a correspondingly larger effort to such a collaboration. The collaboration with our first $100 level donor, Roger Eaton of Voices of Humanity, grew into the research effort, and the collaboration with our first $250 level donor led to a co-authored publication with him in Jewish Journal and grew into the mediation effort. In addition to projects that relate to Israel-Palestine directly, we also have projects developing that relate to other Middle Eastern, North African, and Western social justice issues.
Donations can be made on this page. Matching donations must be addressed to Social Good Fund, with a note or other indicator that they will go to project Unity is Strength. Please email me at rebecca.sealfon@gmail.com if your donation is being matched, so I can notify Social Good Fund.
Thank you so much for your support. Please contact me at rebecca.sealfon@gmail.com for more information.
All the best,
Rebecca Sealfon
