Shalom dear Friends,

You are cordially invited to share in launching our new website celebrating the HAIFA FOUNDATION'S 25th anniversary.  Many projects have been carried out by the Haifa Foundation for the benefit of Haifa's residents throughout those years and new and exciting projects are added each year.

Haifa is my hometown, a city where I was born and raised and which is very dear to me.  In having personally welcomed many of you to Haifa, and been warmly received abroad as The City's ambassador, I have been deeply moved to discover so many individuals from around the world who share my  profound respect and love for Haifa's tolerant people and beautiful landscapes and seascapes.

Those of you who have lived or visited here know first-hand of Haifa's active commitment to Arab-Jewish coexistence, neighborliness and harmony. Our way of life offers a model to Israel and the Middle East of how people of all faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds – native and immigrant, religious and secular – can live together, each according dignity and respect to the other. In this sane context, Haifa thrives.

The City owes its most significant achievements of the past quarter century to the joint partnership between the HAIFA FOUNDATION and HAIFA'S FRIENDS. The caring and generosity of HAIFA'S FRIENDS enable us to assist hundreds of Haifa's neediest children, unemployed and elderly as well as provide value-added educational and cultural opportunities to Haifa's residents; and enhance The City's outdoor quality of life by means of playgrounds, flower-filled parks and gardens, and the like.

The Haifa paradigm for charitable giving unites the original meaning of philanthropy – love of mankind – with contemporary social-venture investment principles. HAIFA'S FRIENDS don't just give money and walk away. You identify with our city and its goals and, in return, expect from us a broad  range of designated, donor-answerable projects with clearly enunciated aims. 

In closing, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our new website, where you are invited to take pride in major civic accomplishments made possible through the joint efforts of the HAIFA FOUNDATION and HAIFA'S FRIENDS and to explore our current proposals for developing the City on behalf of its people.

Warmest regards,

Yona Yahav

Mayor of Haifa

Chairman of the Haifa Foundation