Israeli activist wins international acclaim
Time Magazine names Israeli social entrepreneur Adi Altschuler as ‘Next Generation Leader’, hails her for leading by example.
Adi Altschuler, who, as a teenager, established the Krembo Wings youth movement for special-needs children, has won appreciation for her social entrepreneurship on several occasions in recent years – from her selection to light one of the Independence Day torches, and through to a series of awards for her and the movement.
Recognition of her efforts has now gone global, with prestigious US magazine Time selecting Altschuler as one of six young individuals from around the world named "Next Generation Leaders."
In a special feature that appeared in the latest edition of Time, the magazine's editorial staff selected extraordinary young people from among hundreds of thousands of social activists around the world. Altschuler, 27, from Tel Aviv, stars in the magazine alongside entrepreneurs from China, Tunisia, India, Britain and Nigeria.
Altschuler, a social entrepreneur and activist, has been at the forefront of two prominent initiatives in recent years – Krembo Wings, which she set up at the age of 16, and Memories@Home, a project in which young people invite survivors into their homes on Holocaust Remembrance Day and hold discussions on the significance of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, as an alternative to the traditional memorial ceremonies that take place on the day. Both initiatives have become nationwide phenomena and paved the way for the recognition she received from Time.
"It's very exciting, and I was pretty surprised," Altschuler told Yedioth Ahronoth. "I didn't expect to be chosen for such a prestigious list. I received the notification on April 1, and I was sure I was being tricked. It was only when I received an official email that I realized that my uncle from America wasn't playing a joke on me."
As a young girl, Altschuler joined LEAD, a non-profit youth leadership organization; and at 12, she volunteered to work at ILAN – the Israeli Foundation for Handicapped Children, where she met and befriended Kfir Kobi, a 3-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. Four years later, she set up Krembo Wings, which started out with eight branches and now includes more than 30 throughout the country.
"I actively managed the movement up until four years ago, and then I became president of the management committee," Altschuler said. "On the very same day the Time magazine article appeared, I resigned from that position and passed it on to someone else. I've come full circle in a way. I have lots of love and room in my heart for the movement."
Altschuler's second initiative, Memories@Home, began four years ago in her own living room; there were 800 such meetings in Israel and other countries on Holocaust Remembrance Day this year.
Some two and half years ago, Altschuler joined Google, and she serves today as the Israel manager of Google for Education – a Google department, she says, that trains Israeli teachers in new ways of teaching and integrating technology in the classroom.
"Social change can only be made with other people," Altschuler stresses. "I am constantly working with a great many talented individuals, without whom not a single idea could be put into practice."
And what's next on her agenda? Well, she has turned down offers from various parties in recent years to enter the political arena. "I think that one can make a difference outside of politics too," she says. "It didn’t suit me in the last election campaign, but I don't rule it out in the future. Never say never."
