July 2, 2008
Executive Director's Note
David A. Harris
The Israel on Campus Coalition was honored to make one of the highlighted presentations during a global web seminar several weeks ago, aimed at examining whether young people are losing their connection to Israel. The web-based conference about the “Distancing of Young Jewry from Israel” – sponsored by the World Council of Jewish Communal Service – examined Israel engagement models that work best for different age groups (including our work with today’s college students), and participants from around the world had the opportunity to pose questions as well. It was fascinating to learn more about the methodologies that work best for engaging young people in other age groups and in other countries.
I shared with our colleagues some of the key trends we’ve witnessed in campus Israel engagement this year, including trends that so many ICC member organizations have seen in our collaborative work with students. I discussed the record levels of public-space Israel engagement that took place on campuses around the United States this year, especially around the “Israel at 60” theme. The hundreds and hundreds of campus-wide Israel celebrations that took place across the country this year are exceptional by our own standards, but they are doubly remarkable when viewed by community professionals working in other countries. I also talked about the outstanding public messaging campaigns we’ve seen on campus, including examples such as the digital flash ads that students at Johns Hopkins University used to share basic facts about Israel –and the sophisticated student-led advertising campaigns launched in the campus press by students at the University of Colorado and elsewhere. When we add the strategic use of Facebook and other social networking methodologies to all of these marketing campaigns, it’s clear that this was a banner year for such public-space Israel engagement, and not a year when American college students appeared so “distant” from Israel after all.
I also noted the rise of regularly-meeting, custom-tailored Israel learning communities as a means to augment Israel education on campuses around the country. Whether to answer the paucity of Israel Studies courses available on campus (as detailed in the ICC’s “In Search of Israel Studies” survey) or to respond to the specific Israel-related interests of students on a given campus, these learning communities offer an excellent way for students to gain critical knowledge about Israel while exploring their connection to Israel and sharing their love of Israel with their peers. Students are turning to key faculty members who may not be currently teaching for-credit Israel studies courses to support these learning communities, and they’re accessing community professionals in their region as well. And on certain campuses, students are even gaining course credit for these 8-10 week long learning communities. The growth of these educational opportunities has offered an increasingly targeted approach to campus Israel engagement this year – both as a means for professionals to engage students, and as a means for students to engage their peers. The evolution and expansion of these learning communities gives us another example of how so many college students are becoming more connected to Israel, not less so.
But more than anything, for me this web conference served as a reminder not just of the importance of our charge to engage college students surrounding Israel, but also of how many advantages we have working on our behalf – unique advantages which are inherent to the American campus climate in which our Israel education and advocacy work takes place. Unlike young professionals, college students are largely physically together in the confines of a localized area – their campus. And unlike high school students, college-age adults have tremendous freedom to creatively pursue an assortment of causes they care deeply about (including Israel), at the time and in the manner of their choosing. Students’ use of online social networking as an organizing tool shows a tremendous level of sophistication, and today’s student leaders in the realm of Israel advocacy display a strategic focus and a passionate drive that is nothing short of amazing.
Between college students’ newfound freedom to explore their connection to Israel and the unique space provided by the American campus environment for education and advocacy, in many ways we have some critical advantages working on our behalf as we strive to engage college students around Israel. And sometimes it takes a long talk with our colleagues who work to engage other demographic groups – or hearing the unique challenges faced by other communities around the world – to realize just that.