Groups coordinate efforts to help students 'take back campus'
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
With pro-Palestinian activists heating up college campuses around the country, nearly every Jewish organization, it seems, is going back to school.
And they are hitting the books with new strategies to help map out a pro-Israel agenda as classes begin.
A new body has been created, the Israel on Campus Coalition, in an effort to coordinate the various efforts and maximize the impact on students.
The group was put together by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, which is funding several student programs and has invested a quarter of a million dollars to fund this project.
It hired Wayne Firestone, former director of the Israel office of the Anti-Defamation League, as its director.
Based in Washington, the Israel on Campus Coalition will act as an information-sharing and planning agency for more than 20 Jewish organizations on campus, and a central clearinghouse for students and professionals.
Pro-Israel professionals from the elite consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, offered pro-bono services to assess the key lessons learned from the activities of the past year and the top priorities of each organization for the coming year.
In a document the company submitted to the Israel on Campus Coalition, it stated that the primary goal for this year should be to "take back the campus" by influencing public opinion through lectures, the Internet and coalitions.
It says that to affect public opinion on the campuses, the message should be to "make the case for Israel proactively: Don't sound defensive about Israel, or argue about specific facts - instead, reframe the debate to emphasize Israel's long history of democracy, peace and resistance to terror."
"There's never been a central location" for students or professionals on Jewish campus life, says Lisa Eisen, a program director of the Schusterman Foundation and chair of the new coalition's steering committee.
That committee is comprised of representatives of Hillel, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the United Jewish Communities, the Jewish Council of Public Affairs and a rotating group of students and members from other participating Jewish organizations.
"They're bombarded on campus by a number of different organizations," Eisen says. The coalition will gather information from each organization, such as speakers bureaus and major events on campus, to create a "one-stop shop" for students and professionals.
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