{"id":240951,"date":"2026-08-08T14:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/240951\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:41:11","slug":"meet-the-israel-immigrant-exposing-the-dark-underbelly-of-human-rights-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/240951\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Israel immigrant exposing the dark underbelly of human rights groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State of Israel rescued Olga Deutsch twice in her first two decades of life. It seems only fitting that Deutsch, in turn, has spent the last decade helping to rescue the State of Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deutsch is vice president of NGO Monitor<\/a>, founded in 2002 by Prof. Gerald Steinberg in response to the increasingly weaponized political influence of foreign human rights groups antagonistic to Israel. In January, she will succeed Steinberg as president and CEO, following his retirement.<\/p>\n

Many of the NGOs whose funding sources and anti-Israel activities get exposed by NGO Monitor are based in Europe, where Deutsch lived and worked since her birth in 1979. She was raised in Belgrade, in what was then Yugoslavia and is now Serbia.<\/p>\n

In 1992, the Yugoslavian republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence, sparking a long, bloody regional war. Deutsch was among many Jewish children evacuated from Yugoslavia to Israel by the Jewish Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents asked me if I wanted to go, and I said yes \u2013 though I\u2019d never been there before,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI didn\u2019t speak the language and didn\u2019t have relatives here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OlgaOlga Deutsch. (credit: Courtesy Olga Deutsch)Aliyah after evacuating from Serbia during bombing<\/p>\n

She was placed for a year at a WIZO agricultural boarding school in Rishon Lezion. \u201cI was a city girl who played piano. But from the moment I stepped foot there, I loved the energy, the people, and even the school\u2019s cows and chickens. According to my parents, I wanted to stay. But I was only 13, and I had to go back. Since then, my goal was to move to Israel,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1999, when NATO bombed Kosovo and Serbia, I was part of a big group from Serbia that was evacuated, and a lot of us ended up making aliyah. I spent a year here as a new immigrant, living in Jerusalem and working in the Jewish Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut because I was still in the middle of my studies in Serbia, I decided to go back and finish. And then my career took me elsewhere. But I always knew I was coming back to Israel. Sixteen years ago, it came full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

In those intervening years, Deutsch earned degrees from the University of Belgrade and the University of Munich in banking, insurance, and finance, and did a six-month fellowship at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University in New York.<\/p>\n

From 2003 to 2006, she worked at a consulting company in Germany until her involvement in Jewish communal work led her to her next job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had created the Serbian Union of Jewish Students after my year in Israel. In 2006, when the opportunity emerged to become chairwoman of the European Union of Jewish Students, an umbrella organization of 34 national student bodies, I moved from Germany to Brussels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis job was the winning combination that allowed me to work at something I truly believed in, and to build on my business skills. I think a lot of pro-Israel organizations and charities could do a much better job if they had an actual businessperson running their operations. After completing my two-year term there, I decided to move back to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

By that time, she\u2019d accumulated valuable expertise in international politics and Europe-Israel relations, and was fluent in English, Hebrew, and German. She also understands Russian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed and learned so much everywhere I lived. All that experience of being a new immigrant made the absorption in Israel softer and easier. It\u2019s not an easy country, and the better equipped you come with skills and education and experience, the better the chances you will succeed here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, she married Menachem Deutsch. She notes that his surname means \u201cGerman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joke is that my maiden name is Israel, so I was Olga Israel when I lived in Germany. And then I moved to Israel and became Olga Deutsch,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

During her first seven years in Israel, she worked in hi-tech and international sales. \u201cBut I was missing that sense of meaning and purpose in my work,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a while to articulate what was missing, but eventually it became clear that I really wanted to put my skills into what I hold dearest, and that is the fact that we have a Jewish state and there is still a need to defend it and fight for its legitimacy,\u201d she notes. \u201cThat was how, 10 and a half years ago, I came to meet Gerald Steinberg at NGO Monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was hired as head of the watchdog organization\u2019s Europe department, and seven years ago was promoted to vice president. She has written and spoken extensively about the dark underbelly of human rights organizations uncovered by NGO Monitor\u2019s 18 researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work can be very depressing because the types of things we monitor are the worst examples of terror affiliation, antisemitism, anti-Israel bias, discrimination, and incitement \u2013 all disguised as defending human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think we are in a battle where one side will lose or win in a knockout boxing match. Antisemitism is always going to be there. It is only going to change its manifestations. We are in a game of exhaustion and permanent survival,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

