Sitting behind a large desk covered with papers and business machines of all types, Shawn Evenhaim couldn’t look more at ease. “I love Israel,” the 43-year-old president of California Home Builders said, sounding every bit the Israel Defense Forces officer he once was. “It’s not as if I left Israel because it was a bad place for me. I came here to succeed.”
Succeed he did. “I’m just a very quick learner and hard worker,” Evenhaim said, describing his career trajectory. Twenty years ago, when he was still a relatively recent arrival to the United States, Evenhaim worked for an in-fill development company. He entered as a purchasing agent – his job was to negotiate and award contracts – and within a year was promoted to the position of company president. He left the company to found
California Home Builders two years later.
Evenhaim’s gaze does not wander as he speaks, and it’s easy to see how this son of Be’er Sheva, who now lives in Calabasas, is a good negotiator. But get Evenhaim started talking about the challenges facing the Israeli community of the West Valley, and something changes. It’s not his voice, that does not modulate in the least, but the words, which start flowing more quickly, even urgently.
“You know, there’s this old joke,” Evenhaim said. It’s about two Israelis living in the United States, and he uses it to illustrate why, until 2007, there was no strong Israeli community in Los Angeles:
“I’m going to go back to Israel.”
“When?”
“When the kids are finished with college.”
“Well, how old are the kids?”
“They’re 2 years old.”
“That’s the mindset of Israelis, typically,” Evenhaim said, and he believes this to be unique to the Israeli Diaspora. “You think about others – for example, the Persian community – they are not thinking about going back to Iran.”
The lack of an organized community wasn’t just due to the Israelis’ unsettledness, though. “It’s changing,” Evenhaim said, “and I don’t want this to sound bad, but there was never an organization here that managed to
connect the Israelis and the American Jews in Los Angeles in an effective way.”
The situation began to change in 2006, during the second Lebanon War, when The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Consulate General of Israel in Los Angeles organized a rally on Wilshire Boulevard in support of Israel. “The governor was there; the mayor was there – just a lot of people,” Evenhaim recalled. “And hardly any Israelis showed up.”
To the consul general at the time, Ehud Danoch, this was unacceptable. He called a meeting with Evenhaim and other leaders of the community, and in 2007 that group founded the Israeli Leadership Council (ILC), an organization whose express purpose is “to connect the next generations of Israelis to Israel [and] Judaism, and to connect Israelis to American Jews.”
Evenhaim is a member of the ILC’s board. Over the past three years, he proudly reports, the organization has worked to mobilize the Israeli community to act on behalf of Israel in America – by supporting groups such as the educational organization StandWithUs – and to fund groups that cater to Israelis here – like Tzofim L.A., the local branch of the Israeli scouts.
The ILC has also brought the Israeli community into closer communication with The Federation than ever before. “When I first got here,” Evenhaim recalled, “after a few years, I got involved in The Federation. I attended events, and I was always one of the few Israelis. I mean, you [might] have 1,000 people [at a Federation event], and you could count the Israelis on two hands.”
Now, there is an “excellent relationship between the ILC and Federation,” he said, adding that the two organizations have collaborated on various projects. “When all the missiles were landing on Sderot, the ILC raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and did a project together with The Federation that built safe classrooms – smart classrooms in Sderot – so kids, while there are missile attacks, they could stay in school and get the
education they need.”
Speaking of education reminds Evenhaim that the founders of the ILC had one other concern: “The fear was, if an Israeli came here 20 years ago, what happened with his kids? Do his kids understand? Are they as committed? Are they as connected?”
It is an issue of importance in his own family, as well. Evenhaim and his wife, Dorit – they were high school sweethearts – send their three sons to Kadima Day School in West Hills. He was the president of the school for a time, and the campus bears his family’s name in recognition of the substantial donation they made to help the school buy its new building. Although, as a parent, Evenhaim is satisfied with his children’s growing love for and understanding of Israel, as a community leader he still struggles with how Jewish schools can do more.
“How can we make Jewish education more affordable? Every child should be able to get a Jewish education. And we are not there; we are not committed enough,” Evenhaim said.
“You take a city like Los Angeles – that only 10,000 kids receive a Jewish day-school education – to me, it’s outrageous. To me, it’s just not right.”
“When I first got here,after a few years, I gotinvolved in The Federation.I attended events, and I wasalways one of the few Israelis. I mean, you [might] have 1,000 people [at a Federation event],and you could count the Israelis on two hands.”
(COMEDY)