May 7, 2008
University of Arizona students culminated their Israel @ 60 week with Israelpalooza, a campus-wide celebration of Israeli culture.
Now in its sixth year, the ICC Israel Advocacy Grant program is one of the most impactful campus Israel advocacy initiatives in the country. The ICC Israel Advocacy Grant program attracts creative, influential pro-Israel student leaders who develop bottom-up, grassroots initiatives that address the Israel needs of their campus strategically and in real time. This system allows grantees to impact the entire campus with a great degree of intentionality and lets students lay the groundwork for significant self-evaluation of their initiatives.
During the 2007-2008 academic year, the ICC funded 31 initiatives – 11 of them focusing on Israel’s 60th birthday. Grantees came up with creative ways to promote Israel through different lenses and advocate for Israel in a non-traditional fashion, these ideas including creating small learning communities, inviting high-profile speakers and popular Israeli bands to campus and tabling to promote Israel’s contributions to society. Through these programs the grantees reached out to a significant number of students and empowered them with the skills and knowledge to better advocate for Israel and celebrate its history.
Many students found that holding large Israel fairs and festivals on campus was an effective way to reach out to students and to provide them with a large assortment of Israel-related topics in one event. These events featured Israeli performers such as Hatikvah 6, information about Israel travel, opportunities to get involved in the campus Israel group, Israeli food and Israeli dancing. Rutgers University Hillel hosted Israeli Culture Fest (ICFest) which featured the Idan Raichel Project, a photo exhibition from students who participated in Taglit-Birthright Israel trips and a presentation about the Israeli humanitarian organization Save A Child’s Heart.
At the University of Arizona, students planned an Israel Week consisting of programs such as an Israel-themed Shabbat dinner, Israeli films and Israelpalooza – a large one-day event held on the University Mall that raised awareness about many aspects of Israel. Students at Emory University invited speakers such as Mitchell Bard and Gill Hoffman to campus and held Beit Cafés (coffee houses) in which they facilitated discussions with their peers about current events in Israel. They also created numerous opportunities for students to engage in conversations about Israel with members of other student groups and campus influentials.
Students also promoted Israel awareness by running ads in school newspapers and creating flyers, palm cards and informational napkins to distribute at events. Ilana Ellenberg, a grantee from Johns Hopkins University, utilized campus “flash ads” to promote her Israel programs and to teach students facts about Israel. Her advertisements appeared on digital screens around the library and were an extremely effective form of advertising. During the Johns Hopkins Israel Week in April, sixty “fact posters” presenting a variety of information about Israel appeared on these screens as well.
The ICC looks forward to resuming the Israel Advocacy Grant program in the fall.
For more information about the ICC Israel Advocacy Grants please contact Tracy Altman.