StandWithUs Southeast Executive Director Sara Gold Rafel Is a Force for Growth & Change

Sara Gold Rafel’s grandfather was 16 in 1904 when he fled Romania to escape the war-torn continent. Through struggle and perseverance, he made it to America and found success, though he never failed to realize the importance of Israel to all diaspora Jews like himself.

“My grandfather always believed the Jewish people needed to have their homeland, Israel,” Rafel said. “My family gave me Jewish pride and I wanted to give that to my children and grandchildren.”

When Rafel was 16, she completed an exchange student program at the Université de Genève. While studying French, she also learned to bake french pastries. In an effort to pay for a car, she started selling these delicacies.

It was her first entrepreneurial endeavor, and it turned out, her first philanthropic one. Her grandmother, who was a chapter president of Hadassah and very involved in charitable efforts, asked if Rafel would donate her significant earnings to young Israeli girls for prom dresses. While it was a difficult decision, she decided to help, and her grandmother hand-delivered the funds to the girls in Israel.

These simple beginnings, from her grandfather to her own, set the stage for a lifetime of hard work, entrepreneurialism, activism, and philanthropy, finally leading her to what she lovingly refers to as her “give back” career as the executive director of StandWithUs Southeast.

It’s been quite the journey.

While studying political science at George Washington University, she became politically engaged. She interned for a congressman and realized the power of having a voice in government. She later got her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and lectured at NYU’s business school about intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship for women.

Rafel’s career led her to break several glass ceilings as both a Jewish advocate and a woman. She was one of the first women to sell ads at a notable publishing company where she later founded two successful magazines, and she worked as a merger-and-acquisitions investment banker, a traditionally male-dominated field. She was a leader with AIPAC, and also made concentrated efforts to help Jews leave the former Soviet Union and resettle in the U.S.

“I’m a business builder,” she said. “I believe in transformative change, and I’m always working toward building up people and places, encouraging growth, and helping those who need it.”

Rafel has traveled extensively. Six months before the Six-Day War in 1966, she went with her family on a Hadassah Hanukkah Mission to Israel, which she credits as the beginning of her love for the land. Since then, she has visited Israel numerous times, for personal reasons and philanthropic work, as well as other places around the world.

Rafel cited Frida Kahlo and Golda Meir as her inspirations, two strong, influential women who stood for what they believed in. She even co-produced Golda’s Balcony in 2003, an award-winning one-woman Broadway play about Meir starring Tovah Feldshuh.

All of these experiences and more have made Rafel a fighter, someone who stands up for what she believes in, including fighting ignorance with intelligence and falsehoods with facts.

“It would be hard for me to not do something if I see that I can do something to help,” she said. “You fight hate and ignorance by standing up. You combat falsehoods with the truth.”

So when Roz Rothstein, the chief executive officer and founder of StandWithUs, asked Rafel to put her decades of experience, knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit toward building up the Southeast arm of the organization, what else could Rafel say but “Yes!”

That was nine years ago and she hasn’t looked back since.

StandWithUs, an international, non-partisan education organization, inspires people of all ages about Israel, challenges misinformation and fights against antisemitism.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and offices throughout the United States and the world. Rafel, who calls Boca Raton home, advances StandWithUs’ mission in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

StandWithUs empowers people around the world to educate others through social media, print and digital materials in different languages, through educational programs and conferences, weekly newsletters, data and analytics and missions to Israel. It takes legal action through its Saidoff Legal Department.

“They realized that a key to winning the war for hearts and minds is education, and especially through our young people.” Rafel explains. “That’s what we teach students in our campus and high school programs.”

Antisemitism has risen dramatically worldwide after Hamas’ merciless attack on Oct. 7, 2023, where they murdered 1,200 Israeli civilians and took 250 hostages into Gaza. More than a year and a half later, at least 50 still remain in captivity.

“The children we help are my legacy,” Rafel said. “My daughter and grandson and every other Jewish person out there fighting antisemitism are my legacy. We must persevere in this fight. We cannot afford to lose.”

Rafel, who has cultivated a life-long love and connection with Israel, is no stranger to antisemitism, anti-Israel bias and prejudice. She is all too familiar with the struggles of students, who are dealing with relentless antisemitic incidents on campuses and high schools, on social media and in the classrooms, often with administrations looking the other way, while community members experience verbal and physical attacks and property defacements.

Rafel recently saw an outpouring of community support and hope after hosting a landmark event, “Echoes of October 7th,” in which emerging Israeli artists showcased their work and students spoke about their challenges and triumphs. She said that part of the event was an effort to show positivity and hope, even in the darkest of times.

“These are our future leaders and I am so proud of them,” Rafel said, “You have to look at yourself in the mirror every day and ask yourself ‘What can I do to make this a better world for the next generation?’ The people I work with and the students we mentor do this every moment of every day.”

For more information, visit standwithus.com.

Contact the StandWithUs Southeast office: swuse@standwithus.com and 561-961-0752.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.