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May 9, 2003/Iyar 7 5763, Vol. 55, No. 37
Israel activists get 'Ten Commandments'
JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - Many Jewish organizations are failing to enlist young Jews to advocate for Israel because their marketing approaches are outdated, a new report warns.
The report by pollster Frank Luntz, "Israel in the Age of Eminem," warns that Jewish groups face a "communications crisis" because their efforts do not appeal to the 80 percent of young people whose Jewish identity and Zionist attach-ment remains marginal at best.
Many ad and marketing campaigns aimed at stirring pro-Israel support among young Jews are "ineffective at best and occasionally even alienating." Luntz said.
But the report, subtitled "a creative brief for Israel messaging," outlines a "Ten Commandments" of market-ing that Luntz says Jewish organizations should adopt if they hope to win over young Jews and stir pro-Israel activism.
Funded by a $50,000 grant from the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, the report arose from focus groups Luntz led last year in which he tested the impact of print ads about Israel on young Jews.
Jeffrey Solomon, president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, said even the report's reference to rap singer Eminem often reveals a stunning ignorance of pop culture among Jewish leaders.
"Too many American Jewish decision-makers, when they hear the name of this report, think we're talking about a candy," Solomon said.
Released last week, the report follows a major marketing campaign by Luntz, a GOP strategist, along with Democratic strategist Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi, aimed at showing how America and Israel share many bedrock values.
That earlier effort was geared toward senior-level Jewish policy-makers and general public opinion-movers. The Eminem report attempted to use a similar marketing approach to reshape efforts aimed at young Jews, Solomon said.
The report concludes that most young American Jews are religiously ignorant, and identify as Americans first and cultural Jews second.
The report says Jewish groups are marketing Israel based on their own Zionist sensibilities shaped by the 1967 Six-Day War, which does not speak to a generation of young people whose views of Israel have been marked by the Palestinian intifada and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Furthermore, they "resist anything they see as 'group think,' and reserve the right to question" Israeli policies.
To measure the impact of pro-Israel ads, Luntz convened focus groups of Jews aged 18-29.
Luntz crafted his "Ten Commandments" from those sessions, urging such marketing tactics as:
- Don't clutter ads with many words, because younger people "read virtually nothing."
- Many younger people have a "been there, done that" attitude and are inundated with advertising. They require a message that "challenges the conven-tional wisdom" with irony, creativity and relevance.
Young Jews also would respond to pro-Israel messages "beyond ad-vertising" if they were embedded in pop-culture media such as dance clubs, comedy tours, monologue-style theater performances such as "The Vagina Monologues," Web sites, Weblogs and comic books, Luntz said.
Officials at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, which deals with a younger Jewish demographic, urged Jewish groups to carefully consider the Luntz recommenda- tions.
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