Israel Excellence Week 2026

In 2022, the foundation established “Israel Excellence Week.” The goal was to create a series of public events surrounding Israel’s Independence Day during which the nation would highlight and celebrate its value of excellence. As a philanthropic foundation dedicated to cultivating Israel’s next generation of excellence, we believed it was our role to help spark a broad public movement around Israel’s excellence.

Around Independence Day that year, 130 institutions and organizations that embody excellence joined us in a nationwide celebration and opened their doors to the public. These included universities, high-tech companies, hospitals, youth movements, and many others, from Kiryat Shmona in the north to Eilat in the south, representing all communities and social sectors. A television campaign on Channel 12 supported the initiative through special broadcasts and interviews.

In 2023, we approached a nonprofit organization called The Israeli Spirit and invited them to take over the operation of Excellence Week, including raising funds and securing sponsorships to ensure continuity. The organization delivered another round of Excellence Week; however, upon the outbreak of the war, it decided to discontinue the initiative and therefore we cancelled the balance of the multiyear grant.

Now however, as the war has ended, we propose returning to this initiative. We suggest that we take it upon ourselves to conduct a new round of Israel Excellence Week, to take place around the coming Independence Day. We believe that renewed public attention and positive national energy around the value of excellence will strongly support Israel’s recovery efforts and reinforce the foundation’s work to rebuild the next generation of excellence.

The intention is to launch a comprehensive media campaign, across television, radio, print, billboards, and social media, that will begin several days before Independence Day. Through broad public exposure, Israelis will learn about Excellence Week, and the events planned within it. The public will be invited to register and participate in events that will begin immediately after Independence Day and continue for several days.

To create a wide network of events, we plan to approach major institutions with large national footprints and extensive community networks, for example, Magen David Adom, major banks, the Society for Community Centers, and philanthropic foundations such as the Next Generation Fund (established by Wix, Fiverr, ironSource, and Monday), the Lyra Foundation (recently created by the Adelson Family), the Homeward Foundation (of Izhar Armony), and the Azrieli Family Foundation.

Each of these organizations will serve as an anchor partner, deploying activities across its branches, recruiting additional organizations, hosting regional events, and contributing resources of its own. In addition, the foundation will invite excellence-oriented organizations with whom we work closely, such as the Weizmann Institute, the Technion, Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael, the Olympic Committee, and many others, to open their doors and host public events during Excellence Week.

Our aspiration is for Excellence Week to join the collective efforts of the many individuals and institutions working now for healing, rebuilding, shared action, and unity, helping Israel emerge from a difficult period and rebuild its exceptional capabilities to meet the challenges and opportunities of the coming decade.

* The text above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors / Grant 650