‘In my opinion, we already have won because we have a state’<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, we already have won because we have a state. But we have to keep fighting an ongoing battle to make sure that the big win that happened on the day we declared our independence does not fade away,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI celebrate incremental successes because I understand \u2013 and this is something that I try to instill within our entire team \u2013 that you don\u2019t build a building overnight. You build it brick by brick, and you have to start with incremental successes that set a precedent and tell a broader story. That\u2019s what NGO Monitor, and a lot of our partner organizations in the same field, are fighting for day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

NGO Monitor’s research has convinced multiple countries to slash governmental funding to NGOs revealed as terror-affiliated or that glorified terror, promoted BDS and anti-Israel agendas, or promoted antisemitic narratives. The amount of taxpayer money saved adds up to more than $200 million, Deutsch says.<\/p>\n

The organization\u2019s research had a significant impact on the US State Department\u2019s imposition of sanctions against five Palestinian NGOs affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine for their lawfare against Israel, especially at the International Criminal Court in the Hague; and the European Union\u2019s post-Oct. 7 decision to add an anti-incitement clause in contracts with Palestinian NGOs alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were among the first to issue reports on these NGOs and flag them for their activities, and we shared the reports with officials around the world,\u201d says Deutsch.<\/p>\n

She emphasizes that all NGO Monitor research is available online as open-source information that can be verified independently. \u201cIn today\u2019s discourse, people need a qualified place to vet the news. You can read The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post and get diametrically opposite reporting over the same issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the infamous Times op-ed by Nicholas Kristof accusing Israel of sexually abusing Palestinian prisoners, NGO Monitor \u201cdebunked and provided information on the organizations that he based these horrific claims on. We have reports on our website on each of these groups. Euromed, one of the main ones, is a known Hamas front in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Hamas-led massacres in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, she continues, \u201ca lot of people felt powerless and helpless, but all of us at NGO Monitor felt we were on the frontline of the battlefield, that this was our moment. We received hundreds of phone calls and emails from elected officials around the world asking us for exactly the type of information that we uniquely provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a privilege and a tremendous responsibility to be soldiers on the political warfare front \u2013 in social media, in media, in international courts, on campuses, and in the business arena. I feel empowered by what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deutch lives in Petah Tikva with her husband and their \u201ctwo beautiful, mischievous boys.\u201d David just turned 13, and Aaron is nine. \u201cMy dream was not only to make aliyah; my dream was to raise sabras. For my kids to be born here, I think that is my biggest achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balancing career and motherhood has been challenging in a job that demands frequent travel and a lot of after-work hours appearing at conferences, panels, and events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easier now that they\u2019re older. When they were younger, there were times when I would take the boys with me. My younger son was a month and a half when I took him with me to testify before a Knesset committee. And they didn\u2019t necessarily know what to do with a stroller in the Knesset<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

What aspect of Israel does she appreciate most? For Deutsch, it\u2019s a simple answer: the people. \u201cIsraelis are the warmest people that you will find anywhere. The way Israelis marry the North American entrepreneurial spirit and drive for success with Middle Eastern chaos and laissez-faire is something unique. I come from the Balkans, where people love to party and love life. But it\u2019s not coupled with this entrepreneurial spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Israel \u201cis incredibly intense,\u201d she continues, \u201cthere\u2019s no place like Israel. Even on the toughest days \u2013 and we have had so many in nearly three years \u2013 I have never, not once, had a moment where I questioned whether I should be here. There\u2019s no other place. This is home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State of Israel rescued Olga Deutsch twice in her first two decades of life. It seems only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[1216,37,1189,503,9603,37977,17640,3186],"class_list":["post-240951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-belgium","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-magazine","tag-ngo","tag-ngo-monitor","tag-petah-tikva","tag-serbia"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117060415402174683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}