Non­fic­tion

Stand-Up Nation: Israeli Resilience in the Wake of Disaster

Avi­va Klompas
July 10, 2023

A detailed and inspir­ing por­trait of Israel’s impact around the world.

Since the hor­rif­ic attacks of Octo­ber 7th, 2023, and through­out the ensu­ing war against Hamas and its Iran­ian spon­sors, one thing has nev­er wavered: the extra­or­di­nary resilience of the Israeli peo­ple.

Forged from more than sev­en­ty-five years of adver­si­ty, the leg­endary deter­mi­na­tion of Israel’s pop­u­la­tion has enabled the nation to sur­vive and even thrive through con­stant tragedy and exter­nal threats.

But Israeli strength is not just about but­tress­ing the Jew­ish state; it is also reflect­ed in the val­ues and pow­er­ful altru­ism that the Israeli peo­ple demon­strate toward oth­ers through­out the world. In this book, you’ll expe­ri­ence the remark­able, inspir­ing, and often unbe­liev­able sto­ries of Israel’s unsung heroes: indi­vid­u­als who are risk­ing their lives to save oth­ers and part­ner­ing with peo­ple around the world to build stronger, health­i­er, and more pros­per­ous soci­eties.

Stand-Up Nation is more than a cel­e­bra­tion of Israel — it’s a blue­print for social entre­pre­neurs ask­ing if one per­son can actu­al­ly make a mean­ing­ful dif­fer­ence and help heal our suf­fer­ing world.

israel
israel-pales­tine
death & mourning

Discussion Questions

Although pri­mar­i­ly writ­ten before Octo­ber 7, 2023, Stand-Up Nation, the newest book by Avi­va Klom­pas, helps read­ers to respond to these trag­ic events in a unique way. As the for­mer Direc­tor of Speech­writ­ing for Israel’s del­e­ga­tion to the Unit­ed Nations and cur­rent CEO of Bound­less Israel, a think-action tank for com­bat­ing anti­semitism, Klom­pas is unique­ly posi­tioned to share how Israel has served as a glob­al part­ner in tack­ling the world’s human­i­tar­i­an crises. It shows how Israel, still very much a start-up nation, has not shied away from its Jew­ish ideals.

Klom­pas offers read­ers eigh­teen vignettes about Israeli orga­ni­za­tions that have served the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty. Through these insti­tu­tion­al biogra­phies, it becomes clear that the prob­lem-solv­ing men­tal­i­ty that fuels Israel nation­al­ly is what ener­gizes Israel to be a ​“light among the nations.” For exam­ple, Oper­a­tion Good Neigh­bor assists refugees of the war in Syr­ia, often pro­vid­ing life-sav­ing treat­ment in Israeli hos­pi­tals. Gabriel Project Mum­bai, found­ed by Jacob Sztok­man, cares for vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren in the rur­al vil­lages and slums of India. Cul­ti­vAid brings the data-dri­ven agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices devel­oped to make the deserts of Israel bloom to East Africa.

As the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to feel sin­gled out for unfair crit­i­cism and bla­tant hatred, Stand-Up Nation pro­vides read­ers an injec­tion of pride in all that Israel has done, and con­tin­ues to do, despite adver­si­ty and isolation.

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