A Wider Bridge

Equality in Israel and equality for Israel guides A Wider Bridge (AWB), an organization working to advance North American LGBTQ understanding, engagement, and support for Israel, so it can better advance social, political, and cultural change. AWB believes Israel should be included and treated with fairness in LGBTQ communities, by local and national institutions, and within the community of nations. To do this, the organization builds personal rather than political relationships with Israel and LGBTQ Israelis, providing leaders, organizations, and communities, both in Israel and North America, with opportunities for engagement, advocacy, and philanthropy. 

In Chicago, AWB engages the local LGBTQ and Jewish communities with programming and training, and brings local Jewish and non-Jewish LGBTQ leaders on its LGBTQ Leadership Missions. These 10-day trips to Israel engage leaders in politics, journalism, and advocacy to experience the country through an LGBTQ lens. More than 200 North American LGBTQ leaders have visited Israel with AWB, including a dozen from Chicago’s Jewish, African American, and Latino communities. AWB has also run more than 20 local programs across the Chicagoland area. Globally, AWB’s digital magazine connects tens of thousands of LGBTQ people with news, community, and the important work of LGBTQ activism in Israel. This year, that outreach helped it to mobilize 200 American Jewish leaders and organizations to sign onto a letter calling for same-sex adoption in Israel. AWB is also working to become a conduit for philanthropic support for LGBTQ nongovernment organizations, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for Israeli LGBTQ NGOs, which support Israeli LGBTQ youth, transgender people, Ethiopians, Arabs, and more. AWB is combating the false choice presented to LGBTQ Jews and allies that they must choose between their Jewish/pro-Israel and LGBTQ identities and has created a bridge to connect the fight for equality that spans the globe.