Summary of Meetings Following the State of the Nation Report 2021

As in previous years, the State of the Nation Report—one of the leading publications of the Taub Center—was published in June, 2021. The year was one of crises and challenges affecting all aspects of life. The report paints a broad picture of how Israel’s economy, labor market, social welfare, and healthcare and education systems have dealt with the Corona crisis and the initial stages of recovery.

Following the release of the report, several meetings were held with various government representatives, including MKs, ministers, and senior officials from government offices and embassies. The meetings initiated in-depth discussions of questions raised by the report and many participants were interested in receiving future publications and holding further meetings. Following these more general meetings, came additional meetings with several officials on topics relevant to their work.

The following are a selection of the reactions from senior officials who participated in the meetings:

• MK Yair Golan: “You are doing highly important work; this is material that I need in order to do my job.”
• MK Naama Lazimi: “I would be happy to meet again in the future because there will be a lot of interaction within the Finance Committee that is relevant to you. I am grateful for information from bodies like the Taub Center and other community organizations. We are supported by this data and it prepares us for discussions with the Ministry of Finance and makes our work more professional. You are an asset for us and we will be happy to benefit from your assistance in the future.”
• MK Alon Schuster, Deputy Minister of Defense: “Thank you very much. We would be happy to receive your publications in the future.”
• Franziska Koch – Economic Attaché at the German embassy: “The briefing, particularly the background on high tech in Israel, was very helpful. It answered a lot of questions I had and helps me better understand what I see on the news. This was very useful.”