By ALIZA LIBMAN The Canadian Jewish News, December 5, 2002, 30 Kislev, 5763 This was one of the first questions asked of the 35 participants of the recent General Assembly's "Do the Write Thing" program for student journalists. The annual conference was held this year in Philadelphia. Do the Write Thing was organized by Hagshama, the University Students' Division of the World Zionist Organization. Many of the 400 students attending the conference as representatives of their campus Hillels gave similar answers. The upcoming war with Iraq, skyrocketing tuition fees, environmental concerns and campus corporate sponsorship seem to be on North American students' minds this year, they said. So where does Israel fit in? Jeremy Greenberg, a fifth-year political science student at York University, doesn't think it does. "I'd say most non-Jews don't care [about Israel]," Greenberg said. "If pressed for reaction, they're sickened by all the death and the killing and the murder over thereŠ they don't want to hear about it any more. "At York, the majority of Jews
are similar to non-Jews in their reaction, but if
pressed, they would tell you that they are in support of
Israel." Nevertheless, a primary focus of the General Assembly was Israel advocacy. At a press conference, famed Soviet refusenik and Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky said, "One of the most important battlefields is what's happening on the college campus today." The student participants were called to fight campus ignorance and apathy by not merely perpetuating Jewish-Arab polemic, but by finding new ways to convince students that Israel is a country they should naturally support. Danielle Ames, a native of Vancouver who goes to McGill University, was one of more than 30 Montreal students who attended. "Nowadays, people, especially on campus, are extremely liberal," she said. "If we really want to reach out to these liberals on campus, We need to focus on things that are universally held ideals," she said, citing democracy, women's rights and the freedom of the individual, values that Israel is based on. Gideon Meir, the deputy director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added, "We have to send to the world constantly the message that we are a democracy." But representatives of Hillel, the organization that operates Jewish student clubs on campuses across North America, argued that the best way to fight for Israel is to focus on cultural programs rather than political ones, saying cultural events are more popular. "We're doing a lot of work putting together Israeli film festivals and Israeli fairs and we're encouraging students to not focus on the conflict," said Howard Wolke, communications associate for Hillel. "If all you do is focus on the conflict, then once the conflict is over, students won't have a connection to Israel anymore." Gil Troy, professor of American history at McGill University, believes that university students need to "think of more creative ways to re-engage with Jewish peoplehood and with the State of Israel." Troy encouraged the students to reinvent Zionism, which, he told them, was originally a "revolt of the young." Second-year Concordia University student Naomi Sarna also believes that to convince non-Jews to support Israel, we must first convince other Jews. "One of the most important things is to unify the Jews on campus," Sarna said. "You plan parties, you set up tables talking about Jewish holidaysŠ this way, Jews start meeting other Jews and then you have everyone together and you have a list of people that you know can come out to rallies... people you've made personal contact with." Whatever the strategy, it is clear that students must work with the existing David versus Goliath stereotype of Israel. Not to worry, said Ido Aharoni, head of Media Affairs for the Israeli Consulate in New York. "Goliath doesn't have to be a bad guy." Aliza Libman is a Jewish education student at York University who serves as media relations co-ordinator for York's Jewish Student Federation Israel Affairs committee. |
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