Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh ba-Zeh Heroes: Robert and myra Kraft program for Ethiopian immigrants. One of their projects is the Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem. Built in 2000, it is host to a thirtythree-team flag football league as well as to other sporting events.
Meet Bob Kraft Robert Kraft was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on June 5, 1941. He is the son of an Orthodox Jew who wanted him to be a rabbi. Instead he went to Harvard Business School. He married Myra Hiatt, whose father ran RandWhitney, a packaging company. Kraft joined the company and bought it in 1972. The same year he started International Forest Products. He owns mills and he manufactures and distributes paper and packaging products in eighty countries. In 1994 Kraft bought the New England Patriots. They won the Super Bowl in 2002, 2004 and 2005.
Visiting Israel The Krafts love to bring groups of people with them to Israel to showcase what they see as the positive aspects of the country. In recent years he has brought Patriots players. Kraft speaks out for Israel: “It is hard for people in America who have never been there, even people who are Jewish, but especially non-Jews, to understand what Israel is about. The way it’s represented in the media is sometimes so far from what the truth is. It is such a rich place in terms of history. It’s the cradle of all the western religions. So much history has happened.”
Ahavat Yisrael
American Football in Israel
Kraft has a longstanding love of Israel and its people. Kraft addressed the 2005 graduating class of Columbia College regarding the driving forces in his life: “Family, faith, philanthropy, and football.” Mr. Kraft termed this combination the “Four Fs.”
Israel is a soccer country. When it is not soccer, it is basketball. Still Kraft is funding and creating an American-style football league there. Kraft said, “I just love the sport of football, because it requires intelligence and people pulling together. For me, it is the highest form of competition, which is what makes people great.” He also said, “The teamwork in football was a perfect fit for Israel, where we have people from all over the world working together: Russians and Ethiopians, Arabs and Christians.”
Robert and Myra have donated tens of millions of dollars to a variety of causes, including education, children’s and women’s issues, health care, youth sports and Israel. Among the many institutions the Krafts have supported are Columbia University, Harvard Business School, The College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Tufts University, the Belmont Hill School, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Robert and Myra Kraft live tzedakah, tikkun olam, and Kol Yisrael aravim zeh ba-zeh. They take care of the world, take care of the Jewish people and take care of Israel.
Robert and Myra have donated millions of dollars to all sorts of Israeli charities, including Hadassah Hospital. They helped renovate an after-school 37
