5 Annual Report 2022 | The 20th Anniversary of the OR Movement Bravo, and onward! Congratulations from the depths of my heart on 20 years of action by the OR Movement, which from the day it was founded has lived up to its name, spreading a bright light and benefiting Israeli society. Having for years been acquainted with your work, I look with wonder and great appreciation at your dedication, your perseverance, and your ability to translate a great vision into action. This is no small feat. Your work is not merely notional or theoretical, though it is anchored in an ideological matrix intimately tied to the best of Zionism, love of the land, the people, and its state, and great faith in the connection between them and the promise of their future. Your work translates into energetic action in the field that already has produced many beautiful fruits in the form of pioneering groups and communities that fortify the Negev and Galilee regions and deepen Israel’s roots within them, guided by the spirit of the words of the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook that the Land of Israel is an intrinsic whole bound to the nation with bonds of life. You have acted and continue to act tirelessly to community members of impact groups in all parts of the land, primarily in the expanses of the Negev and the Galilee, in existing communities and in new ones. I would further offer my encouragement for your commendable work in connection with your foresighted vision for Israel’s centennial year of 2048, including the Equitable Cities initiative, which already has been set in motion in four central cities with the goal of strengthening the cities of the north and south in various respects, and which is to my mind invaluable. This vision gives fine expression to the long-ranged gaze that you have embraced and that you toil to share with broader society, as well as great faith that the positive change of growing and fortifying the Negev and Galilee is not only necessary, but also possible. I share your perspective as to the necessity of strengthening these regions, and I believe and hope that connecting them to the Israeli heartland—through modern means of transport, and together with broadening and deepening residential and professional opportunities, combined with development of excellent services in the fields of healthcare, education, welfare, and the environment—can turn Israel, all regions included, into an even more robust, diverse, and prosperous state than it is today. “The people walking in darkness have beheld a great light,” said the prophet Isaiah. “Upon those abiding in the land of the shadow of death has light shone.” The great light that you of the OR Movement spread in actual practice, not merely through words and ideas—though their articulation has worth of its own—but through innumerable actions, brings positive change to the reality on the ground. You are highly privileged to be among those seizing the reins in populating and developing Israel on the eve of the fourth quarter-century of its birth, and thus to securely lead Zionist action in our time to wonderful places. I hope for your continued success, I thank you in the name of a great many—indeed, in the name of the State of Israel—for your years of glorious work, and I wish you many more years no less fertile and successful. Yours sincerely, Isaac Herzog The President of Israel Dear Leaders and Members of the OR Movement, נשיא המדינה رئيس الدولة THE PRESIDENT Jerusalem January 31, 2023 My Honored Friends,
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