What is the mission of the Israel Air Force Center?
The Israel Air Force Center, located in Herzliya, Israel, is dedicated to the strength and security of the Jewish Nation, to the health and welfare of Israel Air Force families and to a vital future for the State of Israel.
These ambitious goals are achieved through the IAFC’s integrated mission as a hub for cutting edge air and space strategic research, bereavement programs for widows and orphans and support for the injured and former POW’s. It also trains and educates the IAF’s Air Cadets, the IAF’s next generation, through its new, innovative National Center for Leadership and Character Development.
The IAF Center’s mission is guided by:
• Lessons and achievements of the past to empower Israel’s future.
• A proud legacy of support in defense of the State of Israel.
• Dedication to a framework and a vital support system for veterans.
• Commitment to serve as a bridge, bringing the IAF closer to the general public in Israel.
• Programs and activities that enrich the knowledge of soldiers and maintains their sense of purpose and moral fiber.
What is the Israel Air Force Center Foundation?
The Israel Air Force Center Foundation is dedicated to providing a sustained presence and ongoing support in the United States for the activities of the IAF Center.
The Israel Air Force Center Foundation (IAFCF) is an American nonprofit 501c3 charitable organization incorporated in Connecticut which supports the work and the mission of the Israel Air Force Center Association (IAFCA), a non-profit organization in Herzliya, Israel, working to strengthen the ties between the Israel Air Force, its founders, the Israeli population and the international community and to provide valuable assistance to the greater IAF Family.
What does the Israel Air Force Center do?
The Israel Air Force Center is a central resource for the IAF where personnel and the broader IAF family are provided with key training, professional development, and counseling program and services; and where high school students and others obtain unique and goal directed educational and cultural activities that strengthen the engaging and confident image of the IAF for the general public.
The IAF Center is not a military organization, but works in collaboration with the IAF as an independent non-profit entity governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. It is a construct created by a group of committed IAF veterans who sought to capture the skills, devotion and capabilities of the IAF’s former commanders and officers to provide guidance and “leadership by example” to those in the IAF who came after them.
The Three Pillars of the IAF Center’s integrated mission are:
• The Fisher Brothers Institute For Air & Space Strategic Studies – conducting leading edge research and sponsoring conferences and symposia drawing strategic and military leaders from across the globe;
• Social Services and Bereavement Programs for IAF Widows and Orphans, ensuring a life-long continuity of devotion to the physical and emotional well being of the greater IAF Family;
• The reinforcement of the core Zionist values and the establishment of a venue for education and empowerment of Israel’s next generation of leaders through the National Center for Leadership and Character Development.
Why Does the IAF Center Invest in the Education of Israel’s Youth?
The best and most dependable resource of the State of Israel are its people, its human resources. Through investing in its youth the IAF Center seeks to meet one of Israel’s core challenges – to keep the youth of the country united behind full participation and a comprehensive commitment to the security of the State.
The IAF Center, through the new National Center for Leadership and Character Development, makes a direct impact on Israel’s youth, her leaders of tomorrow. Having initiated Phase I of the NCLCD in cooperation with the IAF’s four Technical High Schools (schools affiliated with the IAF where young men and women ages 14-18 are trained for technical roles in the IAF after graduation) the IAF Center augments the “WHAT” – the intensive science and mathematics training received in the classroom with the “WHY” – the morals and values that set Israel apart making it the “Light Unto the Nations.”
Why the Israel Air Force?
The founders and leaders of the IAF Center were motivated to serve the former, current and future IAF personnel because the IAF:
• Requires the longest period of service in the entire IDF
• Demands the longest period of annual reserve duty of its pilots and some of the engineering professions, they do 90 days/year vs. 40 days for other IDF branches
• Is the largest force within the IDF
• Asks its personnel and their families to make an additional sacrifice – live on the base away from extended community, family and friends.
Why Support the IAF Center Foundation?
Because without it the IAF Family would be less well served and the future of the State of Israel and its Prime Ministers, Commanders and Officers of tomorrow would squander its potential for greatness and unrivaled achievement.
