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August 2, 2002/Av 24 5762, Vol. 54, No. 46
Program may combat anti-Israel propaganda
GARY ROSENBLATT
The New York Jewish Week
With Jewish college students overwhelmed and underarmed at times in combating an aggressive anti-Israel political assault on campus, it is time to educate their younger brothers and sisters about the facts of the current Mideast conflict. That's the premise behind a unique pilot project that will be launched by The Jewish Week this fall, aimed at high school students, and sponsored through a grant from the Avi Chai Foundation.
Write On For Israel, an advocacy journalism program, will seek to give young people the historical knowledge and communication skills to make Israel's case effectively, instilling in them the moral confidence to be proud "players" when they go to college.
Whether or not the campus wars have been lost, as some in our community believe, it is clear that if Jewish students have had little instruction in Zionist history before college, it is awfully late in the game to begin to provide them as undergraduates with the knowledge, passion and commitment necessary to successfully counter pro-Arab propaganda. Most Jewish college students lack the information and ability to defend Israel, even if they want to.
And many are confused about the correctness of Israel's moral stance, given the constant criticism they hear in and out of the classroom about "the illegal occupation" of Palestinian land and its resulting humiliations of the Palestinian people.
So the key is to start educating our young people at an early age, in our schools and homes. We can do this not only by inculcating them with a love of the land and people of Israel, but by teaching them the facts and history of the current conflict. We need to show our youth that Israel has made countless efforts to solve the Arab problem through diplomacy and negotiation rather than war over the last century, often at great risk to the security of the Jewish people. And we need to tell them that such attempts have been thwarted and rejected by Arab leaders.
Write On will begin with a select group of 25 high school juniors - culled from yeshivas, day schools, and public and private schools in the New York metropolitan area - who have an aptitude and interest in journalism and Zionism.
They will come together for seven full-day Sunday seminars over the course of the next school year, taught by Rabbi Yotav Eliach, the dynamic principal of Rambam Mesivta high school on Long Island, who has taught a course in Zionism for high school students for more than 20 years; Linda Scherzer, a former Jerusalem correspondent for CNN and Israel Television who now has a public relations firm and speaks to Jewish and campus groups on media coverage; and me.
In addition, there will be guest lectures from Israeli government officials, public relations experts, writers, college professors and others. The culmination of the course will be a 10-day, free seminar in Israel at the end of the school year, including trips to historical sites and briefings by Israeli journalists.
The following year, when the students are seniors in high school, they will take part in a mentoring program, guided by professional journalists and geared toward student internships with Jewish media, from newspapers to broadcasting, to Israel-oriented Web sites. The overall goal is that after two years of participation, the students will enter college with the passion and know-how to be effective voices for Israel on campus.
If the pilot project is successful, the next step would be to broaden the Write On mission locally and around the country, while encouraging Jewish schools to place a greater emphasis on teaching modern Zionism and the facts of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Avi Chai Foundation, a major source of funding for Jewish educational programs, was attracted to The Jewish Week proposal because the project seeks to address the special challenges students will face after high school. Says Yossi Prager, executive director of the North American offices of the charity: "We recognize that often, much of the Jewish education taught in high schools, even Zionist ones, is insufficient to produce morally confident, thoughtful and informed graduates prepared to combat passionate anti-Israel propaganda on campus.'' He says Avi Chai recognizes the potential in Write On filling that need and becoming a national project.
The Jewish Week sees the program as an extension of its efforts to encourage young people to combine their interests in journalism and Jewish life. Through the Write On program, students will have the opportunity to hone their journalistic abilities and apply them to pressing Mideast concerns in a constructive way while also serving as role models to their peers.
Keeping things in perspective, we recognize that we have grand visions for a project calling for 25 youngsters. It's an exciting start with great potential. We'll be reaching out to schools and publicizing the program in the weeks ahead, but in the meantime, if you are, or know of, an incoming high school junior with the interests and talents we're looking for, be in touch. It's never too early to make our voices heard for Israel.
For information on Write On For Israel, contact WriteOn@jewishweek.org.
Contact the writer at gary@jewishweek.org.
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